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
Chairman of the National Governors Association
In office 2006–2007
Preceded by	Mike Huckabee
Succeeded by	Tim Pawlenty
23rd Arizona Attorney General
In office 1999–2002
Governor	Jane Dee Hull
Preceded by	Grant Woods
Succeeded by	Terry Goddard
US Attorney for the District of Arizona
In office 1993–1998
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. 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 governorship, she served as Arizona Attorney General from 1999 to 2002.

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. Napolitano was succeeded by Arizona's Secretary of State, Jan Brewer, who became Arizona's fourth female governor and third consecutive female governor.

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 is of Italian heritage and is a Methodist. She was the oldest of three children; she has a younger brother (Leonard Jr.) and a sister (Nancy). 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. 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 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.

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

As Governor, Napolitano set records for total number of vetoes issued. In 2005, she set a single session record of 58 vetoes, breaking Jane Dee Hull's 2001 record of 28. This was followed in June 2006, less than four years into her term, when she issued her 115th veto and set the all-time record for vetoes by an Arizona governor. The previous record of 114 vetoes was set by Bruce Babbitt during his nine years in office. By the time she left office, the governor had issued 180 vetoes.

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

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 5, 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.

Napolitano announcing a border security task force.

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." In April 2009 Napolitano, trying to defend her plans to thicken US-Canadian border security, claimed incorrectly that September 11 attack perpetrators entered the United States from Canada. Her comments provoked an angry response from the Canadian ambassador, media, and public.

In response to criticism, she later said, "Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."

Right-wing extremism memo controversy

Napolitano was the subject of controversy after a Department of Homeland Security threat assessment report initiated during the administration of George W. Bush, entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," was made public in April 2009. The report indicated several factors, including the election of the first black or mixed race President in the person of Barack Obama, perceived future gun control measures, illegal immigration, the economic downturn beginning in 2008, and disgruntled military veterans' possible vulnerability to recruitment efforts by extremist groups as risk factors for rightwing extremism.

On April 16, 2009, the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed suit against DHS on behalf of radio talk show host and political commentator Michael Savage, executive director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Gregg Cunningham, and Iraqi War Marine veteran Kevin Murray. Savage stated that the document "encourages law enforcement officers throughout the nation to target and report citizens to federal officials as suspicious rightwing extremists and potential terrorists because of their political beliefs."

Napolitano made multiple apologies for any offense veterans groups had taken at the reference to veterans in the assessment, and promised to meet with those groups to discuss the issue. The Department of Homeland Security admitted a "breakdown in an internal process" by ignoring objections by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to an unnamed portion of the document.

While the American Legion reportedly criticized the assessment, Glen M. Gardner Jr., the national commander of the 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, defended it generally, saying it "should have been worded differently" but served a vital purpose. "A government that does not assess internal and external security threats would be negligent of a critical public responsibility," he said in a statement.

Personal life

Napolitano 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

John Brennan

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