ARIZONA TREASURER DEAN MARTIN, LEFT, AND GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO COULDN’T AGREE TODAY ON WHETHER MARTIN’S OFFICE NEEDS TO START NEGOTIATING WITH BANKS FOR A LINE OF CREDIT IN CASE THE STATE RUNS OUT OF OPERATING CASH BEFORE A NEW BUDGET IS ADOPTED. (Photo by Capitol Media Services)

The most interesting news to come out of a special meeting today of something called the state Loan Commission was that Gov. Janet Napolitano attended and put on a rather fiesty performance. There’s been a lot of spectulation that Napolitano has basically checked out of her state job as she prepares for hearings next week on her nomination to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano has stopped holding weekly media briefings and her last scheduled public appearance here in Arizona was on Dec. 9.

But there she was today, live and in person, fulfilling her duties as chief executive — although she apparently thought the meeting called by state Treasurer Dean Martin was a waste of time. Her actions to prevent Martin from setting a maxium possible interest rate on any borrowing for operating cash, well, that has to raise expectations for the proposed budget her office is expected to release late next week. For Napolitano to be true to her words (”If the Legislature adopts the budget plans that I have proposed … there will be no need for borrowing.”), she’s going to have to come up with a rather compelling approach to fixing a $1.5 billion deficit with more than half of the fiscal year already over.

GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO (LEFT) ANSWERS A QUESTION MONDAY AFTER CERTIFYING THE NOV. 4 ELECTION RESULTS WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JAN BREWER (RIGHT). (Photo by Capitol Media Services).

There’s a growing drum-beat among Republican activists and bloggers that Gov. Janet Napolitano should step down immediately now that she has been formally selected to run the Department of Homeland Security when Barack Obama becomes president. The cheerleaders include radio talk show host Austin Hill on the Tribune’s Opinion 2 page,  Len Munsil, who ran against Napolitano for governor in 2006, Greg Patterson at espressopundit.com, and the team of pro-life activists at Sonoran Alliance.

The consistent theme is that if Napolitano truly cares about Arizona’s future, she will give Secretary of State Jan Brewer an opportunity to get up to speed on all of the challenges facing state government before the start of the 2009 legislative session in January. There’s also talk in practical terms that state lawmakers and other politicians will simply ignore the Napolitano administration for the next few weeks as they wait for Brewer to take charge.

There’s a tiny flaw with this analysis. Napolitano likely will call the Legislature into special session within the next few days to start addressing this year’s budget deficit that already has reached $442 million. In the past when things didn’t get done on budget issues, Napolitano was a master at shaping public opinion and media coverage to make it appear that the Legislature was almost exclusively at fault. Republicans always cried foul because Napolitano and her Democratic allies usually worked behind the scenes to delay or trip a majority plan that Napolitano wouldn’t support.

But many people who don’t work at the Capitol look at the process this way: it’s the Legislature’s job to pass a budget for the governor to sign or veto. If lawmakers can’t approve a package for her to even consider, it’s their fault, not hers.

And when Napolitano does veto a budget, she always makes sure to pin her action on protecting hot-button issues such as education and health care. That way, it’s still the Legislature that tends to looks bad if it doesn’t meet her demands.

So, if Republicans go into a special session expecting to ignore Napolitano’s agenda in her waning days, they could be the ones who end up looking foolish.

GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO ANSWERS MEDIA QUESTIONS MONDAY IN PHOENIX ABOUT HER PENDING NOMINATION TO BE SECRETARY OF U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY (Photo by Capitol Media Services)

The Tribune Editorial Board spent a long time today discussing the implications of today’s formal announcement that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will be nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20. I learned from those chats that I’m holding on to an antiquated idea: that elected officials make a contract with the voters when they run for office to serve a specific period of time for a specific purpose. Apparently, it has become a given among many people that smart, ambitious politicians will, and should, jump into higher office when the opportunity arises.

But I heard from one friend today who said she definitely would have voted differently in 2006 for secretary of state, or at least considered the candidates more closely, if she had known that Napolitano would leave in the middle of her second term and voluntarily turn the governor’s office over to Jan Brewer. I’m not one of the people who subscribe to the notion of Arizona is somehow doomed with Brewer as governor. When it comes to the state budget crisis, this change might be exactly what Arizona needs right now.

But I understand the widespread angst among Democrats and even independents that the governor’s office likely will see a sharp change in focus and philosophy with Brewer in charge. Many voters elected Brewer solely on her qualifications to manage the state’s elections and to administer business filings, and not as a potential chief of state.

I’m not comfortable with the notion of the governor’s office as a political stepping stone. The job’s just too important, and too difficult to perform if the office-holder isn’t committed heart and soul. I don’t know anyone who thinks this year was among Napolitano’s best as she devoted a significant portion of her time and attention to help Obama win. At the very least, I think the failure of the initiatives on a transportation sales tax and state trust lands to even qualify for the election ballot can be attributed to Napolitano’s focus on other issues.

By the way, I’ve been fairly consistent on this point of view. In 1998, I was working for the daily newspaper in Wichita Falls, Texas, when then-Texas Gov. George Bush was running for re-election. He already was positioning himself to run for president but wasn’t saying so publicly. On at least two occasions, I directly asked Bush to explain if he would run for president or not, so Texas voters had that information when they voted for governor. Bush blew off the question, as I’m sure he did for other reporters, and the only people who seemed to care assumed he would be campaigning for president in 2000.

But my concerns might have more resonance here than in Texas, where the governor and lieutenant governor run for office as a team. My guess is proposals to create a similar system in Arizona will get more serious attention here in the next couple of years.

ARIZONA GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO (left) AND JAN BREWER, THE NEXT CHIEF OF STATE? (Capitol Media Services file photo)

The national media are acting like they are engaged in a massive competition to get the first news scoop on specific, top-level appointments to the incoming Barack Obama administration. But have you noticed the remarkable regularity in which these stories are coming to light? One person or office each day, with one media outlet posting the news first and then most of the other print and broadcasters quickly confirming the rumor with two or more anonymous sources.

My guess is the Obama team is deliberating leaking names and positions on a set schedule. Each potential appointment gets around 24 hours of focused news attention, providing an opportunity for key lawmakers, Washington insiders and the public at large to react to the choice without Obama publicly putting his credibility on the line. If some problem with the potential nominee’s background emerges that the transition team didn’t uncover, another person’s name will suddenly pop up and the previous candidate will be dismissed as unfounded speculation by the media.

Pretty clever, actually, if you think about it.

Granted, Wednesday night’s news that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is the leading contender to be secretary of Homeland Security came out only several hours after former Sen. Tom Daschle was “rumored” to be the choice for Health and Human Services. But that could be easily explained as a slip up in timing, with the Obama transition team intending for the public to learn about Napolitano this morning.

Let’s see if this pattern continues for the next few days, shall we?