Christine Todd Whitman
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Christine Todd "Christie" Whitman (born September 26, 1946) is an American Republican politician, the former Governor of New Jersey, and the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush. She is married to John R. Whitman, a financial consultant, and they have two children. She is the granddaughter-in-law of former New York Gov. Charles S. Whitman. Whitman is the product of two powerful New Jersey political families, the Todds and the Schleys. She retains her maiden name of Todd in part to continue the connection with Republican voters.
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Early life
Ms. Whitman was born Christine Todd, in New York City. She was raised in New Jersey and attended the Chapin School in New York City. She graduated from Wheaton College in 1968. After graduating, she worked on Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign.
During the Nixon administration, she worked in the United States Office of Economic Opportunity under the leadership of Donald Rumsfeld. In addition to ORC, 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 Administration and the Nixon Campaign.
She became involved in Somerset County, New Jersey politics in the 1980s where she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Somerset County College. She was elected to two terms as a member of the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, where 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 during the administration of Gov. Thomas Kean, she served as President of the Board of Public Utilities, which made her a member of Kean's Cabinet.
Career in politics
In 1990, she ran for the U.S. Senate against the incumbent Bill Bradley, and was narrowly defeated. She was considered a longshot candidate against the popular Bradley. Her main campaign platform was the income tax hike proposed by then Gov. James Florio, which Bradley did not take a stance on, citing his role as a federal official. Citizen anger at the tax hike led to her near upset.
She was elected the first female governor of the State of New Jersey and served from 1994 until her resignation in 2001. As Governor she initiated a 30% cut in income taxes, education reforms, and a program to preserve 1 million acres (4,000 km²) of open space, along with farmland preservation.
She was considered as a running mate for then-presidential candidate George W. Bush in July 2000. However her moderate views on many issues made this somewhat unlikely; indeed during her time as governor she was constantly criticized by conservatives such as the virulently racist New York area radio talk show host Bob Grant, though Grant actually endorsed her campaign for governor in 1993. Her prospects were also lowered by the release of a photo of a 1996 racial profiling incident three weeks before the 2000 Republican National Convention. During a public relations event in Camden, New Jersey in which the governor rode along in a police patrol car, 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 state trooper photographed her. This photo drew fire from civil rights leaders who saw this as a violation of Rolax's civil rights and an endorsement of racial profiling by the governor. Whitman told the press that she regretted the incident and pointed to her 1999 efforts against the state police force's racial profiling practices. Rolax would later be imprisoned in 2003 after pleading guilty to drug possession. Previously, Whitman had staunchly denied the existence of racial profiling among New Jersey police even after being presented with evidence to the contrary.
She was the co-chair with George W. Bush of the 1996 Republican National Convention.
Although she did not become Bush's running mate, she was later appointed by the president as the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. As head of the EPA, she made headlines for disavowing (with the President) the validity of a government-commissioned report suggesting a human contribution to global warming. It is later proven that Whitman cooperated with White House efforts to edit and rewrite the report to remove all references to global warming, and to replace an NAS study proving the human component of global warming with results from an American Petroleum Institute study that challenged the very existence of global warming. The media is consistent in its portrayal of Whitman as a moderate, even liberal maverick constantly at odds with the others in the Bush administration. However, many observers see Whitman as being as corporate-friendly and as hostile to the environment as the rest of the administration; as Mike Casey of the Environmental Working Group says, Whitman was "an active part of the Presidential wrecking ball."
On May 20, 2003 she resigned her position, effective June 27 of that year. Some have questioned her role in the alleged coverup of the toxic chemicals in the air around Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City though the reason she gave was to spend time with her family. As for the September 11 environmental crisis, Whitman appeared twice in New York City after the attacks to inform New Yorkers that no threat was posed to their health by toxins released by the attacks, contrary to EPA's own conclusions. It is later shown that the EPA knew that the levels of asbestos, dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals released by the destruction of the World Trade Center were at horrendously high levels, but Whitman refused to release the information at the behest of the White House. Some have wondered if the finances of her and her husband may have influenced her decision to refuse to call an environmental emergency after 9/11. Whitman is a major stockholder in Citigroup, whose insurance subsidiary Travelers faced millions of dollars in medical claims after the attacks; her husband managed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Citigroup assets. Whitman was also heavily invested in the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, which owned the World Trade Center and was the principal liable party for damages and claims. However, no proof that her financial holdings influenced her decisions has surfaced.
When Whitman left the EPA in June 2003, the number of officially designated smoggy days in the US was up by 32% and the completion of cleanup of Superfund toxic sites was down by 50%.
Philosophy and viewpoint
In early 2005, she 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 Bush administration and its electoral strategy, which she views as divisive. It has been suggested that this may be a prelude to a candidacy for president in 2008 as a moderate Republican.
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." From It's My Party Too, p.73
External links
- Christine Todd Whitman at the Notable Names Database
- Campaign contributions made by Whitman.
- It's My Party Too!.
- Laura Flanders, Bushwomen.
| Preceded by: James Florio |
Governors of New Jersey 1994–2001 |
Succeeded by: Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco |
| Preceded by: Carol Browner |
Administrator of the EPA 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by: Michael O. Leavitt |
| Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency |  |
|---|---|
| Ruckelshaus | Train | Costle | Burford | Ruckelshaus | Thomas | Reilly | Browner | Whitman | Leavitt | Johnson |
