Janet Napolitano first came to Washington 17 years ago to represent Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings.
Hill’s testimony about sexual harassment may not have torpedoed Thomas’ career as a U.S. Supreme Court justice; but Napolitano attracted notice as a smart, young Democrat who was going places. “Meet the PCTC, a post Clarence Thomas candidate,” wrote syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman, who urged her to challenge John McCain for his Senate seat.
A short time later, Napolitano was tapped by Bill Clinton to be U.S. attorney for Arizona, enabling her to cultivate the law-and-order creds to launch her political career. Five years later, she ran for, and won, the state attorney general’s job, and, in 2002, was elected Arizona’s third female governor.
Today, the popular Democratic governor in a Republican-leaning state is President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Homeland Security secretary.
Admirers describe the 50-year-old breast cancer survivor as a shrewd politician and problem solver, who is quick to size up people and issues. In 2005, Time Magazine called her one of America’s five best governors.
“Positioning herself as a no-nonsense, pro-business centrist, she has worked outside party lines since coming to office in January 2003 to re-energize a state that, under her predecessors, was marked by recession and scandal.”
By most accounts, Napolitano has navigated a centrist path on immigration issues in Arizona, which shares a 376-mile border with Mexico and where anti-immigrant fervor runs high.
During her first term, she sent National Guardsmen to the border – and forwarded the bill to the federal government. The policy of enlisting the Guard was later adopted by the Bush administration.
Last year, she signed into law the nation’s harshest penalty for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, a measure that would take away their business licenses for a second viol
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