Norton, Gale (1954- )

US public servant and Republican politician, secretary of the interior 2001-06 under President George W Bush. The first woman to head the interior department, she favoured leaving the free-market to solve environmental problems rather than government regulations. As attorney general of Colorado 1991-99, she represented Colorado and 45 other states in negotiating a US$206 billion national tobacco settlement, and defended the state's ‘Amendment 2’, which denied gays legal protection against discrimination. She lost a bid for the US Senate in 1996, being defeated in the Republican primary.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, she graduated in law from the University of Denver, Colorado. She started her career at the Mountain States Legal Foundation 1979-83, a conservative think-tank which was often criticized by environmentalists. In the late 1970s she was a member of the Libertarian Party. She worked at the Department of the Interior 1985-87, overseeing endangered species and public lands legal issues.