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| - Victoria Sarah Englehart (b. 1959) is the current state Chief Minister and Treasurer of the Georgeland state of Long Island. She took office on October 4, 2006, succeeding Thomas Nathan, whom she had unsuccessfully stood against in 2003. She is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of the United Islands. Image:Englehart.jpg Born in Dannyburg, Englehart entered politics while still at High School, working for her uncle's Senate campaign in 1973. In 1975 she entered the University of Long Island and graduated in 1978 with a degree in economics. Englehart joined the Labour Party in 1980 and stood unsucessfully for the House of Commons in 1982. Englehart was elected to the Long Island legislature in 1992, and served as a junior minister in the early governments of Bob Patterson. She became Minister for Health in 1998. In 1999, she joined Patterson and most of the government in defecting to the new Liberal Party - this party merged with the Democrats to form the LDP in 2004. Englehart became Treasurer in 2000 and was seen by many as the likely choice to succeed Patterson. In 2003, Patterson was indicted on corruption charges and forced to resign. The resulting scandal damaged Englehart's chances as she was seen as too close to Patterson to be a viable leadership contender. She stood for the leadership against rival Charles Jones; when it became clear that neither one of them had enough support to avoid a second ballot, Jones withdrew in favour of Thomas Nathan, who won the election and became Chief Minister. Englehart remained Treasurer until 2006. Englehart is part of the party's broad left faction, though she was previously part of the Labour right-wing. Englehart supports gay marriage and abortion rights; she is also an opponent of nuclear power.
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