Janet Napolitano

Janet Napolitano
3rd United States Secretary of Homeland Security
Incumbent
Assumed office January 21, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Michael Chertoff
21st Governor of Arizona
In office January 6, 2003 – January 21, 2009
Preceded by	Jane Dee Hull
Succeeded by	Jan Brewer
23rd Arizona Attorney General
In office 1999–2002
Governor	Jane Dee Hull
Preceded by	Grant Woods
Succeeded by	Terry Goddard
Personal details
Born	(1957-11-29) November 29, 1957 New York City, New York
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Virginia School of Law (JD) Santa Clara University (BA)
Occupation	Attorney

Template:FixBunching Janet Ann Napolitano (born November 29, 1957) is the third United States Secretary of Homeland Security. She assumed the job on January 21, 2009, and is the first woman to serve in that office. An American politician from the Democratic Party, Napolitano was serving as governor of the state of Arizona when designated by then-President-elect Barack Obama to be his Secretary of Homeland Security. She was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in one day after Obama's inauguration.

Napolitano was first elected governor in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. She was Arizona's third female governor, and the first woman to win re-election. She was chair of two state Governors' associations and was named by Time as one of the top five Governors in 2005. Prior to the governship, she served as Arizona Attorney General from 1999 to 2002.

Early life

Janet Ann Napolitano was born on November 29, 1957 in New York City, the daughter of Jane Marie (née Winer) and Leonard Michael Napolitano, who was the Dean of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She has two siblings, younger brother, Leonard Michael Jr. and Nancy Angela Haunstein. She is of Italian heritage and is a Methodist. She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque in 1975 and was voted Most Likely to Succeed. She graduated from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where she won a Truman Scholarship, and was valedictorian. She then received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law. Napolitano is a member of the Democratic Party. After law school she served as a law clerk for Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then joined Schroeder's former firm, the Phoenix law firm Lewis and Roca.

Political career

In 1991, while a partner with the private Phoenix law firm Lewis and Roca LLP, Napolitano served as an attorney for Anita Hill. Anita Hill testified in the U.S. Senate that then U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her ten years earlier when she was his subordinate at the federal EEOC.

In 1993, Napolitano was appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States Attorney for the District of Arizona. As U.S. Attorney, she was involved in the investigation of Michael Fortier of Kingman, Arizona, in connection to the Oklahoma City bombing. She ran for and won the position of Arizona Attorney General in 1998. Her tenure focused on consumer protection issues and improving general law enforcement.

While still serving as attorney general, she spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention just three weeks after having a mastectomy. Napolitano remembers the pain being so bad she could hardly stand up, but persevered. "Work and family helped me focus on other things while I battled the cancer," says Napolitano. "I am very grateful for all the support I had from family, friends and Arizonans."

Governor

She won the Arizona gubernatorial election of 2002 with 46 percent of the vote, succeeding Republican Jane Dee Hull and defeating her Republican opponent, former congressman Matt Salmon, who received 45 percent of the vote. She is Arizona's third female governor and the first woman in the United States to be elected a governor to succeed another elected female governor.She spoke at the 2004 Democratic Convention after some initially considered her to be a possible running mate for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential election but Kerry selected Sen. John Edwards instead. In November 2005, Time magazine named her one of the five best governors in the U.S.

In November 2006, Napolitano won the gubernatorial election of 2006, defeating the Republican challenger, Len Munsil, by a nearly 2–1 ratio and becoming the first woman to be re-elected to that office. Arizona's constitution provides a two-consecutive-term term limit for its governors, meaning Napolitano would have been barred from seeking a third term in office in 2010.

In January 2006, she won the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service. She was a member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee. Furthermore, she has also served previously as Chair of the Western Governors Association, and the National Governors Association. She served as NGA Chair from 2006 to 2007, and was the first female governor and first governor of Arizona ever to serve in that position.

Secretary of Homeland Security

Napolitano speaks during the second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

In February 2006, Napolitano was named by The White House Project as one of "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run for president in 2008. On January 11, 2008, Napolitano endorsed then Illinois Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for President. On November 5th, 2008, Napolitano was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. On December 1, 2008, Barack Obama introduced Napolitano as his nominee for United States Secretary of Homeland Security. On January 20, 2009, Napolitano was confirmed, becoming the first woman appointed Secretary in the relatively new department. Secretary of State Jan Brewer became the governor of Arizona, as the state does not have a lieutenant governor.

In March 2009, Napolitano told the German news site Spiegel Online that while she presumes there is always a threat from terrorism: "I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur."

Napolitano came under fire for a DHS report that was leaked to the public in early April 2009. The report indicated that several factors, including President Obama's election, could lead to "a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists." The report also indicated that issue-oriented groups and states' rights activists were likely to join. A DHS spokesperson said the report was done to avoid "another Timothy McVeigh-like situation". The issue escalated after American Legion chief David Rehbein wrote a letter to editorial columns attacking Napolitano and the DHS for unfairly targeting military personnel and veterans. Rehbein especially took issue with the McVeigh comparison, saying McVeigh was an exception and should not represent all military personnel. Napolitano later said she would meet with Rehbein, and stated that the DHS does not "monitor ideology or political beliefs".

Personal life

The post-50 Napolitano has never married. She is an avid basketball fan and regularly plays tennis. Whitewater rafting and hiking are some of Napolitano's hobbies. She has hiked in Arizona's Superstition mountains and New Mexico's Sandia mountains and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas. Napolitano survived breast cancer that was discovered in 1998.

Electoral history

Arizona Gubernatorial Election 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Janet Napolitano	499,284	46.2	+0.9
	Republican	Matt Salmon	478,935	45.3
	Independent	Richard Mahoney	84,947	6.9
	Libertarian	Barry Hess	20,356	1.7
	Democratic gain from Republican		Swing

Arizona Gubernatorial Election 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Janet Napolitano (Incumbent)	959,830	62.6	+16.4
	Republican	Len Munsil	543,528	35.4
	Libertarian	Barry Hess	30,268	2.0
	Democratic hold		Swing

See also

• Arizona gubernatorial election, 2006
• AHCCCS: Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (state Medicaid program)
• AIMS: Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (state standardized test for high school students)
• Protect Arizona Now: Proposition 200
• Arizona-Mexico Commission

External links

• Secretary Janet Napolitano Official website

• Follow the Money - Janet Napolitano
  • 2008 2006 2004 2002 Governor campaign contributions
  • 2000 1998 Attorney General campaign contributions
• NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me guest on 'Not My Job' segment

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