Democrats across the country have been distancing themselves from President Obama.

In Wisconsin, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Mary Burke skipped out on a speech Obama gave in her state over the Labor Day weekend.

Sen. Mark Udall (D., Col.) also avoided a speech Obama gave in his home state.

And, now in Arizona, attorney general candidate Felecia Rotellini refuses to even call herself a Democrat.

During an interview on Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO Rotellini said she doesn’t think of herself as a Democrat.

“I don’t think of myself in those terms. I feel I am very independent,” she told a reporter. The office of attorney general, she went on to say, is a non-partisan job.

Rotellini, however, chose to run as a Democrat rather than an independent.

So why is she distancing herself from the party that has twice selected her to represent them in the race for attorney general? Her campaign manager Luis Heredia said, “the office should be above partisan politics and [Rotellini] believes we need to look at public safety first.”

When asked why she would “shy away from calling herself a Democrat, Rotellini’s campaign manager told me by phone Tuesday that while the office of attorney general is above partisan politics, “She is a lifelong registered Democrat, there is no shying away.”

Asked in a separate interview why Arizona would be best served by a Republican attorney general, GOP candidate Mark Brnovich said: “we cannot afford to turn over the attorney general’s office to a liberal Democrat who’s going to be a pawn for the Obama administration.”

With growing federal influence on state laws, the political positions of attorneys general are impossible for voters to ignore. While Rotellini attempts to make the issue of party identification a mere label, it actually has practical governing implications.

Arizona, after all, has been taken to court by the Obama administration more than any other state in the union. As attorney general, it would be Rotellini’s job to defend the laws of her state. Voters deserve to know if, as attorney general, she would be willing to do so against a Democratic administration.