Augusta Free Press, VA
08-14-06
Spouses play key role in election campaigns
Chris Graham
chris@augustafreepress.com
She works the room like a seasoned pro.
Susan Allen has the art of the campaign speech down so well by now - she has
been through a congressional election, a gubernatorial election, is in her second
Senate race - that she has long since not needed a microphone.
Without amplification, and without notes in front of her, she talks for 20 minutes
on a wide variety of topics - ranging from the war on terror to health care to illegal
immigration.
By the time she has things wrapped up, you expect the 60 or so people in
attendance to race to the ballot box to cast their lots in her favor.
It's all in a day's work for Allen, who was in Waynesboro earlier this month to
stump for her husband, George, who is running for re-election to the United
States Senate.
"It's really fun to be able to connect with people again. Sometimes you only see
people when they're out on political activities," Allen said after the Aug. 4 event in
the River City.
"I love the excuse of having to be out on the trail - and sharing words about what
my husband is doing. Obviously, I'm very passionate about what he does - and
he can't be everywhere. So I enjoy being able to be out on his behalf," Allen told
The Augusta Free Press.
Wives have played important roles in their husbands' political careers dating back
to the early days of the Republic. But their importance in a campaign-related
context has ratcheted up significantly as attention on politics across the board
has increased itself in the 24/7 cable and Internet news era.
"Things have changed, definitely - and a big part of it is media scrutiny," said
Myra Gutin, a communications professor at Rider University and the author of
The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century.
The first presidential race in which spouses really became a factor, Gutin told the
AFP, was the 1992 race featuring George Bush and Bill Clinton. A magazine
famously arranged a cookie-baking competition between Barbara Bush and
Hillary Clinton early in the campaign that stoked the competition between the two
on the campaign trail later on.
Robert Watson, a political-science professor at Florida Atlantic University and the
author of The Presidents' Wives: Reassessing the Office of First Lady, dates the
trend back to the 1976 presidential race pitting Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter
that some scholars believe turned due to a highly publicized "60 Minutes"
interview with First Lady Betty Ford.
"A lot of people have said that it's not a significant piece of the puzzle when
people walk into the voting booth and pull the curtain behind their back. They
don't necessarily vote for the spouse. But it is one piece of a complex puzzle that
has many pieces," Watson told the AFP.
"Ford and a lot of Ford's aides and a lot of scholars said that Betty Ford probably
cost him somewhere upwards of a half-million votes, if not much more, because
of her candor and frankness in that '60 Minutes' interview. It's believed by many
that Hillary Clinton might have cost Bill Clinton votes in 1992 and 1996 - but she
also at the same time probably brought in a lot of votes. And a lot of political
scientists believe that Teresa Heinz Kerry probably cost John Kerry a few votes
in the 2004 presidential with some of her remarks and her seeming aloofness
and disinterest in her husband's speeches," Watson said.
"The quandary here is that First Ladies and candidates' spouses are damned if
they and damned if they don't. They may cost them votes, or they may bring in
votes. If they're too active and assertive, they're in trouble. If they're not active or
not assertive enough, like a Bess Truman, they're damned," Watson said.
"They're expected to stand there in high heels looking adoringly at their
husbands, and they're expected to talk and discuss politics - but not too much,"
Watson said.
Susan Allen doesn't seem to fit into that mold well at all. Outside of the campaign
structure, she said her role "has always been to be a second set of eyes and
ears" for her husband.
"He can't be everywhere - and so for me to be able to tell him what people are
talking about and what they're concerned about is important. If I'm giving a talk
on women's health issues, I might hear discussions in that group that he might
not otherwise hear or see in a briefing from somebody who's come on the Hill to
lobby for something. I certainly share with him any information that I gather along
the trail," Allen said.
Allen's contribution has her more in the role of what Dianne Bystrom, the
director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa
State University, defines as a "political surrogate."
"Basically, what campaigns are trying to do is utilize their resources the best way
that they can - their resources being time and money and members of their
family, primarily the spouse," Bystrom said.
"What it comes down to is time and money. Using the candidate's spouse means
you can be in two places at one time. So certainly it's a way to increase the
resources of time for your campaign. And it can help in terms of money - the
candidate's spouse is often used to hit certain demographics, for example, in
terms of fund raising," Bystrom told the AFP.
Susan Allen's high public visibility helps her husband in another key way.
"George Allen is an example of the candidate whose spouse is the partner," said
Quentin Kidd, a political-science professor at Christopher Newport University.
"I think of him that way - and I think of (former U.S. senator) Paul Trible that way.
Their spouses didn't enable their careers - they essentially built their careers at
the same time that they were building marriages and families. George Allen's
wife and Paul Trible's wife were active parts of their campaigns - but they were
active parts of their campaigns as partners more than anything else," Kidd told
the AFP.
George Allen's Democratic Party opponent, Jim Webb, in contrast, exemplifies
what Kidd terms "a lone wolf"-type candidate - Webb's wife, Hong Le, a
Washington, D.C.,-based attorney, has kept a noticeably low profile on the
campaign trail to date.
Hong Le Webb was out of town on business last week and was not available for
comment for this story by the AFP's interview deadline.
"Part of what he's doing is saying, I was the Reagan military man, I was the Navy
secretary, and I've got credibility on the most important issue going on right now,
and that is the war. So he's clearly trying to build a reputation that is independent
of an enabling wife or independent of a partnership," Kidd said.
In a political climate such as in Virginia, which has a large social-conservative
voting base, this probably works out to Allen's advantage, in Kidd's mind.
"But it's a funny dynamic - because it doesn't hurt John Warner for that not to be
the case for him," said Kidd, who views the senior senator from Virginia as
another "lone wolf."
"I think the quote-unquote 'problem' is if Allen's wife wasn't out doing all the
things that she is doing in support of her husband, that would raise questions because he built his entire political image on the partnership-slash-family man.
So in a way, he has to do that at this point - and Susan Allen has to do that at
this point," Kidd said.
For Susan Allen, it's not about what she has to do.
"We have very strong discussions about all types of issues - world issues and
domestic issues. And that's one reason I've loved being married to somebody for
20 years who's been involved in public service," Allen said.
"Our life is never dull - and we have a lot of things to talk about and be involved
in. And he's certainly been more than willing for me to be a partner with him and
to share in that with him," Allen said.