Janet Napolitano
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| Arizona Portal |
| Janet Napolitano | |
| Image:JanetNapolitanoIraq.jpg
| |
| 25th Governor of Arizona
| |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 6, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Jane Dee Hull |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
| Born | November 29 1957 New York City, New York |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Santa Clara University |
| Religion | Methodist |
Janet Napolitano (b. November 29, 1957) is the current governor of the U.S. state of Arizona, originally elected in 2002, and re-elected in 2006. She is Arizona's third female governor, and the first female to win re-election. In November 2005, Time magazine named her one of the five best governors in the U.S. In February 2006, Napolitano was named one of "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008.[1]
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[edit] Early life
Napolitano was born in New York City to Jane Marie Winer and Leonard Michael Napolitano, who was the Dean of the University of New Mexico College of Medicine.[2] She has partial Italian heritage on her father's side and was raised a Methodist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she graduated from Sandia High School in 1975 and voted Most Likely to Succeed. (Her younger brother, Leonard Napolitano, was good friends with David Addington, who would become legal counsel to and then chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney[1].) She graduated from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where she won a Truman Scholarship, and then from the University of Virginia School of Law (Juris Doctor). Napolitano is a member of the Democratic Party. Her early professional career was as a Phoenix-area prosecuting attorney and as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.
[edit] Political career
In 1991, while a partner with the private Phoenix law firm Lewis and Roca LLP, Napolitano served as attorney for Anita Hill. Anita Hill testified in the U.S. Senate that then U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had addressed her inappropriately 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 state attorney general in 1998. Her tenure focused on consumer protection issues and improving general law enforcement.
She won the 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 ran under Arizona Clean Election system where a certain number of small "qualifying contributions" (often as little as $5) from registered voters, then collect government funding. Napolitano was the first female US governor to succeed another.[citation needed] Some initially considered Napolitano to be a possible running mate for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential election but Sen. John Edwards was selected instead.
In November 2006, Napolitano won the gubernatorial election of 2006, defeating the Republican challenger by a nearly 2-1 ratio.
She is the past Chair of the Western Governors Association and served as the chair of the National Governors Association, the first female governor and first governor of Arizona ever to serve in that position, from July 2006 to July 2007.
[edit] Administration policies
Napolitano is a prominent national advocate for education and immigration reform. As a democratic governor, Napolitano sought funding for the public education system, health care programs, teachers pay, state government workers pay, and prison employees pay.[3] She signed legislation that offered voluntary full day kindergarten throughout Arizona.[3] Napolitano opened the nation’s first state counter-terrorism center, signed legislation for a prescription drug card for seniors[4] and signed into law property and income tax cuts, which were proposed by the Republican legislature.[3]
In her first year as governor, Napolitano brought the state's budget from a billion-dollar deficit in the year after the September 11, 2001 attacks to a billion-dollar surplus, and did so without a tax increase.[4] Every budget Napolitano has signed has been balanced. Yet, Napolitano received a low grade from the Cato Institute for fiscal spending, citing the fact that her budgets annually increased spending by an average of 6% over the previous year's total.[3] Napolitano's position on budget issues has been to defend education spending as "investing in what matters", citing the benefits of academic achievement and economic growth. Faced with a conservative Republican majority in both houses of the Arizona Legislature, she issued her 115th veto on June 6, 2006, breaking the record previously held by former Governor Bruce Babbitt. By the end of June 2006 her veto total had grown to 127 vetoes.[5]
Napolitano has been named one of the five best governors in the nation by TIME and is a noted national leader on immigration policy. In a Washington Post op-ed, she explained her belief that the topic of illegal immigration was urgent and needed to be solved through comprehensive federal reform.[6] In another op-ed in the Arizona Republic Napolitano was critical of sections of the federal proposal debated at that time, saying that, "As a border state governor and a former attorney general and United States attorney, I can already spot issues that make key provisions of the compromise impracticable and ineffective."[7] She was the first governor to call for the US National Guard to be placed at the U.S.-Mexico border at federal expense and succeed.[citation needed] In July 2007, she signed state legislation designed to penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Previously, when Arizona's voters passed Proposition 200, which would not allow illegal immigrants to collect welfare benefits, Napolitano opposed the measure.[4]
[edit] Criticism
Criticism as been leveled against Napolitano for her failure to investigate and prosecute numerous alleged cases of sexual assault against minors, school fraud, and misuse of public funds in the FLDS community led by Warren Jeffs in Colorado City.[8][9]
[edit] Electoral history
| Arizona Gubernatorial Election 2002 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Janet Napolitano | 499,284 | 46.2 | ||
| Republican | Matt Salmon | 478,935 | 45.3 | ||
| Arizona Gubernatorial Election 2006 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Janet Napolitano (Incumbent) | 959,830 | 62.6 | +16.4 | |
| Republican | Len Munsil | 543,528 | 35.4 | ||
[edit] 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
- Matt Salmon
- Western Governors University Napolitano is one of two current governors on the WGU board.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ http://thewhitehouseproject.org/v2/press/2006/February/20060216-8for08pressrel.html
- ^ http://www.wargs.com/political/napolitano.html
- ^ a b c d Sunnucks, Mike. "Conservative group gives Napolitano an 'F' in spending", Phoenix Business Journal, 2006-10-20.
- ^ a b c Ripley, Amanda. "America's 5 Best Governors", Time Magazine, 2005-11-13.
- ^ Benson, Matthew; Marcum, Karissa. "Governor vetoes 9 of final 28 bills", Arizona Republic, 2006-06-29.
- ^ "The Myth of Amnesty; The Senate Immigration Bill vs. a Disastrous Status Quo", Washington Post Op-Ed.
- ^ AP, May 22, 2007
- ^ Dougherty, John. "Polygamy in Arizona", Phoenix New Times.
- ^ Dougherty, John. "Eyes Wide Shut", Phoenix New Times.
- David Brock, "The Real Anita Hill" http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/153/articles/brock01.htm
- Democrat attorney general finally wins in 'ugliest race', Tom Squitieri, USA Today, November 11, 2002
- Janet Napolitano CBS News, July 23, 2004
- Impact of Napolitano's goals The Arizona Republic, January 11, 2005
[edit] External links
- Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano official state site
- Janet Napolitano for Governor official 2006 campaign site
- National Governors Association - Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano biography
- Follow the Money - Janet Napolitano 2006 campaign contributions
- On the Issues - Janet Napolitano issue positions and quotes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Grant Woods | Attorney General of Arizona 1999–2003 | Succeeded by Terry Goddard |
| Preceded by Jane Dee Hull | Governor of Arizona 2003 – present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by Mike Huckabee Arkansas | Chairman of National Governors Association 2006-2007 | Succeeded by Tim Pawlenty Minnesota |
Governors of Arizona | |
|---|---|
| Territorial: Goodwin • McCormick • Carter • Safford • Hoyt • Frémont • Gosper • Tritle • Zulick • Wolfley • Irwin • Murphy • Hughes • Bruce • Franklin • McCord • Murphy • Brodie • Nichols • Kibbey • Sloan Hunt • Campbell • Hunt • Campbell • Hunt • Phillips • Hunt • Moeur • Stanford • Jones • Osborn • Garvey • Pyle • McFarland • Fannin • Goddard • Williams • Castro • Bolin • Babbitt • Mecham • Mofford • Symington • Hull • Napolitano | |
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