Seven years ago, when (Sylvia) Mathews was working in Little Rock for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, (Bob) Rubin was an accomplished figure on Wall Street but not yet the central figure he would later become on the Clinton team. Rubin recalled that he would sometimes call the campaign to offer advice or seek talking points but had trouble getting the most senior aides on the phone. But he found he could always get results talking with Mathews, then in her twenties.

Those 1992 phone calls turned out to be the start of a professional relationship that gave Mathews a place in the center of economic policymaking for the past seven years and vaulted her to a succession of senior, though largely unheralded, posts in the Clinton administration. At 34, the West Virginia native and former Rhodes scholar is now deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Mathews is one of the few senior Clinton officials to have served in the administration on an uninterrupted basis since the beginning, and she said she plans to stay until the end. While a president's influence often wanes toward the end of an administration, Mathews said she has no concerns that her responsibilities will become any less interesting, or her days less busy. "No matter what happens, we have to pass budgets," she said.