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Napolitano refuses to say whether she'll take on McCain

Arizona Capitol Reports Staff//November 19, 2008//[read_meter]

Napolitano refuses to say whether she'll take on McCain

Arizona Capitol Reports Staff//November 19, 2008//[read_meter]

If Gov. Janet Napolitano is heartbroken over not being named as Barack Obama's attorney general, she isn't showing it.

The day after media reports named former Clinton Administration official Eric Holder as Obama's choice to head up the Department of Justice, Napolitano had little to say about the job that some politicos had speculated would be hers.

"I will leave it for the president-elect to make his cabinet appointments in the way he sees fit. It is his prerogative. I am not campaigning or seeking a job. I like the job I have right now," said Napolitano, who is rumored to be in the running for other cabinet posts, including secretary of homeland security or education.

Napolitano was equally tightlipped about rumors that she is considering a run for John McCain's U.S. Senate seat in 2010, which would be the last year of her tenure as governor. McCain, 72, just two weeks removed from his loss to Obama in the presidential election, announced earlier in the week that he plans to seek re-election in 2010.

"Again, I'm not campaigning for any new job," Napolitano said at her weekly press briefing on Nov. 19.

McCain staffer Mark Salter questioned whether McCain's decision would dissuade Napolitano from running for his Senate seat, saying in an e-mail that he is "not sure if she'd run if McCain decides to go again."

Napolitano was an early backer of Obama's at a time when he was locked in a contentious battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the democratic nomination, and she campaigned for him in several swing states in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election.

National media and polticians in Arizona speculated at the time that she would be rewarded with a cabinet post, possibly attorney general, the job she held in Arizona before being elected governor in 2002. But reports surfaced on Nov. 18 that the job would go to Holder, who served as Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general from 1997-2001. After the election, Napolitano was named to Obama's White House transition team.

Some have speculated that Napolitano may still be in the running for other cabinet posts, while others predict that she will run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Staying in Arizona to finish her term as governor would avoid the transfer of power that would take place if Napolitano were to join the Obama Administration, which would leave Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer as her replacement.

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