Sioux City Journal, IA
04-09-07
Candidate spouses play key role
By Sean J. Miller, Lee Enterprises correspondent
Elizabeth Edwards' recent announcement that her cancer has returned and sometimes will pull her off the campaign trail to seek treatment brought a renewed focus on the role of the political spouse.
"There's a long history of wives campaigning for their husbands," said Dianne
Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and
Politics at Iowa State University.
Political spouses raise money, speak at events in the candidate's absence and in joint appearances, they can personalize their husbands.
"The public expects the candidate's wife to be on the campaign trail," Bystrom said. The expectations for a political spouse are higher during a presidential campaign, she adds, "because (the spouse) really has a role to play in the administration."
Bystrom, who studies women's roles in politics, said voters would forgive a spouse's absence from the campaign trail for illness but "they're less forgiving if the spouse says, 'I have a full-time job and can't be bothered to campaign.'"
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, maintained her medical practice while her husband campaigned for president in 2004. In
January 2004, during one of her few public interviews, she told ABC News' Diane
Sawyer, "I think, if I can help him, I will, and that doesn't mean he's going to disrupt my life, disrupt my patients, my son." Dean eventually lost the Democratic nomination to Sen. John Kerry.
Some of this presidential cycle's political spouses also have expressed reluctance to campaign.
Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, has made several public appearances with her husband since he started campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. But in a February 13 interview with "60 Minutes" she said she was reluctant to let her husband run because political campaigns make her feel like a single mother.
Bystrom said voters notice a wife's absence from the campaign trail, and that's why many political spouses choose to campaign full-time.

Christie Vilsack campaigned full-time for her husband during his two races for governor, and his short-lived presidential campaign. "Our relationship has always been a partnership," she said in a recent interview. "We're in this together, it's a family deal."
Other candidates follow the same model.
Ann Romney, whose husband, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is running for the Republican presidential nomination, also is campaigning full-time.
In a recent phone interview, Ann Romney said that she wants to familiarize voters with her husband's personal side.
"I see myself as talking about the character and quality of my husband," she said.
"People look at his record, but I can be there next to him saying 'yeah, but he has amazing integrity and has family values.'"
Ann Romney was politically active while her husband served four years as governor. She successfully lobbied the Massachusetts State House to provide funding to improve people with disabilities' access to public transit, she said.
During the campaign, however, she leaves policy decisions to her husband, she said. "I could have a window or an ear, but I'm not going to be behind him saying
'do this.' He does what he thinks is right, bottom line."
Bystrom said it is challenging for campaigns to balance the role of the candidate's spouse.
A wife "can't overshadow her husband," Bystrom said. "They can't be seen as replacing the spouse. It makes the candidate look weak.
"You heard that sometimes with Hillary Rodham Clinton while Bill (Clinton) was running," she said. "Research shows voters vote for the candidate, not the spouse. Voters don't like the two-for-one."
Sean Miller can be reached at sjlmiller@gmail.com or (202) 487-8758.