(4 of 41)
10
Reubin Askew, 45, is the odds-on choice to be re-elected this year as Governor of Florida. The keynote speaker at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, ex-Paratrooper Askew had served in both houses of Florida's legislature before becoming Governor in 1970. He has achieved significant tax reforms while working actively to improve prison, judicial and election systems, expand consumer and environmental protection, and broaden programs for Florida's elderly. Askew is on practically everybody's list as a vice-presidential possibility in 1976.
11
Les Aspin, 35, went to Congress armed with an M.I.T. doctorate in economics and two years in the Office of Systems Analysis in Robert McNamara's Defense Department. The second-term Democrat from Wisconsin has waged an all-out war on military waste and cost overruns. He helped expose ballooning costs at Litton Industries' naval shipbuilding yards and mechanical troubles with Lockheed's C-5A cargo plane. Aspin also led the move that cut $1 billion from last year's Defense authorization and shot down flight pay for admirals and generals whose active flying days are behind them.
12
Herman Badillo, 44, the only Puerto Rican member of the U.S. House, represents a South Bronx district that consists largely of families with annual incomes close to or below the official poverty mark ($4,550 for an urban family of four). An orphan who came to the mainland at eleven, Badillo earned degrees in accounting and law, in 1965 won a tight race for Bronx borough president. A Democrat, he was first elected to Congress in 1970. He has also run unsuccessfully in two mayoral primaries, and since his real interest is New York City, he can be expected to try again.
13
David Baltimore, 36, a microbiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is noted both for discoveries made in his lab and policies articulated outside of it. His co-discovery in 1970 of the enzyme reverse transcriptase helped scientists in their search for a cancer-causing virus and led him to synthesize for the first time a portion of a mammalian gene, thus bringing closer the prospect of genetic engineering and control over life. Fearful about what that might mean, the M.l.T.-educated Baltimore is now spearheading efforts to protect the public from "bio-hazards." "Science-fiction fantasies may come true very soon, and we should be prepared," he warns.
14
William Banowsky, 38, president of Pepperdine College since 1971 and a conservative Republican, won his Ph.D. in communications at U.S.C., served as G.O.P. county chairman for Los Angeles during President Nixon's 1972 campaign, and was named state Republican national committeeman in May 1973. Offered financial support for a gubernatorial campaign this year, he surveyed the crowded field and declined. Instead, he increased his political visibility as host of a local TV talk show and columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
15
Clarence C. Barksdale, 42, president and chief executive of the old-line First National Bank of St. Louis, is involved as a banker and a private citizen in trying to revitalize his city. A director of the executive committee of the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association, "Cedge" Barksdale is promoting