GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO SPEAKS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION TUESDAY NIGHT. (Photo by The Associated Press)

If you didn’t watch Gov. Janet Napolitano’s performance in Denver last night, you’ve probably at least seen or heard snippets on local newscasts by now. Napolitano went on stage about 30 minutes earlier than expected, so I had to listen to her on the radio while driving home. She was competent and effective, but not particularly exciting. She relied on an obvious joke about continuing an Arizona political tradition for failed presidential bids by home state candidates. Her theme about John McCain being out of touch on the country’s economic condition is a critical message for Democrats this year, and she seemed to touch on all of the keystones.

But Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer did have a Republican response:

“It’s always good to see an Arizona Governor talking about our state on the national stage, but she conveniently left out the circumstances of our state’s billion dollar budget deficit. The fact is that Barack Obama’s celebrity status is not going to help Arizonans, or any Americans, at all. We don’t need his higher taxes, more government spending, and his desire to separate us from the rest of the global economy.”

This was Napolitano’s third speech to a Democratic National Convention. As Valley TV news anchor John Hook of Fox 10 noted before the speech, Napolitano’s time slot has gotten better with each appearance — a sign of her steadily rising influence nationally. In fact, Napolitano was this year’s chairwoman of the platform writing committee. That’s work rather important to party insiders but usually forgotten by the general public once the party nominee gives his acceptance speech and moves into the fall campaign.

You can watch Napolitano’s entire speech here.

Posted in: Election issues • Governor • Presidential campaign |

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