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Barbara C. Jordan, 38, began in politics stamping envelopes for the Kennedy-Johnson campaign in 1960, and six years later won election to the Texas state senate. After sponsoring Texas' first minimum-wage bill, she ran for Congress, in 1972 became the first black woman ever sent to the House from the old Confederacy. "I didn't get here by being black or a woman," she says. "I got here by working hard." A Boston University-trained lawyer, Jordan now serves on the House Judiciary Committee.
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Paul T. Jordan, 33, was a young physician in charge of a Jersey City drug-rehabilitation center in the late 1960s when he joined the Community Action Council, a local group of disgruntled citizens. When then Mayor Thomas Whelan was packed off to prison for extortion and conspiracy in 1971, Democrat Jor dan won a special election to become the youngest mayor in Jersey City history and end the corrupt, malodorous 57-year dynasty of Bosses Frank Hague and John V. Kenny. Since taking office, he has announced plans for a $2 billion renovation of the city's waterfront and for new housing in older Jersey City neighborhoods. Last year he won reelection by a lopsided margin to a full four-year term.
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Vernon E. Jordan Jr., 38. Successor to the late Whitney Young as executive director of the National Urban League, Jordan is considered to be one of the top black leaders in the U.S. today. A 1960 Howard University law graduate, he is a cool-headed peacemaker who earned his civil rights stripes escorting Charlayne Hunter through snarling white students at the University of Georgia. As head of the Southern Regional Council's 1968 voter-education drive, he helped put 2 million new black voters on the rolls and ultimately increase the region's number of elected black officials from 72 to 564. He is a director of Xerox, J.C. Penney and several other large corporations.
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Thomas L. Judge, 39. A Notre Dame journalism graduate, Montana's Democratic Governor was running an advertising and public relations agency in his native Helena when he became the state's youngest assemblyman in 1961. He was elected to the state senate six years later, in 1968 ran for Lieutenant Governor and won, and in 1972 was elected Governor. "A politician who does not respond to public opinion will find himself in trouble," he says pragmatically. After running into stiff opposition from environmentalists, he has recently soft-pedaled efforts to promote tourism and industry.
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Rhoda H. Karpatkin, 44. The consumer movement has flowered only during the past decade, but Consumers Union has been advising buyers for 37 years. For 16 of those years Rhoda Karpatkin, a Yale law graduate, served as the