Whitman sad that she's the last Republican to win statewide

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Former Gov. Christie Whitman said that it’s a sad state of affairs that she was the last New Jersey Republican elected statewide.

“This is kind of sad. I’m the last Republican to carry New Jersey. That’s not where we want to be as a state, and we have an opportunity to change that,” she said at the state’s delegation breakfast this morning.

Whitman is far from the most popular Republican in New Jersey, but she received a standing ovation after her remarks, in which she said that she’d never experienced so much enthusiasm at a Republican convention and that John McCain could potentially lead Republicans back to statewide control.

While often blamed by her Democratic predecessors for contributing to the state’s current dire financial straits, Whitman said that her administration ran the state well.

“When the Republicans controlled New Jersey, we had balanced budgets, we didn’t run up these huge deficits, we were able to keep taxes low,” she said.

But in his Congressional campaign, state Sen. Leonard Lance often uses his past opposition to the Whitman Administration’s pension borrowing plan as proof of his ability to take on his own party when need be. Whitman said she understands why Lance does that – but that she was right.

“It’s fair. He challenged us. He lost in court, because we were right. So the ultimate end of the story from my perspective – and Wall Street confirmed it with at least 3 upgradings in rating afterwards. But it shows his independence and his willingness to take on the established administration, and I think that’s a fair thing to do.”

And of Democrats’ criticism that her administration is responsible for many of the state’s fiscal woes?

“First of all, you have Democrats who have been in control of the legislature and of the Statehouse now for eight years, and the record is very clear. I just look at what is happening in our downtowns and people moving out of the state,” she said.