Flash Actionscript Rollovers that stay highlighted when clicked

I'm creating a US map in flash where the states highlight when you rollover them and then when clicked stay highlighted and display contact information until another state is clicked.

I have most of it working, but I cannot get the states to stay highlighted when clicked.  I'm trying to create
a variable that says if the mouse has been clicked on a state and then a function that says if its clicked put the movie of the state on frame 2 (highlighted) and if not go back to white.

here is the code on the actionscript layer:

var clickState = "off";

function clearInformation () {
      this.proavWA._alpha = 0;
      this.proavCA._alpha = 0;
      this.proavOR._alpha = 0;
      this.proavNV._alpha = 0;
      this.proavID._alpha = 0;
      this.proavMT._alpha = 0;
      this.proavWY._alpha = 0;
      this.proavCO._alpha = 0;
      this.proavAZ._alpha = 0;
      this.proavNM._alpha = 0;
      }

function clickChecker() {
      if (clickState = "off") {
                  this[rolledState].gotoAndStop(1);
                  trace ("its working");
      } else {
                  this[rolledState].gotoAndStop(2);
                  trace ("its working part 2");}
      }
      
function hoverRemove () {
      this[selectedState].gotoAndStop(1);
}

And here is what the action script for the movie clip of the state of washington looks like:

on (rollOver) { /* highlight state and put grab name for clickChecker */
      gotoAndStop(2);
      _global.rolledState = this._name;
}

on (rollOut) { /* check to see if state should stay highlighted */
      _root.clickChecker();
      trace (clickState);
}

on (press) { /* remove contact box and color from previous clicked state */
      _root.clearInformation();
      _root.hoverRemove();
}

on (release) { /* set name and contact info then make state stay highlighted */
      _root.states = "Washington";
      _root.proavWA._alpha = 100;
      _global.clickState = "on";
      _global.selectedState = this._name;
}


using traces it seems like the variable starts as undefined even though I tried to set it.  The function always executes the first part of the if statement never the else.  If i set it to off when the state gets rolled over it doesnt make a difference.

you can view how the swf works here:  http://www.kylejlarson.com/chief/map/map.html
so far i've just been working with oregon and washington so the other states aren't set up yetStart Free Trial