As pointed out in Monday’s Star, state Rep. Lena Saradnik is prepping for the 2008 election by spending part of her summer at Yale University’s Women’s Campaign School.

The program — a kind of crash course for women with political ambitions — proved successful for another Tucsonan: Gabrielle Giffords . In fact, the school’s Web site includes a congratulations message to our new congresswoman.

In a conversation by phone last week, Saradnik told me the school is taxing with its long days, but said she’s learning a lot. One thing the school apparently stresses is how to communicate and message properly to an electorate and media that sometimes treat women differently than men. Saradnik said the recent talk about whether Hillary Clinton is acting like a man is proof of this.

We’ll see if the school gives Saradnik the extra polish she needs to retain her seat in what she admits will be a tough reelection race. The 60-year-old retiree, represents District 26. It’s an area that covers much of the Foothills, Oro Valley, Marana, and even stretches into a small part of Pinal County.

This is gearing-up to be one of the most interesting 2008 Legislative race in Southern Arizona — if not in the state.

Why? Well, District 26 can still swing to either party. That can’t be said for many other districts. It would take a divine intervention for a Republican to knock out a Democrat in Tucson’s more Liberal areas: Districts 27, 28, 29. And Republicans pretty much have a lock on District 30.

So, in that respect, District 26 will prove the model for whether Democrats can retain and/or build on their numbers in the state House. Saradnik won one of two House seats comfortably last time around, partly because she was the only Democrat in the race, but also because she admittedly got a boost from Republican incumbent Pete Hershberger , a moderate who didn’t campaigning with the other Republican in the race. Hershberger won’t be by her side this time — he’s termed out and exploring a run for the Senate.

While there’s talk of several Republicans running for the House in 26, the only one who has filed exploratory papers, according to the Secretary of State’s Web site, is Trent Humphries , a conservative blogger known for Arizona’s 8th.

Humphries and others have the advantage: There are 10,000 more Republicans than Democrats in 26.

But add the area’s 30,000 independents to the mix, and you’ve got a race.