Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz will try to salvage her personal reputation and save her political career Monday in an hour or so before the bright lights of the local and national media.
While the much-awaited public event will capture constituents' attention - and through live TV coverage give her rare, unfiltered access to voters - only time will tell whether it will be enough.U.S. and Utah history is full of politicians who appeared before the public to confess sins, admit shortcomings or explain away problems.
Nationally, some of the more famous are Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech in the 1950s when he admitted to taking a few gifts from supporters - including a puppy that his daughters named Checkers, and Nixon's first post-Watergate press conference where he toughly defended himself.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., you may recall, appeared with his mother, Rose, in a nationally televised statement following the Chapaquiddick incident where a young woman drowned in his car after he swam away from a crash.
On the local level, Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini has held two famous press conferences over the past two years. In June 1993 the mayor and her confrontational attorney held a heated press conference about Corradini's involvement with the bankrupt Bonneville Pacific Corp. She then refused to answer any more questions about the affair until after she finished second in the 1995 mayoral primary. She then held another press conference, released boxes full of personal financial statements and invited the press and public to pore over them.
While such public blood-letting is usually great drama, it's turned out to be a mixed bag for politicians trying to save themselves.
Political historians say Nixon saved his career with the Checkers speech - when the then-vice president said he wasn't taking away his children's dog and giving it back. But he couldn't save his presidency 15 years later when he tried to explain away Watergate cover-up events.
Kennedy did save his career with his post-Chapaquiddick appearance. He won re-election to his Senate seat. But he failed badly when he tried to win the presidency in 1980.
Corradini's June 1993 press conference was generally seen as a failure, the press dogged her for two years asking Bonneville Pacific-related questions. But her post-primary conference appeared to turn her mayoral campaign from Bonneville-Corradini bashing to a review of her mayoral record. And she won a tight race a month later by about 500 votes.
Other Utah political gut-wrenchers didn't turn out well for the incumbents.
The late Rep. Douglas String-fellow, a Republican, used the relatively new medium of television in October 1954 when he went live on KSL-TV to admit that much of his World War II record used in his election - including being a military spy and parachuting behind German lines to kidnap an important German scientist - were lies. He didn't seek re-election a month later.
And former Rep. Allan Howe, a Democrat, couldn't save himself in 1976 with several press conferences and a critical speech before the state Democratic convention. Howe had been arrested for soliciting sex from a Salt Lake police decoy only two weeks before the state convention. He fought the charges. Being the only Democrat who filed for the office, the convention had no choice but to nominate him. But after Howe refused to get out of the race, the state Democratic Party executive committee voted to support UEA executive Daryl McCarty as an official party write-in candidate, refuting Howe's candidacy. In a three-way final election both the Democrats lost to Republican newcomer Dan Marriott.
Several Republicans contacted by the Deseret News said that on Monday Waldholtz must do several things:
- Be direct and answer difficult questions forthrightly.
- Don't let her attorneys talk for her. Even though her and estranged husband Joe's finances are being investigated by the FBI and could be part of a federal grand jury investigation, she can't hide behind those inquiries.
- If she plans on seeking re-election in 1996, Enid must agree to answer reasonable follow-up questions about her finances down the road. Otherwise, like Corradini found after her June 1993 Bonneville press conference, Enid will just be dogged by reporters for months and look bad saying "no comment" all the time.
Said Brigham Young University political science professor Richard Davis: "No longer can a politician get away with just a speech, like Nixon did (in the Checkers incident). Now the public expects you to face the media in a press conference and answer questions. If not, the press will continue to write that you are hiding from their questions."