Join Matt for an interesting discussion with Christine Todd Whitman, the American Forward Party politician and author who, while still a Republican, served as the 50th governor of New Jersey, from 1994 to 2001, and as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003.
Christine Todd Whitman, the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, and its first woman governor, was elected on November 3, 1993 by a 1% margin or 26,093 votes, defeating incumbent Governor James J. Florio. Inaugurated on January 18, 1994, she resigned on January 31, 2001 to become Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in President George W. Bush’s administration. She was succeeded by Donald DiFrancesco, who was serving as President of the New Jersey Senate.
Whitman was the first challenger to defeat an incumbent governor of New Jersey since the adoption of the 1947 state constitution. She entered the Statehouse as New Jersey’s first woman governor, the second Republican woman chief executive in any state, and the thirteenth woman governor in American history. Whitman was one of four women among the 50 governors serving in 1994….
“The only way to make change in a democracy is to vote – in every election. For too many years, dismal turnout in primaries has pushed both parties to polarized ends. Those sensible centrists who do not go to rallies but care deeply about our country have effectively silenced their own voices. Now, more than ever, we need an engaged electorate that doesn’t cede control over the political process to the extremes.”
– Christie Whitman
