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When New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman began making public appearances with a new, Janet Reno-esque coif three weeks ago, people started to wonder, "What's wrong with her? Is she ill"?

Nobody in her administration would dare say anything on the record, lest they offend the most powerful woman in the state, but many acknowledged that the cut was a bit severe. "It's functional. Her hair is not a priority," said one campaign advisor, judiciously.

A congressional staffer tried to be more positive: "I like it! It's like George Clooney."

Also Today Back from the dead? Former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio was once the most hated man in the Garden State. Now he's running for the Senate.

Last we checked, however, George Clooney was a man.

No sooner had Whitman unveiled her new look than she dropped her real bombshell: She was pulling out of the Senate race to replace senior Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who is retiring at the end of his current term.

Whitman was widely regarded as the strong favorite to replace Lautenberg, and the Democrats had been scrambling to find a viable candidate to run against her. But all of a sudden, she was quitting.

Robert Arena of Presage Internet Campaigns, a consultant to the Whitman campaign, told Salon News, "She couldn't give 110 percent. She couldn't be the kind of candidate she wanted to be and the kind of governor she wanted to be at the same time. For her, being governor is the best job."

Still, the news came as a shock to most people -- even to some on her staff. When reports of her dropping out began to leak before she made the official announcement, her office was flooded with phone calls from around the state and from Washington. While her campaigners stressed on the phone that "the governor is indeed busy running a campaign," the people on the other end of the line began responding, "Actually, she isn't."

When the press wanted to delve even further, Whitman's staff began elaborating on the problems of campaigning, especially the dreaded "F-word": fund-raising. Even though Whitman had already amassed more than $2 million (which the campaign will most likely return to contributors), her fund-raising schedule had her traveling to dozens of out-of-state events, some as far away as Arizona.

At a time when most people find it difficult to take politicians at their word, speculation about Whitman's true motives was inevitable. According to Sherry Sylvester, the chief political writer for the Trentonian newspaper, the rumors run the gamut: "from illness to political scandals to scandals involving her financier husband, John Whitman, to marital difficulties stemming from an alleged fight in which John allegedly stated that she must run and she responded, 'I don't have to do anything!'"

Next page | A secret rendezvous with George W.?