Pheonix ? In 1998, Arizona voters startled the political world by electing women to all five top state offices. Now, with incumbent Republican Gov. Jane Dee Hull retiring, three of the other four are running to succeed her.

The Arizona phenomenon is unusual, prompted in part by the female sweep in 1998 and in part by the availability, for the first time, of public financing for gubernatorial campaigns. But across America, a remarkably large and strong field of women will be seeking the executive office that, aside from the presidency, has been hardest for them to win.

Today, women govern only five states Arizona, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. But Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and founder of its Center for American Women and Politics, says that about 30 women either have announced for governor’s races in November or are seriously weighing candidacies.

Women are contesting seriously in such megastates as Florida, Illinois and Michigan. In three states Arizona, Kansas and Massachusetts the November ballot could see women opposing each other for the top prize.

“We should not be surprised,” Mandel told me. “We are 30 years into the gender change in our politics, and you reap what you sow.” As she pointed out, about half the women gubernatorial candidates already have statewide elective office; they are, in the traditional sense, the logical contenders.

Notable, too, is the fact that several of the contenders are relying not on such classic “women’s issues” as health care and education, but on their credentials in law enforcement and crime-fighting. Here in Arizona, for example, early polls put state Atty. Gen. Janet Napolitano, the former U.S. attorney in Phoenix, ahead of her announced Democratic primary opponent and of all the contenders in the GOP field.

The Republican aspirants here include Secretary of State Betsey Bayless and State Treasurer Carol Springer. Bayless trails ex-Rep. Matt Salmon by a narrow margin in Republican polls, with Springer further back. Napolitano, by contrast, has a sizable advantage against former state Sen. Alfredo Guttierez on the Democratic side.

The best-known of the women candidates nationwide is former U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who leads the Democratic field in Florida but trails Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. In Michigan, Democratic state Atty. Gen. Jennifer Granholm faces stiff primary opposition from former Gov. Jim Blanchard and Rep. David Bonior. But Granholm fares better than the other two in November trial heats, with a double-digit lead over the likely Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus.

Arizona is not the only state which may see two women square off in November’s gubernatorial race. That is likely in Kansas, where the Democratic nominee is almost certain to be state Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius, whose father, John Gilligan, was once governor of Ohio. Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall has serious opposition in the Republican primary but could well emerge as Sebelius’ opponent.

In Massachusetts, state Treasurer Shannon O’Brien is challenging several male opponents for the Democratic nomination against acting Gov. Jane Swift, who moved up from lieutenant governor when Paul Celluci became ambassador to Canada.

Republicans are particularly high on the prospects of Linda Lingle breaking the longtime Democratic grip on Hawaii’s governorship. She lost by fewer than 6,000 votes when she sought the job in 1998. The Democratic incumbent is term-limited, and the state’s economic plight gives her a ready issue. Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood is seeking the Republican nomination for the open governorship in Illinois but has a tough challenge in overcoming Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan in next month’s primary.

Mandel said that even though law schools were one of the first professional schools to open their doors to women, it has been difficult for women to win elections as attorney general almost as tough as becoming governor. Napolitano said she has constructed a record as a prosecutor that “makes it hard for them to pigeonhole me as a liberal Democratic woman.”

Her targets range from operators of meth labs to the billing practices of phone companies and the accounting policies of the Arthur Andersen firm.

And she has shown a deft political touch. When she announced the Arizona delegation’s vote at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, she did it in English, Spanish and Navajo.

David Broder is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.