Christine Todd Whitman

Christine Todd Whitman was born Christine Temple Todd in New York City on September 26, 1946. Her mother was Eleanor Prentice Todd (née Schley) and her father businessman Webster B. Todd. Both the Todds and the Schleys were wealthy and prominent New Jersey political families. The Schleys were among the first New Yorkers to move to the area that later became Far Hills, New Jersey, which became a popular suburb for wealthy, moderate Republicans. Eleanor Prentice Todd served as a Republican national committeewoman, led the New Jersey Federation of Republican Women, and served as vice chair of the Republican National Committee. As a child, Todd attended Far Hills Country Day School before being sent to boarding school at Foxcroft in Virginia. Todd disliked being so far away from home and after a year, she transferred to the Chapin School in Manhattan, allowing her to return home on the weekends. After graduating from Wheaton College in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government, Todd worked for Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign. == Early career ==

Christine Todd married John Whitman in 1974. Whitman served on the board of trustees of Somerset County College (later renamed Raritan Valley Community College). She was considered an underdog against the popular Bradley, but performed better than expected despite being outspent 12-to-one. Whitman continued to build her profile by founding a political action committee, the Committee for an Affordable New Jersey, through which she campaigned for Republican candidates in the 1991 midterm elections. Whitman took on a full campaign speaking schedule through October 1992. In 1993, Whitman helped to found the Committee for Responsible Government, an advocacy group espousing moderate positions in the Republican Party. In 1997, the group renamed itself the Republican Leadership Council. == Governor of New Jersey ==

in October 1994 , September 21, 1999. Elections 1993 After winning a Republican primary, Until 2026, when Mikie Sherrill was sworn in, Whitman remained the only woman to have served as governor of New Jersey. Charges of suppression of minority votes were raised during Whitman's 1993 campaign. Two days after the election, Ed Rollins, Whitman's campaign manager, bragged about having spent $500,000 to suppress the black vote. An investigation into Rollins's claim found no wrongdoing. as a liberal Republican, and as a moderate Republican. In 1995, the Washington Post called Whitman "an East Coast blue blood, a woman who grew up in the horse country of New Jersey and attended some of the nation's most exclusive private schools". The Post added, "At a time when the party's base has moved to the South, the West, the working class and the religious right, Whitman is a throwback with roots in the patrician Republican politics of three and four decades ago". Whitman "freely calls herself a pro-choice, Rockefeller Republican". The decline in the tax burden made it likely that the issue of tax revenue shortfall would be addressed later. Jim Saxton, in a report to the federal congress, argued that New Jersey's income tax cuts improved "the well-being of the New Jersey family", and would not lead to an increase in property taxes. In 1995, Whitman was criticized for saying that young African-American males sometimes played a game known as jewels in the crown, which she claimed had as its intent having as many children as possible out of wedlock. Whitman subsequently apologized and voiced her opposition to attempts by Congressional Republicans to bar unwed teenage mothers from receiving welfare payments. Also in 1995, the Republican Party selected Whitman to deliver the party's State of the Union response. In 1996, Whitman rejected a recommendation from the Governor's Council on AIDS to spend tax money on a needle exchange to reduce incidence of HIV infections. In 1997, Whitman repealed the one percentage-point increase to the state sales tax that her predecessor Governor Florio had imposed, reducing the rate from 7% to 6%, instituted education reforms, and removed excise taxes on professional wrestling, which led the World Wrestling Federation to resume events in New Jersey. As a result, she was made honorary WWF Champion and awarded a replica belt by Gorilla Monsoon at that year's SummerSlam pay-per-view. In 1999, Whitman vetoed a ban on partial birth abortion. Her veto was overridden, but the statute was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the judiciary. In 1999, Whitman fired Colonel Carl A. Williams, head of the New Jersey State Police, after he was quoted as saying that cocaine and marijuana traffickers were often members of minority groups, while the methamphetamine trade was controlled primarily by white biker gangs. When Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg announced that he would not seek re-election in 2000, Whitman considered running for U.S. Senate, but ultimately decided against it. Whitman resigned from office on January 31, 2001, to become administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Cabinet and administration == Vice presidential speculation ==

Whitman was mentioned as a potential Republican vice presidential candidate in 1996. In 1996, Whitman had joined a New Jersey State Police patrol in Camden, New Jersey. During the patrol, the officers stopped a 16-year-old African American male named Sherron Rolax and frisked him. The police did not find any contraband on Rolax's person, but Whitman frisked the youth as well. A state trooper photographed the act. In 2000, the image of the smiling governor frisking Rolax was published in newspapers statewide, drawing criticism from civil rights leaders who saw the incident as a violation of Rolax's civil rights and an endorsement of racial profiling by Whitman (especially since Rolax was not arrested or charged). Whitman later told the press that she regretted the incident, and pointed to her efforts in 1999 to oppose the New Jersey State Police force's racial profiling practices. Ultimately, then-Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush selected Dick Cheney as his running mate in the 2000 presidential election. == EPA Administrator ==

, and Spencer Abraham in February 2003 Whitman was appointed by President George W. Bush as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, taking office on January 31, 2001. Post 9/11 air quality claims controversy After the September 11 attacks in New York City, she appeared there twice to inform New Yorkers that the toxins released by the attacks posed no threat to their health. 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." She also said, "The concentrations are such that they don't pose a health hazard...We're going to make sure everybody is safe." However, a 2003 report by the EPA's Inspector General determined that the assurance was misleading, because the EPA "did not have sufficient data and analyses" to justify it. A July 2003 report from the EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response provided extensive documentation supporting many of the inspector general's conclusions. The report further 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. On April 20, 2007, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Whitman and other EPA officials could not be held liable for saying that the air was safe to breathe. The panel "reasoned that the government's interest in returning New York to normalcy following the attacks should protect it from lawsuits alleging that the government made false statements about air quality." In an interview in 2007, Whitman stated 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. At the time, Cheney pushed the EPA to institute a new rule allowing power plants to make major alterations without installing costly new pollution controls. == Post-government career ==

in May 2008 in May 2025 Political activism 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 criticized the policies of the George W. Bush administration and its electoral strategy: The last chapter of that book, entitled "A Time for Radical Moderates", speaks to radical centrists across the political spectrum. The same year as her book was released, Whitman formed a political action committee called It's My Party Too (IMP-PAC), to assist electoral campaigns of moderate Republicans at all levels of government. After the 2006 midterm elections, IMP-PAC was merged into RLC-PAC, the Republican Leadership Council's PAC. Whitman "is co-founder and president of The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm specializing in government relations, and environmental and energy issues". In February 2013, Whitman supported legal recognition of same-sex marriage in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. As of 2015, Whitman is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One. The group, which included 100 other former elected officials advocated for campaign finance reform. In 2016, Whitman was named the co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. On February 26, 2016, she endorsed John Kasich in his bid seeking the GOP nomination for presidential candidate. She said that Donald Trump was using "fascist" tactics in his campaign and after Chris Christie's endorsement of Trump said that, in the case of a Trump nomination by the GOP, she would vote for Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Whitman wrote an op-ed calling Trump unfit for office and urging other Republicans to pressure him to step down. In February 2020, Whitman endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld for president in the Republican primaries, in which he was challenging incumbent president Donald Trump. Whitman spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, endorsing Democratic nominee Joe Biden over Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election. Whitman co-founded the States United Democracy Center in 2021. and, as of 2022, serves as its co-chair. In her States United capacity, she was among the former state officials who submitted testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, arguing that the attack was part of "a sustained and coordinated effort by the former president and his anti-democracy allies to suppress voting rights, delegitimize free and fair elections, and subvert the will of the voters by overturning election results deemed undesirable to their movement." In July 2022, Whitman was among three former Republican governors who submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the court to uphold provisions of the federal Voting Rights Acts of 1965 that protect minority voters from having their voting power diluted. In 2022, Whitman joined former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang to create the Forward Party, a centrist third party. Whitman was a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation, an American non-partisan research foundation from 2024-2025. Whitman endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024. In the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election, she endorsed Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill over Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli. Corporate activity As of 2008, Whitman served on the board of directors of Texas Instruments and United Technologies. Whitman is also co-chair of the CASEnergy Coalition, and in 2007, voiced support for a stronger future role of nuclear power in the United States. Whitman joined the board of the American Security Project in April 2010; by 2015, she served as chairperson of its board of directors. == Personal life ==

At a 1973 inaugural ball for Richard Nixon, Christine had her first date with John R. Whitman (1944–2015), an old friend she had met while a student at Chapin. The pair married the next year. While governor, Whitman used Pontefract, the family farm on which she was raised, as her primary residence. With her late husband, Whitman has two children: daughter Kate and son Taylor. In 2007, Kate Whitman was named executive director of the Republican Leadership Council, her mother's organization which promotes moderate Republicanism. Whitman has seven grandchildren. ==Electoral history==