legislature a year later. In 1993, Whitman won a seri-
ously contested primary for governor. In the general
election, Florio led early with a very negative, class-
based campaign, but Whitman regained momen-
tum by emphasizing a 30 percent tax cut and eventu-
ally won narrowly. Her victory was marred by a small
scandal when campaign consultant Ed Rollins
claimed he paid black preachers not to urge their
members to vote. He soon retracted the statement,
and nothing ultimately came of it because of a total
lack of supporting evidence.
In office, Whitman promptly put through her tax
cuts. On crime, she set up boot camps for juvenile of-
fenders, signed the first Megan’s Law requiring that
local officials be informed of released sex criminals
in their cities and counties, and signed a bill mandat-
ing life sentences for violent criminals convicted a
third time, but also acted against racial profiling.
She put through welfare reforms, increased environ-
mental protection, and privatized prison medical
care. She supported charter schools and stricter
school curriculum standards, but also had to deal
with a state court mandate to increase education
spending for poor districts. She vetoed a ban on
partial-birth abortions on the grounds that it al-
lowed no exception for protecting the mother’s life,
but the state legislature overturned it. She delivered
the Republican answer to President Bill Clinton’s
state of the union address in 1995.
In 1997, she faced Jim McGreevey, her eventual
2001 successor, who ran against high auto insurance
bills, high property taxes, and excessive borrowing
(blaming the latter two on the tax cuts). The Liber-
tarian Party ran a pro-life campaign, appealing to
many social conservatives, and ultimately drew 5 per-
cent of the vote as Whitman narrowly defeated
McGreevey. Her support fell in a number of Republi-
can counties that had seen high property tax hikes.
She responded by pushing property-tax rebates and
auto insurance rate cuts, as well as electricity deregu-
lation. Her appointees helped tilt the state Supreme
Court leftward on the issue of homosexuality, where
it ruled in favor of lesbian visitation rights and
against the Boy Scouts regarding the organization’s
ban on gay scoutmasters.
Impact Whitman’s election as the first female gov-
ernor of New Jersey was an early indicator of the Re-
publican victories in 1994. She also was a major fig-
ure in the economically conservative but socially
and environmentally liberal wing of the Republican
Party, which eventually (in 2001) led her to national
office as head of the Environmental Protection
Agency.Further Reading
Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa. “New Jersey.” In
The Almanac of American Politics 1996. Washington,
D.C.: National Journal, 1995.
Whitman, Christine Todd.It’s My Party Too. New
York: Penguin Press, 2005.
Timothy LaneSee also Abortion; Crime; Elections in the United
States, midterm; Homosexuality and gay rights; Race
relations; Republican Revolution; Welfare reform. Wigand, Jeffrey
Identification Tobacco industry whistle-blower
Born December 17, 1942; New York, New YorkWigand, a tobacco industr y executive, exposed wrongdoing
by his employer, tobacco giant Brown and Williamson. His
deposition against major American tobacco companies led
to a massive settlement between the industr y and attorneys
general in the United States.Jeffrey Wigand, a Ph.D biochemist, was at the height
of his career in 1989 as the research chief at Brown
and Williamson, a multibillion-dollar tobacco com-
pany owned by British American Tobacco Industries
(BAT). Wigand’s troubles at Brown and Williamson
began in 1991 after he received his job evaluation,
which stated that he “had difficulty in communicat-
ing.” This so-called communication difficulty was in
reality connected to questions he had raised with
Brown and Williamson’s chief executive officer
about research studies that pointed to the dangers of
smoking.
In late 1992, Wigand learned that there was a
causal relationship between coumarin, a toxic chem-
ical, and cancer in lab animals. He had difficulty ac-
cepting the use of coumarin as an additive in ciga-
rettes. When he registered his complaint, he was told
by management that removing coumarin from ciga-
rettes would result in the loss of revenue for the
company. In March, 1993, Brown and Williamson
terminated Wigand’s employment but provided
medical benefits as part of a severance package. A918 Wigand, Jeffrey The Nineties in America