Mary Pat Christie, New Jersey's Bond-Trading First Lady

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie drew laughs at a Jewish community center in Montville recently as he explained the secret behind his 27-year marriage: his bond-trader wife. The governor often boasts that thanks to Mary Pat Christie’s high earnings—she made $307,372 in 2011—he was able to give up practicing law and enter politics.

While most governors’ spouses opt for volunteerism over high-powered professions, Ms. Christie has quietly redefined the role of a governor’s wife over the last three years of her husband’s first term. She juggles raising four children (a nanny helps out part time) while working full time as a managing director at Angelo Gordon, an investment firm in New York. She also oversees what’s become a $33 million Hurricane Sandy relief charity. “I’ve always been the breadwinner,” the 49-year-old Christie says. “I really just wanted him to be happy in his career, and he is.” (Not that a New Jersey governor’s $175,000 salary is chump change.)