USA: MARY BONO WIDOW OF SONNY BONO IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS

Record ID: 500985

  • Title: USA: MARY BONO WIDOW OF SONNY BONO IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS
  • Date: 8th April 1998
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - JANUARY 4, 1995) (RTV) SCU MARY BONO WALKING THROUGH HALLS OF CONGRESS WITH SONNY ON HIS FIRST DAY IN OFFICE
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PALM SPRINGS; CATHEDRAL CITY AND IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA; WASHINGTON, D.C. AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA37X2KG273GBSYS8G7FUG87EWA
  • Story Text: Residents of California's 44th congressional district have voted in a special election to replace the late Sonny Bono, choosing among a six-person field that includes Bono's widow Mary.
    Despite being criticised as a political novice running on the coattails of her famous spouse, Mary has earned praise for her command of local and national political issues.
    Mary Bono went into the voting on Tuesday (April 7)considered the favourite.She would need to get 50 percent of the vote to win the seat outright.Anything less would force a June runoff.
    Her chief rival is actor Ralph Waite, who played the father on "The Waltons" TV series.
    Neither Waite nor Mary Bono, 36, have held elective office before.
    Sonny Bono died in a January skiing accident.
    The 44th district includes the resort of Palm Springs -- where Mary and Sonny ran a restaurant and where the entertainer launched his political career as mayor and then won a House of Representatives seat as a Republican in 1994 -- and stretches to the Arizona border.
    Bono said she felt upbeat about the campaign.
    "I'm very proud of the race I ran.I thought it was a great race.I think we had a very good and effective campaign," Bono told reporters after casting her vote.
    Bono's opponents have criticised her lack of experience, political and otherwise.They say she stands to benefit from the "sympathy vote," they credit with sweeping Democrat Lois Capps into office after her husband, former California congressman Walter Capps died last fall.
    Waite says Bono wouldn't be running if she wasn't related to Sonny.
    Bono calls such charges unfair, citing her record as a businesswoman who owned and managed two restaurants, while married to Sonny.
    Bono met Sonny, who was 62 when he died in January, just after she graduated from college with a degree in art history and was married at the age of 24.She helped run their business and raise their children, Chesare, now 9, and Chianna, 7.
    Even Sonny's mother, Jean, objects to Mary's run for Congress, saying she needs to make the children, not a job, her priority.
    Bono deflects the criticism, saying she can serve the needs of her constituents and children quite well.
    Mary Bono was Sonny's third wife, the woman he married after his marriage to singing partner Cher collapsed and he retired from show business.
    Opponents have levied vague charges that the race is being bought with money from Washington, a swipe at Bono who has won the support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Vice President Dan Quayle and former President Gerald Ford.
    Gingrich, who supported various causes of Sonny's, has praised Bono, predicting she'll be a "very important national figure very rapidly." And if Mary has learned from Sonny's success as a Washington outsider turned star politician, she may yet be the next Bono to represent the state of California in the U.S.Congress.
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