<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Heather PodestaThe Influencer  Power couple Heather and Tony Podesta are the \u00FCber\u2013fundraising/lobbying duo in DC, scoring buckets of money for Democratic candidates. Heather Podesta + Partners is the nation&amp;#039;s largest woman-owned government relations firm, with clients from Eli Lilly to U.S. Steel to The Home Depot to Hearst (but we picked her before we knew that!). Heather, 42, is a policy geek with an economics degree from Berkeley and a law degree from UVA. And she&amp;#039;s fun! When she married Tony, her third husband and 26 years her senior, she waited six months to take his last name &amp;quot;to see if the marriage took.&amp;quot; And yes, it was she who wore a brocade scarlet L to the last Democratic convention (and handed out 99 more) to chide Obama for chiding lobbyists. Only the A-list gets inside their Kalorama home, &amp;quot;which is more like an art museum,&amp;quot; says one Washington insider, where everything dazzles\u2014particularly Heather: Her Alexander McQueen and Prada wardrobe is unmatched inside the Beltway. Next: Christiane Amanpour, The Globe-Trotter    Christiane AmanpourThe Globe-Trotter  &amp;quot;I am the kind of journalist who thinks that if women had more positions of power and influence, there would be a material difference in the way things worked out.&amp;quot; It is this ethos that has made Amanpour, 54, such an inspiring on-air presence during her 30-plus-year career. She&amp;#039;s been on the ground for seemingly every major international conflict of the past two decades (Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda, the Balkans), the ballsy woman unfazed by danger, always in that safari jacket (&amp;quot;It was just easy to pack, easy to look presentable&amp;quot;), whose reporting from within war zones has earned her practically every major broadcast award. Even after leaving her long-held post as CNN&amp;#039;s chief international correspondent to anchor ABC&amp;#039;s This Week, she continued to report on world events, landing exclusive interviews with Egypt&amp;#039;s Hosni Mubarak and Libya&amp;#039;s Muammar Gadhafi during the height of their countries&amp;#039; uprisings. Given the current upheaval in the Middle East, it is no surprise that Amanpour decided to leave This Week and return to the trenches, and yet this mother of a 12-year-old son is candid about the sacrifices she has had to make: &amp;quot;There is no such thing as a woman who can do it all. When my son was very little, I&amp;#039;d say, `Mummy has to go there and tell the story, otherwise the bad guys will win.&amp;#039;\u2009In all our countries you need passionate journalists to go out there and seek the truth. [Now] when I leave him, I say, `This is something I believe in.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Next: Jennifer Hing, The Doer    Jennifer HingThe Doer  Republican strategist Jennifer Hing, 33, is famous inside the Capitol for getting things done, even when nothing gets done. As communications director of the House Appropriations Committee\u2014dubbed &amp;quot;the biggest game in town&amp;quot; in 2011 by Beltway bible Roll Call\u2014the Oregon native employed her considerable smarts and charm (she favors Nanette Lepore suits for their &amp;quot;feminine details&amp;quot;) to get lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to agree on a $1 trillion\u2013plus spending package. Hing, one of six children of a homemaker and an auto-repair shop owner\u2014and the first Hing to graduate from college\u2014is just fine with all the wrangling. &amp;quot;The solutions always require some compromise,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s what the founders intended.&amp;quot; Next: Norah O&amp;#039;Donnell, The Correspondent    Norah O&amp;#039;DonnellThe Correspondent  When after 12 years O&amp;#039;Donnell left NBC News last summer to be CBS News&amp;#039; chief White House correspondent, much was made about...her heels. You can find scores of Internet references along the lines of &amp;quot;few heels (or great legs) have walked in this job.&amp;quot; But the reaction in the political mediasphere was that NBC had lost a significant brain. &amp;quot;The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Norah O&amp;#039;Donnell&amp;#039;s departure...may be the biggest defection NBC has endured in nearly two decades,&amp;quot; wrote one wonk. O&amp;#039;Donnell, 38, cut her teeth at Roll Call before the late, great Tim Russert, one of her mentors, hired her at age 25 to be part of his political team at NBC. ABC News correspondent Ann Compton, another of O&amp;#039;Donnell&amp;#039;s mentors, advised her to get her master&amp;#039;s not in journalism but in history, &amp;quot;\u2009`or something else you&amp;#039;re interested in. You&amp;#039;ll learn the other stuff on the job.&amp;#039; So that&amp;#039;s what I did.&amp;quot; Next: Sheila Johnson, The Giver     Sheila JohnsonThe Giver  For this 63-year-old entrepreneur\u2014CEO of Salamander Hotels &amp;amp;amp; Resorts, cofounder of BET\u2014philanthropy is about &amp;quot;connecting the dots...combining it with whatever I&amp;#039;m doing&amp;quot;: traveling to Haiti with Donna Karan, her favorite designer, to buy merchandise from artisans to sell in her hotels; having a stake in three pro sports teams (including the WNBA&amp;#039;s Washington Mystics, of which she&amp;#039;s the president); chairing the board of governors of Parsons The New School for Design; being a CARE global ambassador; and producing documentaries on AIDS and homelessness. Next: Susan Rice, The Ambassador    Click Here to Shop ELLE&amp;#039;s Latest Rue La La Boutique: What to Wear to Work    Susan RiceThe Ambassador  The bold, solid colors and crisp lines of the outfits \u00ADfavored by \u00ADSusan Rice, America&amp;#039;s ambassador to the United \u00ADNations, suit her to a T. The native Washingtonian is a \u00ADfamously tough, \u00ADforthright, and passionate advocate who, at 47, is \u00ADalready \u00ADa \u00ADveteran of nearly 20 years of foreign-policy and \u00ADdiplomatic \u00ADservice dating back to the first Clinton administration. A Rhodes Scholar, she trails a long list of first-this and \u00ADyoungest-that \u00ADdistinctions in her wake. At the UN she has \u00ADdedicated \u00ADherself to the proposition that taking that \u00ADbeleaguered \u00ADinstitution seriously is more likely to get results than the scorn and \u00ADderision dumped on it by previous U.S. \u00ADambassadors. And what results! Her hardheaded rallying of inter\u00ADnational \u00ADsupport for toppling Libya&amp;#039;s Muammar Gadhafi was a \u00ADhigh-risk play that paid off in spades. Lately, Iran and Syria&amp;#039;s \u00ADbrutal \u00ADregimes have been in her crosshairs. We can&amp;#039;t wait to see what her \u00ADambitions turn out to be when she focuses them on DC itself. Next: Juleanna Glover, The Lobbyist    Juleanna GloverThe Lobbyist  The Republicans Glover has worked for in her 20 years as a lobbyist and senior staff member are like a right-wing Who&amp;#039;s Who: Bill Kristol, George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney. Yet Glover, 43, a civil-unions supporter, says, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t believe Democrats are diabolical! They just happen to have a polar-opposite worldview on what drives the country to success.&amp;quot; Even as a cofounder of the conservative strategy firm the Ashcroft Group, she still wants &amp;quot;to continue to advise candidates at the level of presidential politics.&amp;quot; (Alas, her candidate this time around was Jon Huntsman.) This 3.1 Phillip Lim fan, who&amp;#039;s chic from dawn till dark (at her legendary evening soirees for DC elites), says her style secret is &amp;quot;an escalation of heels throughout the day.&amp;quot; A new mother\u2014she just had her fourth child\u2014and unmarried to the baby&amp;#039;s father, DC businessman Christopher Reiter, surely she must get blowback from conservatives about that. Says Glover, &amp;quot;I haven&amp;#039;t heard a peep.&amp;quot; Next: Julianna Smoot, The Go-To Fundraiser    Julianna SmootThe Go-To Fundraiser  President Obama calls her, simply, &amp;quot;Smoot,&amp;quot; and that down-to-earth moniker suits his deputy campaign manager. Smoot, 44, is a famously driven rainmaker (her fundraising philosophy: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t like getting beat&amp;quot;) who worked with such Democratic powers as Harry Reid and Chris Dodd on their successful Senate bids before serving as national finance director of Obama&amp;#039;s 2008 presidential campaign. There she helped locate new &amp;quot;bundlers&amp;quot; and launch the grassroots Internet fundraising operation that together made it the highest-grossing campaign in U.S. history. Now that Smoot (recently married to her longtime beau, businessman Lon Johnson) is reinstalled in Chicago, some pundits are predicting that, under her leadership, Obama&amp;#039;s 2012 presidential campaign will be the first to bring in more than a billion dollars\u2014from energized donors of every stripe. &amp;quot;My personal style,&amp;quot; says Smoot, who shares the first lady&amp;#039;s affection for J.Crew cardigans, &amp;quot;is that I try to treat everybody equally, whether that&amp;#039;s the president or the lovely woman Hattie who volunteers answering phones three days a week.&amp;quot; Next: Hilda Solis, The Labor Boss    Hilda SolisThe Labor Boss  Care to try fighting for fair and safe work\u00ADplaces in the longest, deepest employ\u00ADment downturn since the Great Depression? Hilda \u00ADSolis, 54, daughter of a union man and a Mattel toys-line worker, is the woman for the job. &amp;quot;When I was a kid, I wanted to be a nurse,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I wanted to help \u00ADpeople.&amp;quot; Instead, she was the first in her family to go to \u00ADcollege and served in Congress before becoming Obama&amp;#039;s Secretary of Labor. You want fair? Solis, who still loves to shop for fashion bargains in big chain stores, also still takes the \u00ADpublic elevator at the Depart\u00ADment of Labor\u2014even though there&amp;#039;s a private one available for bigwigs. Next: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, The Party Leader     Debbie Wasserman SchultzThe Party Leader  She entered the Florida state house at 26, the youngest woman ever to get there, and today, Wasserman Schultz, 45, the funny, fast-talking New York\u2013born mother of three, is the telegenic (those curls!) member of Congress who&amp;#039;s represented South Florida since 2005. She&amp;#039;s often seen on TV explaining why Democratic values like reproductive freedom and affordable health care matter, or she&amp;#039;s in front of the cameras fighting back, unflapped, when Republicans disagree. &amp;quot;After 20 years in office, I have the skin of an alligator,&amp;quot; she says. A breast-cancer survivor, she had seven surgeries in a year, including a double mastectomy, all scheduled during congressional breaks so she could keep her illness private until it was behind her. Last year she was tapped by President Obama to chair the Democratic National Committee. &amp;quot;It enables me to champion the things my constituents care about on a much bigger stage,&amp;quot; she says. Her contagiously tearful reading of the resignation letter of her best friend, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, on the House floor in January indicated the deep feeling beneath her alligator skin. &amp;quot;People think of me as being outwardly very intense, very focused professionally, and I am. But most people who don&amp;#039;t know me don&amp;#039;t realize that I&amp;#039;m warm, caring, and fiercely loyal to my friends and family.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a11905/capital-dames-10-powerful-women-in-dc-653017/>