Whitman Sets Sights On Senate

Republican Gov. Christie Whitman launched her bid for the U.S. Senate Thursday, saying she would work for measures "empowering people and getting government out of their lives."

The second-term governor, long seen as a GOP star, ended speculation about her political future. She announced the formation of a fund-raising committee, kicking off an effort to become New Jersey's first elected Republican U.S. senator since the 1970s.

The seat is held by Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who has chosen not to run in the 2000 election.

"A committee has been formed to raise money" for a Senate bid, Whitman said during a Statehouse news conference. She vowed to continue to focus on being governor until next year.

"I believe I can contribute a great deal for the state of New Jersey in the United States Senate," she said. "But I also have the real understanding that this (governor job) is the best job I can have."

Whitman is barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term as governor. Her current term runs through January 2002.

In Washington, she said, she would be "outspoken on issues like taxes, smaller government, like empowering people and getting government out of their lives and understanding that every right answer is not in Washington, that it tends to be closer to the people."

Prominent Republican political strategists Lewis Eisenberg and Candace Straight, two longtime supporters of the governor, said earlier Thursday that they would head the fund-raising effort.

"Christie Whitman has been a great governor and will be an extraordinary U.S. senator," said Straight.

Whitman, 52, is New Jersey's first woman governor. She would be the state's first woman U.S. senator if she won.

Whitman ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990, her first statewide race. She nearly beat heavily financed Democratic incumbent Bill Bradley in a campaign that targeted Democratic Gov. Jim Florio's tax increases. Three years later, Whitman used that argument to defeat Florio.

She gained national prominence for her tax cuts, but then had to survive a surprisingly close race for re-election in 1997, when Democrat Jim McGreevey targeted the state's high auto insurance rates and property taxes.

A Whitman run could set up a rematch with Florio, who has set up an exploratory committee for the Democratic nomination for Senate. A Quinnipiac College poll released last week gave Whitman a comfortable lead in a "what-if" race against Florio.

Lautenberg, 75, a three-term Democrat, announced in February that he would not seek re-election.