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Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is the governor of the U.S. state of Michigan. She succeeded former governor John Engler of the Republican party. A Democrat, she is the first female governor of the state.
Granholm, a Catholic, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1959, but her family moved to California when she was four. At 21, she decided to give up a Hollywood acting career that never got off the ground, became a U.S. citizen, and got involved in John Anderson's independent run for U.S. President in 1980. That same year, she enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with honors with a degree in political science. Granholm then earned a law degree at Harvard Law School, also 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 the September 11, 2001 attacks, 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 occurred massively across Michigan immediately following the attacks. She defeated Republican Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus in 2002 to become governor.
Granholm was sworn in as the 47th Governor of the state of Michigan on January 1, 2003. The main issue facing the governor has been the massive budget deficit. Granholm has had to eliminate upwards of $200 per person from state budget expenditures. She has emphasized the need for the state to attract young people and businesses to Michigan. In November of 2004, Granholm traveled to Germany in an effort to encourage German companies to consider Michigan as a place to grow their businesses.
In 2003, Granholm ran across the Mackinac Bridge, North America's longest suspension bridge (about 5 miles), in 47 minutes during the Annual Bridge Walk, a non-competitive event in which half of the lanes are closed to allow pedestrians, who are otherwise barred from the bridge, to walk across. Her run began a new tradition, and 2004 saw the first annual Governors Labor Day Bridge Run (http://www.michiganfitness.org/bridgerun.html) held hours before the Annual Bridge Walk. In 2004, she finished the run in under 45 minutes, beating the previous record for a Governor, although the event was not timed nor certified for distance. After joining her husband Daniel Mulhern for the last two miles of his October 24, 2004 Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon run, Granholm remarked "I would love to run a marathon before I'm 50."
At an awards ceremony October 28, 2004, Granholm was inducted into the "Michigan Women's Hall of Fame". She has also been the recipient of the Michigan Jaycees 1999 "Outstanding Young Michiganders" and the YWCA "Woman of the Year" awards.
She is often described as a centrist affiliated with the Democratic Party. Many people have suggested the possibility that she might run for President of the United States, a position which, under the U.S. Constitution, is not open to a naturalized citizen. A campaign exists to amend the constitution so that Granholm or Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of the state of California and also a foreign-born U.S. Citizen, would be qualified to run.
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