Janet Rzewnicki
Janet C. Rzewnicki (born May 21, 1953)[1] is an American retired politician and businesswoman who served four consecutive four-year terms as Delaware State Treasurer, serving from 1983 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, she also ran unsuccessfully for Delaware's at-large congressional seat and for the governorship during the 1990s. Life and careerRzewnicki (pronounced Rez-nicky)[2] was born in Akron, Ohio, to Robert E. and Betty Ann Myers.[3] She graduated from the University of Delaware in 1978, receiving the College of Business and Economics' Alumni Award of Excellence in 1992.[4] She worked as a certified public accountant and became politically active, initially as a Democrat who worked on Tom Carper's campaigns. In 1982, she switched parties and narrowly defeated New Castle County councilman Joseph Farley to become Delaware State Treasurer.[2] She went on to serve four consecutive four-year terms as state treasurer, from 1983 to 1999.[5] Rzewnicki unsuccessfully challenged former governor Mike Castle in the Republican primary for Delaware's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1992, losing 54%-43%. She won the Republican nomination for governor in 1996 but lost the general election in a forty-point landslide to popular Democratic incumbent Governor Tom Carper.[5] She was the first woman nominated for governor by a major party in Delaware. She went on to lose her 1998 reelection campaign for state treasurer to Democratic challenger and telecommunications executive Jack Markell.[6] After leaving office in 1999, she joined DuPont Direct Financial Holdings in 2001.[6] She served as president of the National Association of State Treasurers in 1988–89.[7] Personal lifeRzewnicki's husband, Victor, worked as a computer systems analyst for DuPont as of 1982.[8] References
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