The First Wives Club
By Wally EdgeAs Camille Andrews embarks upon a congressional campaign that may or not be a placeholder candidacy, she might consider the recent history of wives running for office while their husbands are also running.
When Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons ran for Governor in 2006, his wife, Dawn Gibbons, ran for his open House seat. She finished third in the GOP primary with 25% of the vote, and Jim Gibbons narrowly won the GOP primary. And in 2002, Arkansas First Lady Janet Huckabee ran for Secretary of State and lost 62%-38% in the same election her husband, Mike Huckabee, was re-elected Governor by a 53%-47% margin.
In New Jersey, Helen Stevenson Meyner, whose husband was the Governor from 1964 to 1962, ran for Congress in 1972 and lost 56%-43%. But two years later, in the Watergate year, Meyner ran again and ousted Republican incumbent Joseph Maraziti by a 57%-43% margin.
The exception to the rule may be Hillary Clinton, who won a New York U.S. Senate seat in 2000, but her husband was from Arkansas.
Contributors
Wally Edge
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Bob Torricelli
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Michael Patrick Carroll
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Jeff Michaels
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Richard LaRossa
With a convincing win in defeating an encumbent Governor, why were there no coattails? >
Alan Steinberg
Within 24 hours after the election of Chris Christie as Governor, the battle was joined between the Governor-elect and the New Jersey Education ... >
Dr. Joseph Marbach
I am often asked by my students, friends and even reporters why campaigns in New Jersey are so nasty and why candidates rely so heavily on negative ... >
Carla Katz
It was a dark and stormy November night. An icy wind whistled through leafless moonlit trees. A loud thud is followed by a piercing scream. A ... >
Joey Novick
OK, aside from the governor’s race, the House Health Care Bill (H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act). was the big news of ... >
Murray Sabrin
According to the latest SurveyUSA and Rutgers Eagleton polls, independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett has the support of 19% and 20% of ... >
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Quote of the Day
"Please. I wouldn't have enough paper. So let’s not even bother writing one. This is now about governing. I won. The one thing I could never understand about people in politics was winners who are sore winners." -- Gov.-elect Christopher Christie, on putting together an enemis list.
“He’s a nice man with good intentions, but in the end he’ll be remembered for timidity. Being a business titan and issuing orders from the corner office is a lot different than having to cajole and persuade people in politics and having the toughness and fortitude to see your vision become reality.”-- Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, on Gov. Jon Corzine.
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