Political advice from Christie to Kate: Just tell them you’re younger and shorter than me.

There are several prominent American political families in the nation. Historically, there is the Adams family [John and John Quincy, not Gomez and Morticia]; there are the distant cousins Roosevelt, Teddy and Franklin. More recently there are the Kennedys, the Rockefellers and, of course, the various members of the Bush clan [Jeb and Chimpy Flightsuit].

New Jersey, too, has our own prominent political families. There are the Frelinghuysens --- since 1793, New Jersey has sent six Frelinghuysens to Congress. The Lances [Wesley and Leonard]. And, of course, there is the Todd-Whitman clan ---with Christie Todd Whitman, her dad Webster Todd. And now, the newest addition to the Todd-Whitman political family legacy is daughter, Kate. Kate Whitman-Annis [she’s married to Craig Annis, but I wonder if she’ll run with her husband’s sir name].

Kate has got lots of Republican family connections on her side: Of course, there is mom and grand dad. Also, Kate is the great granddaughter-in-law of former Governor of New York Charles S. Whitman, who lost a re-election bid to Al Smith. Kate is also related distantly to the Bush family: Her uncle, Webster B. Todd, married Sheila O'Keefe, the stepdaughter of James Wear Walker, whose sister Dorothy Walker Bush was the mother of George H.W. Bush and grandmother of George W. Bush.

Whew. What a rookery of Republicans she comes from. That's a lot of Republican elephants mating.With all that red Republican blue-blood bursting through her veins, she has a lot to live up to.

Mom recently gave daughter some advice for the campaign trail:

“Don’t defend me....I told her, when they ask you the difference between you and your mother, just tell them you're 30 and I'm 61, you're 5-foot-7 and I'm 5-foot-8, and leave it at that,'' Whitman told The Associated Press.

Sounds like sound advice, given the elder Whitman’s recent troubles.