Jennifer Granholm: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is the governor of the State of Michigan in the United States from the Democratic Party. She is the first female governor of the state.

Granholm was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1959, but her family moved to California when she was four. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School, both with honors. She clerked for U.S. Judge Damon Keith on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She married current "first gentleman" Daniel Mulhern, a corporate lawyer from Michigan and became in 1990 a U.S. prosecutor for the Detroit area. In 1994 she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan Attorney General in 1998, serving for two years (1999-2001), focusing on protecting citizens and consumers, and establishing Michigan's first HighTech Crime Unit. After 9/11, Granholm directed state agencies to work with lawmakers in keeping the fight against terrorism within the powers of the state. She also imposed a regulation on gasoline dealers to keep them from raising prices dramatically, something which occured massively across Michigan immediately following 9/11. She defeated Republican Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus in 2002 to become governor.

She also ran across the Mackinac Bridge, North America's longest suspension bridge (about 5 miles,) in 47 minutes. She was just a little slower than the previous record-holding governor, a man who ran across it in 45 minutes. She may have broken 'the rules' (really just long-respected tradition,) by running in an event that usually requires citizens to walk, but the next year the rules of the event were changed to accomodate the Governor who will lead a pack of runners chosen from a fitness lottery (they will be right behind her the entire time.) There are more details about the September, 2004 event at the Michigan Fitness website [1].

She is often described as a centrist however affiliated with the Democratic Party. Many people have raised the question of her pursuing the Presidency, a position which, under the U.S. Constitution, is prohibited to a naturalized citizen. The same question is often raised of Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of the state of California.