George Cunningham is downscaling.

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One Tucsonan is in and another is out (kind of) in a staff shuffle at Gov. Janet Napolitano's office in Phoenix.

As part of a host of changes, Jan Lesher, a native Tucsonan who is currently director of the Department of Commerce, will take the reins next month as Napolitano's chief of staff, replacing current bigwig Dennis Burke, who has been with the governor since the '90s. Marco Lopez Jr., an international-affairs adviser to the governor, will succeed Lesher.

Lesher's local roots are strong. A graduate of Tucson High School and the University of Arizona, she was the director of the governor's Southern Arizona office before taking over at Commerce. And in an interview Tuesday, she told Notebook that she hopes to put her understanding of issues outside Maricopa County to good use.

"Sometimes it's easy to be in Phoenix and think of the world as being Phoenix," Lesher said. "The challenges are real different if you're in Lake Havasu or Douglas or the places in between."

But, she said, she doesn't anticipate any "wholesale" change on the ninth floor of the Executive Tower just yet.

Meanwhile, a longtime local politico, George Cunningham, is going into partial retirement.

Cunningham, a former state legislator, is Napolitano's deputy chief of staff for finance, and has used his wonky understanding of budgets to manage tens of billions of dollars over the years. And for a guy who deals with numbers all day, he's got one of the best senses of humor at the Capitol.

Cunningham has scaled back his involvement in the office to three days a week and is solely working on what he called "special projects." The rest of the time he's in Tucson, and that will continue for the next year.

"It's been a tremendous experience and opportunity," said Cunningham, 63. "But the last session was really tough."

He said the downscale doesn't have to do with his health (he suffered a heart attack last year), adding that he "has all new pipes."

Instead, Cunningham said he'd be "smelling and consuming" the fruits of life, which include one grandkid and another on the way.

"The stuff on the top of my head is getting scarcer and grayer," he joked.

So why the big shake-up? Well, some have theorized that members of the staff wanted to get out before Napolitano went to the big leagues under a Barack Obama administration.

But the truth could just be — oh, burnout from demanding, high-profile jobs. Napolitano's staff had seen few changes since she took office in 2003.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is enlisting the help of some notable musicians to help boost her campaign coffers.

Hometown band Calexico will join forces with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World — a band with Mesa roots that has garnered national fame — to host a fundraiser at Downtown's Rialto Theatre.

Giffords wants to "crank up the volume on voter participation," according to a press release from her campaign.

The general admission is $25, but for $75, ticket holders can attend a "VIP rooftop reception" across the street at Hotel Congress with band members and Giffords.

Wonder if these hipsters will have the same edict on recording devices that President Bush had at a fundraiser for Giffords' Republican challenger, Tim Bee, last month?

Political Notebook

Daniel Scarpinato