Napolitano/Obama, Jan. 30, 2008

Gov. Janet Napolitano didn’t just lend her name to a list of prominent supporters for Barack Obama’s presidential bid. She’s rolled out the political red-carpet and tapped into her campaign machinery to help the Illinois senator overtake Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls by Tuesday’s primary.

Napolitano held her second in-person rally for Obama in six days. Last week, she featured Hollywood actress Kate Walsh. Today, it was to highlight the list of politicians endorsing Obama including Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who switched his support from John Edwards to Obama. Tuscon Democrat activist Ted Prezelski reported at his blog the Edwards campaign released all of its backers to throw their support elsewhere.

Grijalva’s endorsement is nice, since he’s developed more of a presence in Washington than Rep. Ed Pastor, the senior Democrat in the Arizona’s congressional delegation.

But what’s really impressive here is Napolitano’s personal effort to help Obama, even while Napolitano is trying to deal with a $1 billion budget shortfall and could see some early, bruising clashes with the Legislature. Grijalva is his own man with his own power base in southern Arizona. But he certainly found it easier to jump behind Obama with Napolitano whispering in the ear of every prominent Democrat in the state.

Napolitano also personally helped to woo potential voters on Saturday, and is featured in one of Obama’s new television ads.

More people are coming to believe Napolitano has the inside track to a prime Cabinet post if Obama wins the nomination and defeats the Republican challenger in November. Her actions add plenty of credence to that point of view.

Obama will make his own appearance in the Valley today at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Clinton campaign will counter with a visit by former President Bill Clinton on Thursday.

Sidenote: Nobody has said much about the fact that former Democractic Party chairman Jim Pederson has stayed in the Clinton camp, despite his close ties to Napolitano. Of course, Clinton was a big help to Pederson with fund raising during his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2006.

Mitt Romney (left) and John McCain as posted at abcnews.com

Arizona supporters of Sen. John McCain’s presidential candidacy are downright giddy at the prospect of a victory in Michigan today knocking Mitt Romney right out of the campaign for the Republican nomination. A variety of political pundits and observers say while Romney came in second in Iowa and New Hampshire (and won Wyoming’s handful of delegates), this showing is rather poor given the amount of money and time he poured into those races.

Finishing second in his home state of Michigan would create the perception that Romney can’t win anywhere, these pundits claim. Lukewarm supporters and uncommitted Republicans could flock to another candidate they perceive as more likely to claim the nomination and to compete well against the eventual Democrat challenger.

“…(Romney’s) campaign practically would be over,” Bruce Merrill, the veteran political pollster for Arizona State University’s journalism school, told the KJZZ radio station this morning.

On the Arizona front, Romney has been a real thorn in McCain’s side, siphoning off local campaign donations and GOP endorsements. McCain would see a much clearer path to an overwhelming victory here on Feb. 5 if Romney were prompted to drop out of the race after today’s Michigan primary or the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

John McCain

Everyone loves a winner, or at least wants to be seen with one. The crowd of around 200 people who turned out Tuesday night in north Phoenix at John McCain’s party to watch the results from New Hampshire was at least double in size of what the campaign had expected. So the free food was gone even before the voting polls had closed.

But no one was complaining, as it was already clear that McCain would fulfill expectations and claim the nation’s first primary of 2008 by a decent margin. Unlike the strict rules that govern general elections, New Hampshire precincts opened and closed at different times. So a smattering of results were reported throughout the afternoon. The true McCainics cheered loudly, more out of relief than anything else, when the networks quickly declared McCain the Republican winner shortly after the final polls closed at 6 p.m. Arizona time.

The viewing party at Aunt Chilada’s Mexican restaurant (get the joke?) was set up for active McCain donors and longtime supporters, but turned into an informal see-and-be seen political crowd. Some of the better known faces included state schools superintendent Tom Horne and House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix. Lawmakers on hand who directly represent East Valley voters included Sens. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale and Jim Waring, R-Phoenix, and Reps. John McComish of Ahwatukee Foothills and Bob Robson, R-Chandler.

John Munger, a Tucson attorney and one of the McCain spokesmen for the evening, said he expects the better-than-anticipated crowd in Phoenix will reflect a willingness among Republicans across the United States to give the senator a second look after rising from the pile of has-been presidential candidates.

“For John McCain, winning this primary election by nine points is absolutely huge,” Munger said. “It brings John McCain back and he’s now one of the frontrunners of the campaign.”

Many players were surprised by the arrival later of political consultant/lobbyist Barry Dill, a Democrat friend of Gov. Janet Napolitano and a support of Barack Obama, whose campaign had a viewing party elsewhere in Phoenix. But Dill shares an office with Wes Gullett, one of McCain’s long-time political allies in Arizona, and Dill is generally liked by Republican insiders despite his loyalties.

What really shook some people up was the appearance of Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. There’s a lot of bad blood between Pullen and McCain because of Pullen’s years of criticism of the senator’s stance on immigration reform. Things turned really ugly in the spring of 2007 when Pullen used his party position to publicly attack the “grand compromise” immigration bill supported by McCain and fellow Sen. Jon Kyl before it ultimately was defeated in the Senate.

Several McCain supporters rolled their eyes and turned their backs as Pullen moved into the restaurant Tuesday. “I can’t stand the guy,” was a phrase I heard more than once.

Pullen did a quick circuit of the room and shook a few hands before he quietly left.