Biography:

Christine Todd Whitman

Christine Todd Whitman (born c. 1947) managed to defeat her opponent, James Florio, the incumbent Governor of New Jersey, with very little political experience.

From the beginning, Whitman was perceived as a long shot for the office - a woman and a Republican was considered an awkward mix. She advocated sweeping tax cuts, as well as abortion rights. And, in the beginning of her campaign, her platform was very disorganized. However, Florio had so offended his constituents by raising taxes and reacting slowly to the plummeting economy in his state, that in the end Whitman won.

Whitman has definitely been characterized as a woman of privilege - a millionaire who made much of her money on Wall Street. She descended from a well-to-do family with strong ties to the Republican party. Whitman's husband also has ties to the Republican party - his grandfather was once governor of New York. Whitman's siblings have also been involved in politics.

Whitman was not a career politician by any means when she ran for the New Jersey governor's office. Her only previous political experience had been winning election to the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, which is the governing body of that county. She served there for five years. Republican governor Thomas H. Kean subsequently appointed her to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, where she served until 1990.

That year she took a major plunge into the political spotlight by running against New Jersey Democratic senator Bill Bradley, a very popular incumbent. It seemed at first that she would be token opposition against Bradley. However, Florio had just been elected as governor, and as such raised taxes by $2.8 billion and instigated an unpopular increase in the state sales tax. This infuriated many New Jersey residents. Whitman kept her campaign focused on Florio's unpopular tax hikes, instead of on Bradley's work. Her technique succeeded, and she won an unprecedented 47 percent of the vote - hardly the margin of an "easy walkover" opponent.

Her finish in this campaign put her in an excellent position to run for the governor's office. She had such an impressive showing against Bradley that she was considered a prime contender. And Florio's tax policies would make her job easier. After his tax program went into effect, New Jersey dove into a recession deeper than that being experienced by the rest of the country. "Rarely has a state fallen so quickly from economic grace… . Its … disaster is entirely Florio-made," wrote Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr. in a Forbes editorial.

Florio's approval rating plunged to 20 percent. In 1991, the Democrats lost their majority in the state legislature, for the first time in 20 years. This made Florio's job even more difficult, since his ideas went against the politics of the Congress. They tried to repeal a sales tax increase, he vetoed it; they tried to repeal a ban on semiautomatic weapons, he vetoed it. When election time rolled around in 1993, Florio had an unimpressive approval rating of roughly 50 percent. However, he had the backing of the newly-elected president, Bill Clinton.

But Whitman's campaign was not without foibles either. She hired Larry McCarthy as her media consultant in August of 1993, to the outrage of many - he was responsible for the allegedly racist "Willie Horton" advertisements which aired during George Bush's campaign against Michael Dukakis. In response, Whitman countered that someone else had been in charge of the infamous ads, but McCarthy soon quit. While the controversy simmered, Whitman removed herself to go on a remote biking trip in Idaho.

Another scandal broke after she released her tax returns, which indicated that she and her husband had grossed an impressive $3.7 million in 1992. This fact made it harder for Whitman to seem like a "regular person" to the voters. Journalists also called into question her use of two rural homes as working farms. To respond to this, Whitman conducted a press party at one of the properties. Reporters found themselves at a real down-home event, with baked beans being served, and Whitman conducting tours in blue jeans. Her candor about the matter and willingness to answer questions scored points with many people.

Another problem with Whitman's campaign was her perceived lack of direction. It took her a long time to put together a clear tax package that would appeal to voters. In September of 1993 she finally unveiled her economic plan, which included many tax cuts, including one to slash income taxes 30 percent over several years. While the news sounded good, the voters seemed skeptical rather than enthused.

Whitman also attacked Florio's record on social programs. In a move to gain favor with conservatives, Florio had advocated making tighter restrictions on welfare allocations to mothers. One of the proposed changes involved forcing the women into naming the fathers of their babies. Outraged, Whitman attacked his ideas. "What is the governor's next idea in his headlong rush to embrace right-wing radicalism?" she was quoted as asking in Congressional Quarterly. "A program of tattoos for welfare mothers? A badge sewn on to their clothing identifying them as welfare recipients?" Her tactics backfired, however, when the Florio camp countered with angry letters from Jewish leaders who were outraged at Whitman's use of a Holocaust analogy for comparison.

Malcolm Forbes, one of Whitman's campaign advisers, wrote that "What makes Mrs. Whitman's tax ideas and approach so different, indeed so truly breathtaking, is that she plans to make her tax cuts the core of the budgeting process. Spending decisions will be made around the cuts, not vice-versa." Despite news like this, the public for the most part remained unconvinced, and the race was very close in the month leading up to the election.

Something changed that helped Whitman turn around the election. As her campaign gained momentum, she put increasing confidence into her campaign manager, Ed Rollins. A political analyst who had helped achieve Ronald Reagan's 1984 win, Rollins became a controversial figure when he switched camps to assist H. Ross Perot in his 1992 presidential bid. Shortly after taking the job with Perot, he left in disgust. In the last weeks of Whitman's campaign, Rollins simply took the reins, and immediately began to reorganize her campaign approach. "For much of the campaign," according to Congressional Quarterly, "Whitman seemed unable or even unwilling to capitalize on the anyone-but-Florio sentiment." Rollins changed all that by focusing on Florio's unpopular record in her stump speeches. Rollins also advised her to keep her own promises on the back burner, because she had encountered so much skepticism about them.

The tactic worked. The Eagleton Institute poll showed the incumbent governor as being ahead just one week before election day. But the undecided vote was just too close to call. Whitman won the November 2, 1993 election by just 26,000 votes. Constituents were just too concerned with Florio's previous records to place any confidence in him.

With her long campaign over, Whitman should have been able to breathe a sigh of relief. But, just a short time after the votes were in, Rollins told the press that the reason they had won was because they had paid African-American ministers to suppress the vote among their parishioners. "We went into black churches and we basically said to ministers who had endorsed Florio, 'Do you have a special project? And they said, 'We've already endorsed Florio.' We said, 'That's fine - don't get up on the Sunday pulpit and preach. We know you've endorsed him, but don't get up there and say it's your moral obligation that you go on Tuesday to vote for Jim Florio,"' Rollins was reported as saying in Time. Money was also supposedly paid to election workers in Democratic neighborhoods (who were supposed to be getting people to the polls) to stay home. Rollins bragged that these measures were key in Whitman's election to governor.

His comments unleashed a furor of responses from many people, most notably black ministers. Edward Verner, head of a Newark black minister's organization, commented in Time:" To suggest that the black vote or the black church is up for sale is a racist lie." Whitman herself was appalled, and claimed that her manager's statement was an unequivocated lie. Rollins soon retracted his statements, telling People that his remarks were "an exaggeration that turned out to be inaccurate." However, a federal judge ruled that an investigation would be necessary. Whitman assured the voters that she would agree to a new vote if any illegalities were uncovered.

Rollins's wife, Sherrie, claimed in People that her husband "feels awful about this furor he has created. He did not intend to hurt anyone. He feels so badly for Christie. He did not want to taint her victory." It turned out that no proof could be found to substantiate Rollins's initial claims, and by November 29, 1993, the Democrats abandoned their campaign to have the election results decertified. On January 12, 1994, state and federal investigators ended their investigation into the campaign and deemed Whitman innocent of the charges.

"Don't let the hullabaloo over the alleged antivoting activities of campaign manager Ed Rollins blind the nation to the significance of Christie Whitman's victory last month in the New Jersey gubernatorial election. She won on character and substance," Malcolm Forbes asserted in one of his magazine's editorials. After the election, Whitman went right ahead with her daring tax-cut proposals, even declaring that if they didn't work, she wouldn't run for reelection.

Whitman was very busy making personnel and policy decisions shortly after the Rollins controversy cleared. She made headlines when she added female state troopers to the group who were assigned to protect her and her family. She complained to Governor Florio that he had violated an understanding between the two of them and extended contracts, endorsed salary increases, and appointed people to positions before she took office.

On January 18, 1994, Christine Todd Whitman was officially inaugurated into the office of governor. And she faced serious challenges - the size of New Jersey's deficit had swelled to $1 billion. She nixed a proposal to use taxpayer's money to lure the Philadelphia 76ers from their home in Pennsylvania to Camden, New Jersey, and fully outlined her plans to cut state income taxes. In her inaugural address, she was so bold as to ask the Legislature to put into effect a five-percent tax cut retroactive to January 1. Her campaign promise had been to start cutting taxes by July 1, but she felt it necessary to start her proposals immediately.

Whitman's ultimate goal was to see state income taxes reduced by 30 percent within her first three years in office. She went on record as saying that she hoped these cuts would not force municipalities to raise taxes to cover missing state aid, but also said that she would not be responsible if this did happen.

Whitman outdid herself by reaching her goal in just two years, as opposed to the three she promised. She has also been involved in educational, environmental, and auto insurance reforms, and has taken steps to balance the state budget.

Whitman's popularity has swelled not only in her home state. People named Whitman one of their twenty-five most intriguing people of 1994, calling her "a one-woman political slogan."

Whitman was the first-ever governor chosen by the GOP to give the rebuttal to President Clinton's State of the Union address in 1995. Her audience was impressed with her response and the buzz began about the possibilities of her candidacy for vice president in 1996. Robert Dole, the Republican candidate, ultimately chose Jack Kemp as his running mate.

With ambitious and far-reaching tax plans, Whitman has impressed many political leaders. As Malcolm Forbes commented: "Opponents and pundits underestimated her backbone."

Christine Todd Whitman

50^th Governor of New Jersey
In office January 18, 1994 – January 31, 2001
Preceded by	James Florio
Succeeded by	Donald DiFrancesco
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
In office January 31, 2001 – June 27, 2003
Preceded by	Carol Browner
Succeeded by	Marianne Lamont Horinko (Acting)

Born	September 26 1946 (1946--) (age 61) New York City
Political party	Republican
Spouse	John R. Whitman
Religion	Presbyterian

Early life

Ms. Whitman was born in New York City, raised in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and attended the Chapin School in Manhattan. She graduated from Wheaton College in 1968, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in government. After graduating, she worked on Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign.

Whitman is a descendant of two New Jersey political families, the Todds and the Schleys, and related by marriage to New York's politically-active Whitmans. She is married to John R. Whitman, a prominent private equity investor, and they have two children. She is the granddaughter-in-law of former Governor of New York Charles S. Whitman. Her maternal grandfather, Reeve Schley, was a member of Wolf's Head Society at Yale.

Whitman retains her maiden name of Todd in part to continue the connection with Republican voters. Whitman is related by marriage to the Bush family; her brother, Webster B. Todd, married Sheila O'Keefe, the stepdaughter of James Wear Walker, whose sister Dorothy Walker Bush was the mother of George H.W. Bush and grandmother of George W. Bush.

Career in Politics

Nixon Administration and Early Politics

During the Nixon administration, Whitman worked in the Office of Economic Opportunity under the leadership of Donald Rumsfeld. She also conducted a national outreach tour for the Republican National Committee, was Deputy Director of the New York State Office in Washington, and worked on aging issues for the Nixon campaign and administration.

She became involved in Somerset County politics in the 1980s and was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Somerset County College (now Raritan Valley Community College). Elected to two terms as a member of the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, she served as Deputy Director and Director of the Board. Among her accomplishments as freeholder was working to complete construction of a new county courthouse.

From 1988 to 1990 she served as President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in the cabinet of Gov. Thomas Kean.

In 1990, Whitman ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Bill Bradley, and lost a close election.^[3] She was considered a longshot candidate against the popular Bradley. During her campaign, Whitman criticized the income tax hike proposed by then Gov. James Florio, which Bradley did not take a stance on.

Governor of New Jersey

Whitman ran against James Florio for governor in 1993, and defeated him by one percentage point plurality to become the first female governor in New Jersey history. Charges of suppression of minority votes were raised during this campaign. ^[4]She was re-elected in 1997, and narrowly defeated Jim McGreevey (again with a one percent plurality), the mayor of Woodbridge Township.

As Governor, Whitman did not fully fund the state pension system and instead floated bonds to avoid raising taxes.^[5] Although Whitman's predecessors did not take the same approach to state pensions, recent governors from both political parties have diverted billions of dollars from the New Jersey pension fund into other government purposes over the last 15 years. ^[6]

In 1996, Whitman rejected her Advisory Council's recommendation to permit needle exchange, an effort to reduce the incidence of HIV infections.^[7] In 1997, she rolled back the 1 cent sales tax increase her predecessor Florio had imposed, instituted education reforms, and removed excise taxes on professional wrestling, which led the World Wrestling Federation to once again hold events in New Jersey. In 1999, Governor Whitman vetoed a bill that outlawed partial birth abortion; the veto was later reversed, but also later declared unconstitutional by the courts.

In 2000, under Whitman's leadership, New Jersey's violations of the the federal one-hour air quality standard for ground level ozone dropped to 4 from 45 in 1988. Beach closings reached a record low, and the state earned recognition by the Natural Resources Defense Council for instituting the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. Additionally, New Jersey implemented a new watershed management program and became the United States leader in opening shellfish beds for harvesting. Governor Whitman also won voter approval for the state's first stable funding source to preserve one million acres (4,000 km²) more of open space and farmland in New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country.

In 1996, Whitman joined a police patrol in Camden, New Jersey. During the patrol, the officers stopped a 16-year-old black male named Sherron Rolax for "suspicious activity" and proceeded to frisk him. After finding nothing, Whitman also frisked the suspect while a New Jersey State Police officer photographed her. In 2000, the image of the smiling governor frisking Rolax was published in newspapers statewide, which drew criticism from civil rights leaders who saw the incident as a violation of Rolax's civil rights and an endorsement by Whitman of racial profiling -- especially since the suspect was not arrested nor found to be violating any law. Whitman told the press that she regretted the incident and pointed to her 1999 efforts against the New Jersey State Police force's racial profiling practices.

Environmental Protection Agency

Whitman was appointed by President George W. Bush as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. As head of the EPA, she challenged the validity of a government-commissioned report suggesting a human contribution to global climate change.^[8]

Whitman appeared twice in New York City after the September 11 attacks to inform New Yorkers that the toxins released by the attacks posed no threat to their health.^[9] On September 18 the EPA released a report in which Whitman said, "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."^[10] Later, a 2003 report by the EPA's inspector general determined that such assurances were misleading, because the EPA "did not have sufficient data and analyses" to justify the assertions when they were made.^[11] A report in July 2003 from the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response gave extensive documentation supporting many of the inspector general's conclusions, and carried some of them still further.^[12] Further, the report found that the White House had "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications after the September 11 attacks.^[13]

On June 27, 2003, after having had several public conflicts with the Bush administration, Whitman officially resigned from her position to spend more time with her family.^[14] In a later interview, Whitman claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney's insistence on easing air pollution controls, not the personal reasons she cited at the time, led to her resignation.^[15]

On February 2, 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts issued a ruling that rejected Whitman's request for immunity in a 2004 class action lawsuit brought by a group who claimed exposure to hazardous debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center. The judge stated that "No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," and called Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking."^[16]

On June 25, 2007, Whitman testified in front of Congress about the Agency's culpability in telling rescue workers that the air was safe. She was repeatedly booed by rescue workers and activists who attended the hearing. She defended herself by saying her statements about the air being safe were to people living or working near the area, not to rescue workers. She also said terrorists, not the EPA, were responsible for the tragedies that befell people after September 11.^[17]

Political philosophy

In early 2005, Whitman released a book entitled It's My Party, Too: Taking Back the Republican Party... And Bringing the Country Together Again in which she criticizes the policies of the George W. Bush administration and its electoral strategy, which she views as divisive. Whitman has denied that she intends to run for the presidency in 2008. She has formed a political action committee called It's My Party Too-PAC (IMP-PAC) that she intended to help elect moderate Republicans in 2006 and 2008 at all levels of government. She has allied her PAC with the Republican Main Street Partnership, The Wish List, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice, Republicans for Environmental Protection and The Log Cabin Republicans. Eventually, the IMP-PAC went (according to its website) under the auspices of the Republican Leadership Council.

Electoral history

1997 Race for Governor: Christine Todd Whitman (R) (inc.), 47% - James McGreevey (D), 46%
1993 Race for Governor: Christine Todd Whitman (R), 49% - James Florio (D) (inc.), 48%
1990 Race for U.S. Senate: Bill Bradley (D) (inc.), 50% - Christine Todd Whitman (R), 47%

Quotes

"The defining feature of the conservative viewpoint is a faith in the ability, and a respect for the right, of individuals to make their own decisions - economic, social, and spiritual - about their lives. The true conservative understands that government's track record in respecting individual rights is poor when it dictates individual choices." ^[18]

References

^ Website of the Whitman Strategy Group, accessed September 26, 2006.
^ Nuclear Energy Needs to Grow, by Christine Todd Whitman, San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 2007
^ King, Wayne. " THE 1990 ELECTIONS: What Went Wrong?; Bradley Says He Sensed Voter Fury But It Was Too Late to Do Anything", The New York Times, November 8, 1990. Accessed August 7, 2007.
^ http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/94/1/cynicism.asp
^ State Budget Contains First Appropriation for State Pension Funds in Many Years
^ Walsh, Mary Williams. "New Jersey Diverts Billions, Endangering Pension Fund", The New York Times, April 4, 2007. Accessed August 7, 2007.
^ Whitman Rejects Panel's Suggestions About Needle Exchange
^ Compilation of Exhibits for 110th Congress's examination of political interference with climate science
^ Video: Health Effects of 9/11 Dust
^ EPA Response to September 11, "Whitman Details Ongoing Agency Efforts to Monitor Disaster Sites, Contribute to Cleanup Efforts" (September 18,2001)
^ EPA Report No. 2003-P-00012], page 7. August 21, 2003.
^ EPA’s Response to the World Trade Center Towers Collapse, A Documentary Basis for Litigation
^ Heilprin, John. "White House edited EPA's 9/11 reports", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 23, 2003. Accessed August 7, 2007..
^ Muchraker: In her forthcoming memoir, former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman takes stock of the GOP's "rightward lurch" under Bush
^ Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency: Leaving No Tracks
^ Judge Slams Ex-EPA Chief Over Sept. 11, ABC News, February 2, 2006.
^ Whitman on Hot Seat Over 9/11 Aftermath
^ It's My Party Too, by Christine Todd Whitman, p.73

External links

New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, National Governors Association
biographical information for Christine Todd Whitman from The Political Graveyard
It's My Party Too!
Republican Leadership Council
Christine Todd Whitman at the Notable Names Database
Laura Flanders, Bushwomen (ISBN 1-85984-587-8)

Preceded by James Florio	Governor of New Jersey January 18, 1994–January 31, 2001	Succeeded by Donald DiFrancesco
Preceded by W. Michael McCabe	Administrator of the EPA January 31, 2001–June 27, 2003	Succeeded by Mike Leavitt

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