It looks like Katherine Archuleta, a top Hispanic operative from Colorado, will be running the political operation for President Obama’s re-election campaign. 

She’s got the cred to deal with a job that involves, in turns, herding, nurturing and prodding political leaders from around the country, to get them working for the campaign– or at least not hurting it. Archuleta worked for two Denver mayors, led the city’s bid to get the DNC convention in 2008 and is now chief of staff to Secretary Hilda Solis in the Department of Labor.

The press will focus on the fact that she is from Colorado, a perennial battleground, and that she is Latina, a demographic the Obama campaign desperately needs to turn out in 2012. The Department of Labor, under her watch, has been the most Latino-friendly agency in the federal government, blitzing Spanish-language press, getting Solis on the road to Hispanic-heavy locales and appointing a number of Latinos. And Archuleta comes from an old-school, mostly US-born Hispanic community in Colorado that’s probably best epitomized by former employer Federico Peña, a Cabinet Secretary under Clinton and co-chair of Obama’s 20008 campaign, and Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior. It’s no coincidence that Salazar was dispatched to the Denver Post to give a validating quote about her hire. When it comes to wrangling Latino elites, the campaign just got itself a master wrangler.

But it’d be a mistake to peg her, as we often do when we see a Hispanic surname, as only a token. She’s a legit operative and a strong political player who is going to have the unenviable task of re-activating all manner of elected official, community leader, union head and other honchos, regardless of ethnicity. Expect to see her often on a cable network near you.