CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>'s first woman governor was born in <strong>New</strong> York City in 1946 to Webster and Eleanor Todd, and raised in the Oldwick section of Tewksbury Township on the family farm. She attended Far Hills Country Day School, followed by the Chapin School in <strong>New</strong> York City. In 1968 she received a bachelor's degree in government from Wheaton College in Massachusetts. Interest in government was natural as Christine grew up in the midst of politics. Her father was the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong> state Republican Chairman, while her mother was the vice-chairman of the Republican National Committee. Her first job was with the U. S. Office of Economic Opportunity, followed by work with the Republican National Committee. While with the committee, Christine instituted a program to attract new party members from groups not traditionally aligned with the Republican Party, meeting with minority citizens, seniors, students, and gang members. She married financial consultant John Whitman and they both taught English as a second language while living in <strong>New</strong> York City. They are the parents of a daughter, Kate, born in 1977, and a son, Taylor, born in 1979. In 1982 Mrs. Whitman was elected to the Somerset <strong>County</strong> Board of Chosen Freeholders, and re-elected in 1985, serving as director and deputy director during her terms on the board. She was instrumental in the opening of the county's first homeless shelter and its first transitional housing program for alcoholic male teenagers. In 1988 she was appointed by Gov. Thomas Kean to fill an unexpired term on the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong> Board of Public Utilities and designated to serve as its president. She resigned in 1989 to run for the U. S. Senate seat held by Bill Bradley, garnering 49% of the vote. Among the boards she has served on are the Community Foundation of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the National Council on Corrections, The <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong> Advisory Council on Corrections, The North <strong>Jersey</strong> Transportation Coordinating Council, and in Somerset <strong>County</strong>, the Board of Social Services, College Board of Trustees, Youth Services Coordinating Commission, and Planning Board. The Whitmans moved back to her childhood home in Oldwick after the death of her mother. She then ran in the 1993 Republican primary election for the position of governor, facing incumbent Governor James Florio. On Nov. 2, 1993 she was elected the 50 th governor of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>, becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent governor in a general election and the first woman governor of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>. During the week Governor Whitman and her husband live in the official Governor's residence in Princeton, but spend many weekends on the Oldwick farm. “Being able to get home to the farm is critical to my sense of balance. Taking long walks by the river with the dogs, or going mountain biking gives me a chance to get away from the pressures of governing,” said Whitman. In January 1995 she was spotlighted on the national political scene when she was chosen to give the Republican response to President Clinton's State of the Nation address. 77
Long a civil rights activist, Governor Whitman appointed the first African-American to sit on the state Supreme Court. Her feelings on this issue were summed up in an address before Renaissance <strong>New</strong>ark, Inc. in 1994. "When Racism or Hatred speak, it is incumbent upon the rest of us -- the vast majority of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>ans who believe in tolerance, in diversity, and equality -- to exercise our First Amendment rights to confront this disease head on." 78
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