Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd " Christie " Whitman ( born September 26, 1946 in New York City ) is an American politician ( Republican) and author, as the 50th Governor of New Jersey and as environment minister in the cabinet of U.S. President George W. Bush served until 2003.
Youth and Family
Whitman comes from two families who were closely associated with the policy of New Jersey - on the one hand and on the other hand Schley Todd. By her marriage she is also related to the politically active Whitman from New York. Your spouse is John R. Whitman, a prominent private equity investor, with whom she has two children together. John Whitman's grandfather was the former governor of New York, Charles S. Whitman. My own maternal grandfather, Reeve Schley, was a member of the "Wolf 's Head " secret society at Yale University. Whitman keeps her birth name, Todd, as part of their name in, even to connect to other Republicans (namely the Bush family ) represent outward. 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 the Chapin School in Manhattan. She studied at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where in 1968 earned a bachelor in political science, and then worked for the presidential campaign of Nelson A. Rockefeller.
Political career
During the Nixon administration Whitman worked in the Office of Economic Opportunity under the leadership of Donald Rumsfeld. She has also coordinated a tour of the Republican National Committee through the country, was deputy director of the Liaison Office of the U.S. State of New York in the federal capital, Washington, and has worked on the subject of aging, both for the Nixon campaign and for the Nixon administration.
In the 1980s, she became active in the politics of Somerset County and became the Board of Directors of Somerset County College (now Raritan Valley Community College) appointed. For two terms as a member of the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, she served as Deputy Chairman and then as Chairman of this committee. In this role, she advocated to complete the new " Courthouse ". 1988 to 1990 she was chairman of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in the government of Governor Thomas Kean.
1990 Whitman ran for the United States Senate against incumbent Bill Bradley and narrowly lost. The defeat was expected, because Bradley has enjoyed great popularity. During her election campaign, Whitman criticized the proposed by former Governor James Florio increase in the income tax; Bradley took on this issue - for which he would not be responsible as the theme of the national policy of the Senate of the Federal - no comment.
Governor of New Jersey
Whitman ran in 1993 against incumbent James Florio for governor and was thereby one percentage point of votes cast more than Florio. Thus she became the first woman in the history of New Jersey, which occupied this office. In 1997, she managed to be re-elected; this time her boss ( Jim McGreevey, Mayor of Woodbridge Township at this time) was compared to its rivals only one percentage point.
As Governor Whitman failed, the state pension system fully funded from the current budget; Instead, she let borrow in order to avoid a tax increase. Although Whitman's predecessor, took a different approach with respect to the pension scheme, but in the last 15 years, governors of both parties have diverted billions of dollars from the pension system for other governmental purposes.
1996 Whitman rejected the recommendation of an advisory board appointed by her as to allow needle exchange programs as a measure against HIV infection. 1997, they reduced the VAT rate in New Jersey by one percentage point, to make an increase by its predecessor, Florio, reversed. In 1999, Whitman vetoed a bill that a rarely used method of abortion (s: Intact dilation and extraction) forbade. The state parliament overruled their veto, but the state law was later found unconstitutional.
In 2000, under the government of Whitman, the number of violations of federal standards for one-hour air quality fell in terms of ozone at ground level to 4 late as 1988 had amounted to this number 45. The number of environmental beach closures fell to a record low, and the state was recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council because of its beach monitoring system, because this was the most comprehensive in the nation.
Federal Environment Minister
Whitman was appointed by the newly elected President George W. Bush as Minister of the Environment 2001. In this role, she challenged the validity of a given by the federal government on behalf of report, which represented a human contribution to global warming.
Twice Whitman came into New York City after the attacks of September 11, to New Yorkers to say that the toxins that have been released by the attacks, not a threat to their health posed.
On 27 June 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 asserted that Vice President Dick Cheney's unyielding stance on easing air pollution controls, not the personal reasons she had then called, were decisive for her resignation.
Political Philosophy
In spring 2005, Whitman published a book with the title: It's My Party, Too: Taking Back the Republican Party ... And Bringing the Country Together Again. In it, she criticized the policy and campaign tactics of the Bush administration, which they saw as detrimental to national cohesion. Whitman has denied that they intend in 2008 to run for the office of U.S. President. She has a " political action committee" formed, which is called " It's My Party Too PAC" (IMP -PAC); that they intend to moderate Republicans at all levels of federalism in their election campaigns to support 2006 and 2008. 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 came (according to their website ) under the control of the Republican Leadership Council.