Janet Napolitano | Arizona: A Mountaineer on the Political Rise

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Even as she runs a state of 5.7 million people, Napolitano has traveled extensively to strengthen her political connections around the country. A lawyer, she first attracted national attention in 1991, when she represented Anita Hill in her sexual-harassment case against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. In 2000, just three weeks after mastectomy surgery, Napolitano addressed the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. The pain was so bad, she says, she could barely stand up, but she knew the nation was watching. Four years later she was being mentioned as a potential running mate for John Kerry and was given a prime-time spot to address the party's convention in Boston. This summer Napolitano was picked as vice chair of the National Governors Association, the first woman to occupy that position in the group's 97-year history. "I don't think ambition is a bad thing," she says. Like all mountaineers, she knows that the view from the top is the best.