Profile: Christine Todd Whitman
— -- Any seat held by Christine Todd Whitman in the Bush administration would be a hot seat.
Considered the avatar of the Republican Party’s socially liberal wing, the pro-choice first woman governor of New Jersey has been used as a punching bag by Christian conservatives trying to score points with Southern and Western constituencies. But she’s a tough woman, both personally and politically.
She’ll need every bit of her famous iron will as George W. Bush’s administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Bush’s administration has already come under scrutiny as being full of Texas oilmen with a very laissez-faire attitude towards pollution and sprawl. Whitman will be charged with defending Bush’s policies, and perhaps giving them her own moderate twist.
Republicans’ ambivalence about Whitman is probably best shown by the attitude of fellow New Jerseyan Steve Forbes. He supported the political novice’s 1993 and 1997 gubernatorial campaigns as she slashed state taxes, streamlined government, cut welfare rolls and implemented a three-strikes anti-crime law. But Forbes turned on her for her pro-abortion rights, liberal stand on social issues when he was running for president in the 2000 Republican primaries.
Whitman vetoed a bill outlawing partial-birth abortions, is against school prayer and supports gay rights. Those stances have made her anathema to her own party’s right wing. By giving her the EPA job, Bush puts her somewhere she won’t have any influence over social policy at all — probably one of the few positions where the hard right is willing to see her.
A Diverse State
Whitman’s environmental policy in New Jersey has reflected her typical balance of fiscal conservatism, social moderation and attention to the unusual needs of her state.
New Jersey is the nation’s most densely-populated state. Eight million people live on only 5 million acres, many commuting to jobs in neighboring New York and Philadelphia. The view from the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 95, a major north-south artery that leads into New York City, alternates dense old-line suburbs with industrial plants.
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