Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician and lawyer. She is on the faculty at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, since 2015.
Napolitano served as 20th president of the University of California from 2013 to 2020, as the United States secretary of homeland security under the first Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009, as the 23rd attorney general of Arizona from 1999 to 2003, and as the United States attorney for the District of Arizona from 1993 to 1997.
Forbes ranked her as the world's ninth most powerful woman in 2012 and eighth most powerful woman in 2013. She served as chairwoman of the National Governors Association for the 2006–2007 cycle. In 2008, she was listed by The New York Times as one of the women most likely to become the first female president of the United States. She sat on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Early life and education Janet 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. Her father was of Italian descent and her mother had German and Austrian ancestry. Her grandfather was named Filippo Napolitano.
Napolitano is a Methodist. She is the oldest of three children, with a younger brother and sister. She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she graduated from Sandia High School in 1975.
Napolitano received a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude with a major in political science from Santa Clara University in 1979 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia in 1983.
Napolitano was Santa Clara's first female valedictorian, a Truman Scholar, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, she worked as an analyst for the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. In 1978, she studied for a term at the London School of Economics as part of Santa Clara's exchange program through IES Abroad. She then attended the University of Virginia School of Law after which she served as a law clerk for Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then joined Schroeder's former firm, Lewis and Roca, in Phoenix. She was named a partner of the firm in 1989.
Early career In 1991, while a partner at Lewis and Roca LLP, Napolitano served as an attorney for Anita Hill.David Brock, "The Real Anita Hill" 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 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission."Opening Statement: Sexual Harassment Hearings Concerning Judge Clarence Thomas" , Women's Speeches from Around the World.
In 1993, Napolitano was appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States attorney for the District of Arizona, an office she held until 1997. As U.S. attorney, she was involved in the investigation of Michael Fortier of Kingman, Arizona, in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing. She ran for and won the position of Arizona attorney general in 1998. During her tenure as attorney general, she focused on consumer protection issues and improving general law enforcement.
While serving as attorney general, she spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention just three weeks after having a mastectomy. Napolitano recalled that the pain was so unbearable that she could not stand up. "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." As attorney general she also defended Arizona's death penalty statute before the United States Supreme Court when she argued Ring v. Arizona.
Governor of Arizona (2003-2009)
In 2002, Napolitano narrowly won the gubernatorial election 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 was Arizona's third female governor and the first female elected governor in the United States to succeed another elected female governor.Tom Squitieri, "Democrat attorney general finally wins in 'ugliest race'" , USA Today, November 11, 2002. She was also the first Democrat popularly elected to the governorship since Bruce Babbitt left office in 1987, and the first female governor of Arizona to be elected outright.
She spoke at the 2004 Democratic Convention,Janet Napolitano CBS News, July 23, 2004. where some initially considered her to be a possible running mate for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Kerry selected Senator John Edwards instead. In November 2005, Time magazine named her one of the five best governors in the U.S.
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, Napolitano had issued 180 vetoes.
Napolitano supported many educational initiatives. She successfully negotiated the creation of voluntary full-day kindergarten in Arizona. The state previously only funded half-day programs. She created a literacy program, and acquired funding for an increase in teacher salaries. She spearheaded significant investments in higher education, including funding a Phoenix campus for the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
She also built the state's rainy day fund to more than $650 million, at the time the highest ever. She played a leading role in the successful bid to host Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona, expanded the number of teams in the Cactus league and invested heavily in tourism and economic development initiatives. She was one of the first governors to call for the National Guard at the border after declaring a state emergency related to border security.
In November 2006, Napolitano was re-elected as governor, defeating the Republican challenger, Len Munsil, by a nearly 2:1 ratio. She was the first woman to be re-elected to that office and the first gubernatorial candidate in state history to win every county and every legislative district in Arizona. Arizona's constitution limits its governors to two consecutive terms, so Napolitano would not have been eligible to seek a third term in office in 2010.
In January 2006, Napolitano won the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service. She served as a member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee. 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 to serve in that position.
Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-2013) In February 2006, Napolitano was named by The White House Project as one of "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who were suggested as possible candidates for president in 2008. On January 11, 2008, she endorsed then Illinois Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president. On November 5, 2008, she was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.Sweet, Lynn Jarrett, Podesta, Rouse to lead Obama transition; Bill Daley co-chair Chicago Sun-Times, November 5, 2008.
Tenure
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 as Secretary in the relatively new department, and the fourth person to hold the position overall (including one acting secretary). Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer became governor of Arizona.
In March 2009, Napolitano told the German news site Der Spiegel that while there is always a threat from terrorism, she preferred to talk about "man-caused' disasters" as a way "to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur".
In April 2009, in an interview defending her plans to tighten the Canada–US border, Napolitano incorrectly implied that the September 11 attack perpetrators entered the United States from Canada. This claim was made by several politicians based upon erroneous news reports in the days after the attack. Napolitano explained that she misunderstood the question and was referring to other individuals who had planned attacks and entered through Canada, but Canadian diplomats rebuked her for helping perpetuate a myth.In response to criticism, she later said that while she knew no 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada, "there are other instances ... when suspected terrorists have attempted to enter our country from Canada to the United States ... [s]ome of these are well known to the public, such as the millennium bomber, while others are not due to security reasons." There has only been one publicly reported case of terrorists coming to the United States through Canada, that of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian citizen who was in Canada illegally and who had planned an attack on Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. Nevertheless, Napolitano later claimed that "Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours" as a justification for treating the Mexican and Canadian borders equally.
H1N1 flu As Secretary, Napolitano was a central leader in the federal response to the 2009 flu pandemic. Rather than closing schools and businesses, which would have led to wide-scale disruption, Napolitano advanced a strategy of proactive education for prevention. This included a basic virus-prevention education program. Ultimately, as a result of the programs implemented by Napolitano and others, much of the damage expected from this flu was mitigated.
Right-wing extremism memo Napolitano was the subject of controversy after the release of a Department of Homeland Security threat assessment report that was seen as derogatory towards armed forces veterans. The report focused on potential threats from the radical right. Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment was made public in April 2009. The report suggested several factors, including the election of the first black or mixed race president in Barack Obama, concerns regarding future gun control measures, illegal immigration, the economic downturn beginning in 2008, abortion controversy, and disgruntled military veterans' possible vulnerability to recruitment efforts by extremist groups as potential risk factors regarding right-wing extremism recruitment."Homeland Security Report Warns Of Rising Right-Wing Extremism" , Huffington Post.
Napolitano made multiple apologies for offending veterans groups by 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 a portion of the document."Homeland Security admits error with extremism report" Newsday.com.