ASU trade officials: Napolitano would be ideal security chief

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano would be a great choice as head of the Department of Homeland Security, according to two officials in Arizona State University's North American Center for Transborder Studies.

Erik Lee said Napolitano's experience as governor of a border state would be invaluable.

"Securing the borders and facilitating trade is a very difficult mix to get right," Lee said.. "That is what will take up a good portion of her time, especially as far as Arizona and other border states are concerned."

Lee said Napolitano knows about border issues and cross-border commerce.

Rick Van Schoik said Napolitano would bring a different perspective to Washington.

"So many times, the consensus in Washington is driven by the interior -- their sense of immigration, their sense of the border, their sense of security, which is not the same sense that we who live and work and cross those borders and live in the border regions, experience," he said.

Van Schoik believes Napolitano could work effectively with President-elect Barack Obama to forge cooperation in a new way and re-invent the Homeland Security agency in a new way that enhances national security.

"I think she's the ideal one to do it," he said.