Christine Todd Whitman

Christine Todd Whitman (2001)

Christine Todd "Christie" Whitman (* 26. September 1946 in New York City ) is an American politician ( Republican Party ) and author , as the 50th Governor of New Jersey and as environment minister in the cabinet of US President George W. Bush served until 2003.

Youth and family

Whitman comes from two families closely related to New Jersey politics - the Todds on the one hand and the Schleys on the other. Through her marriage, she is also related to the politically active Whitmans from New York. Her husband is John R. Whitman, a prominent private equity investor with whom she has two children. John Whitman's grandfather was former New York Governor Charles S. Whitman . Her own maternal grandfather, Reeve Schley, was a member of the Wolf's Head secret society at Yale University . Whitman keeps her maiden name, Todd, as part of the name, also to represent a connection to other Republicans (namely the Bush family ) to the outside world. 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 Bush .

Whitman grew up in Hunterdon County and attended Chapin School in Manhattan . She studied at Wheaton College , Massachusetts , where she earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1968 , and then worked for Nelson A. Rockefeller's presidential campaign .

Political career

Beginnings

During the Nixon administration , Whitman worked in the Office of Economic Opportunity under the direction of Donald Rumsfeld . She has also coordinated a Republican National Committee tour of the country, was deputy director of the New York State Liaison Office in Washington , DC , and has worked on aging for both the Nixon campaign and the Nixon administration .

In the 1980s she became active in Somerset County politics and was appointed to the board of directors of Somerset County College (now Raritan Valley Community College ). On two terms as a member of the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders , she served as vice chairman and then chairman of that body. In this role, she worked to complete the new "Courthouse". From 1988 to 1990 she was Chair of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in the government of Governor Thomas Kean .

In 1990 Whitman ran for the United States Senate against incumbent Bill Bradley and narrowly lost. The defeat was expected because Bradley was very popular. During her election campaign, Whitman criticized the proposed increase in income tax by then Governor James Florio ; Bradley took no position on this issue - for which he would not have jurisdiction as a federal state Senate policy issue.

Governor of New Jersey

Whitman ran against incumbent James Florio for governor in 1993 and received one percentage point of the votes cast more than Florio. She became the first woman in New Jersey history to hold this post. In 1997 she was able to be re-elected; this time, too, their lead over their rival (this time Jim McGreevey , Mayor of Woodbridge Township ) was only one percentage point.

As governor, Whitman failed to fully fund the state pension system from the current budget; instead, she took out loans to avoid a tax hike. Whitman's predecessors took a different approach to the pension system, but over the past 15 years governors of both parties have diverted billions of dollars from the pension system for other government purposes.

In 1996, Whitman rejected the recommendation of an advisory board that she appointed to allow needle exchange programs as a measure against HIV infection. In 1997, she reduced the sales tax rate in New Jersey by one percentage point to reverse an increase by her predecessor, Florio. In 1999, Whitman vetoed a bill that banned a seldom used method of abortion . The state parliament overruled their veto, but the state law was later found to be unconstitutional.

In 2000, under the Whitman government, the number of violations of the federal one-hour air quality standard for ground-level ozone fell to four. In 1988 that number had been 45. The number of environmental beach closures also fell to a record low, and the state was recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council  for its beach monitoring system as the most comprehensive in the nation.

Federal Environment Minister

Whitman was named Secretary of the Environment in 2001 by the newly elected President George W. Bush . In this role, she challenged the validity of a report commissioned by the federal government that assumed a human contribution to global warming .

Whitman appeared twice in New York City after the 9/11 attacks to tell New Yorkers that the toxins released by the attacks were not a threat to their health.

On June 27, 2003, after several public conflicts with the Bush administration, Whitman resigned from her cabinet position in order to spend more time with her family. In a later interview, Whitman alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney's adamant position regarding the relaxation of air pollution controls, rather than the personal reasons she gave at the time, drove her resignation.

Political philosophy

In the spring of 2005, Whitman published a book called It's My Party, Too: Taking Back the Republican Party ... And Bringing the Country Together Again . In it, she criticized the policies and campaign tactics of the Bush administration , which she viewed as harmful to national cohesion. Whitman has denied that she plans to run for president in 2008. She has formed a “political action committee” called “ It's My Party Too-PAC ” (IMP-PAC); In doing so, she intended to support moderate Republicans at all levels of federalism in their 2006 and 2008 election campaigns. Your PAC works together 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 . Ultimately, the IMP-PAC (according to its own website) came under the control of the Republican Leadership Council .

Footnotes

1. ↑ THE 1990 ELECTIONS: What Went Wrong? New York Times
2. ↑ State Budget Contains First Appropriation for State Pension Funds in Many Years ( Memento of the original dated September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ New Jersey Diverts Billions, Endangering Pension Fund  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Whitman Rejects Panel's Suggestions About Needle Exchange
5. ↑ Compilation of Exhibits for 110th Congress's examination of political interference with climate science ( Memento of the original of March 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Video: Health Effects of 9/11 Dust ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Muchraker: In her forthcoming memoir, former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman takes stock of the GOP's "rightward lurch" under Bush ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency: Leaving No Tracks

literature

• Laura Flanders: Bushwomen , ISBN 1-85984-587-8 .
• Christine T. Whitman , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 43/2003 of October 13, 2003, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available)

Web links

• The Political Graveyard (English)
• Christine Whitman in the National Governors Association (English)