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As Kerry mulls No. 2, Ferraro's '84 run becoming a distant memory
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
March 10, 2004

Geraldine Ferraro, who reflected on the 1984 campaign at a forum with her running mate and former Vice President Walter Mondale, admits to being disappointed that she belongs to "an exclusive membership club of one" as the only woman ever on the White House ticket of a major party. (MPR Photo/Dan Olson)

Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro says women running for office today face many of the same voter doubts directed at her. She says polls then and now show voters doubt women are tough enough for the country's top elective offices. Ferraro joined Walter Mondale, the l984 Democratic party presidential candidate, Wednesday in Minneapolis to talk about changes since their historic campaign.

Minneapolis, Minn. — By her own description, Geraldine Ferraro is, "a goody two shoes." Her resume sparkles with accomplishments as a trial lawyer and a three-term member of Congress. She says the l984 Mondale Ferraro campaign lost momentum when opponents, finding no weaknesses in her qualifications, went after her family. "So the way to get me was to go the people around me, and it became easier because I'm an Italian American," she says.

Rumors circulated that Ferraro's husband, a New York real estate businessman, had links to organized crime. The family's taxes were analyzed at length. No irregularities were found. In fact, Ferraro says, the public vetting revealed the family had overpaid their tax obligation. But the episode consumed three precious weeks of campaigning, and Ferraro says the momentum they had created in their contest with President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush was lost and never regained.

Political scientist and public opinion survey expert Celinda Lake helped the Mondale Ferraro campaign dissect voter opinion 20 years ago. Lake is now a political strategist who says Ferraro's run opened the door for lots of other women candidates. She says Ferraro's opponents went after her honesty because of "the pedestal effect." Then and now, Lake says, voters believe women are more honest than men. But if they are found to be dishonest, she says, voters are quick to knock women off their pedestal.

"They remember a woman's mistakes more than a man's," Lake says. They tend to think that a dishonest woman, or quote unquote a dishonest woman is more disappointing than a dishonest man; they think a dishonest man is kind of run of the mill. But as women we're supposed to be different. And I think going after the honesty dimension was not accidental," she says.

Lake says Ferraro's progress in changing voter attitudes about women candidates in l984 has started to swing back. She says surveys show many voters believe women aren't tough enough to serve in high corporate or elective office. She predicts women candidates in 2004 will have more difficulty winning races because of voter concern they can't cope with dire economic times.

Walter Mondale cited Britian's Margaret Thatcher, Israel's Golda Meir and India's Indira Ghandi as leaders who counter that argument.

"What's remarkable is I don't think there's every been a meaner tougher prime minister than Thatcher," he says. "And Ben Gurion said 'Golda Meir is the only man in my cabinet, and Indira Ghandi had a reputation. People never went to see her, she was so damn mean. This is not, history does not make that argument."

Geraldine Ferraro says the media in l984 treated her differently from men running for office. The mostly male press corp focused on the toughness issue, but also on her wardrobe and if she was keeping track of her children while campaigning.

However she admits the reason she and Mondale lost their White House bid in '84 is because of their opponent, President Ronald Reagan, labeled by pundits, "The Great Communicator," for his ability to win over audiences.

Ferraro remembered a Michigan campaign stop before union members who were telling pollsters they were going to vote for Reagan. At an appearance before 2000 autoworkers at a Chrysler plant, she says, she threw away her prepared remarks, much to the consternation of her staff, and reminded the workers that Mondale and Ferraro supported the government's financial bail-out of their company.

"And I said, 'So what's the matter with you?' And there was dead silence and I'll never forget if I live to be 100, there was a guy in a white jumpsuit. I have no idea why he was wearing a jumpsuit and he raised his hand like this and he said, 'We're voting for Ronald Reagan because we're standing tall.'"

Ferraro says no one from the camp of Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has sought her advice about a running mate.

These days, Ferraro says, she's working with a group that encourages women, Hispanics and other minority group members to register to vote. She vows to continue the work as long as the name Ferraro and the memory of her place in history still works as a way to get a foot inside the door.

It still carries some weight with people in their late 30s and older, she says, when they ask, "the Geraldine Ferraro? "And I say, 'Yes,' and I get zoomed into right into whomever I want to speak to. On the other side, if the voice is kind of early 20s, you know what I hear?" Ferraro says. "'Could you spell that?' So I have very little time to focus on and take advantage of the fact that people are still willing to listen and very little time to push the things I'm concerned about. And I'll continue to do that until every phone call is, 'could you please spell that?'"

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