Congresswoman Ella Grasso is on Her Way to Becoming “First Lady” Governor of Connecticut.
“What can you say about a woman other than her seams aren’t straight,” said one of her competitors. She left him in the dust.
WASHINGTON: June 7, 1974: “A lot of hard-nosed politicians have become my supporters. Not because they have such a great enthusiasm for me, but because they think I can win,” says Ella Grasso with a Cheshire cat grin.
Her destination is the governor’s mansion in Hartford where she hopes to set up shop as first lady —that is, the first woman governor of Connecticut.
The two-term Democratic congresswoman is an odds-on favorite, a pro who looks on her candidacy as the logical next step in her political career.
Sitting on the leather couch of her office in the Cannon building, she is a study in brown. Kind, dark eyes, short, brown hair she sometimes combs with her fingers, serviceable clothes. She is 55, vital and clearly in her prime.
And while she claims that being a woman is a “non-issue” in her campaign, she knows she is a politician whose time has come. Her nearest opponent for the Democratic nomination, state attorney general Robert K. Killian, was quoted in March in the New York Times as dismissing her aspirations with the comment: “What can you say about a woman, except that her seams aren’t straight.”
Killian has changed his tune since Mrs. Grasso beat him out of Hartford’s 70 convention delegates in May. The final vote will be taken at the party convention at the end of this month and nobody’s taking any bets on Killian. Mrs. Grasso says she has a rough idea of how many of the 1,200 delegates will vote for her. “But,” she says with another feline smile, “I’m not telling how many.”
Republican politicos privately admit she’s almost sure-fire in November. Her opponent probably will be Rep. Robert H. Steele, R-Conn. If she wins, Mrs. Grasso will be the first woman to be a governor without benefit of a political boost from her husband. The only other women governors so far have been Lurleen Wallace, who ran in her husband’s stead when Gov. George Wallace could not succeed himself; and governors’ widows, Miriam Ferguson of Texas and Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming.
Of the 3,000 women running for office this year, Mrs. Grasso is the only one who has a chance of becoming a top government official. The two women who were considered good bets for governorships lost their primaries — Texas’ Sissy Farenthold and Oregon’s Betty Roberts. Louise Gore of Maryland will have a rough road; and the six other women running for governor represent third parties, such as Peace and Freedom, Liberty Union and the American Independence Party. The country is probably less ready for third parties than for women.
Only five women are still in the running for the Senate. Maya Miller of Nevada has an outside chance and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland is too new in the race for anyone to make any predictions. Of the 67 women running for the House, only four are considered likely possibilities.
And so, Ella Grasso, whether she knows it or likes it, is liable to become a symbol of her sex next fall. She has been preparing for the governorship for 20 years. “It’s been an evolutionary process, beginning with the League of Women Voters.” In 1953, she was elected to Connecticut’s general assembly and became floor leader two years later. Then followed 12 years as secretary of state until she entered Congress four years ago. She started in politics when Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, D.Conn. was governor of her state.
“It was a happy, vibrant time to enter politics. It was pretty heady. There I was with the party platform in my hot little hands, going to see the governor. In those days, there wasn’t a lot of protocol. With little red tape, Mrs. Grasso saw her party’s platform translated into legislation — court reform, mental health reform, civil rights, consumer protection, day care and many other liberal programs. As secretary of state, she worked closely with Ribicoff and his successor, Gov. John N. Dempsey. “I used to laugh at how free it all was. I would type my own press releases, run my own errands, things would get done. No one minded if I did it.”
During those years, Mrs. Grasso said she learned three political facts of life. “I worked out that if you keep talking about something long enough it suddenly was an idea whose time had come. I learned the importance of the media; a bill might not be interesting to many legislators, but if it got good publicity, you could get the citizens behind it.”
And finally, Mrs. Grasso learned the importance of enlisting the support and help of constituents. As secretary of state, she formed what she calls “the rudiments of a citizens’ lobby.” She and another colleague would stage what they called “Operation: How a Bill Gets Through Congress.” “We’d invite all kinds of citizens’ groups and show them every point in the process where they could take part and be of influence. We gave the people in our state a different view of citizen participation.”
Four years ago, when the then 6th District congressman, retiring Gov. Thomas Meskill decided to give up his seat and run for governor, Mrs. Grasso “chose to come here to Washington.” Although she hated leaving her husband, retired school principal Thomas Grasso, and her children, Susanne, now 26, and James, 23, she felt she needed the experience of working “as part of a Congressional team.” “Tommy Meskill is a tough act to follow,” she laughs. “Don’t think that wasn’t an uphill battle.”
As Congresswoman her main concern has been the people in her state where the unemployment rate has been excessively high and industry has been losing out to foreign interests. She counts among her achievements in Washington her work on the emergency employment act, the economic development act, the vocational rehabilitation bill and a nutritional program for the elderly.
Running for governor while keeping up with her congressional work has been somewhat of a problem. “Now I have trouble getting my marketing done,” she says. “My son seems to think that the refrigerator has to be carefully stocked and labeled.” After a weekend of campaigning, she usually cooks a roast and prays that it will last a couple of days. “Chicken’s no good at all. Last week I had a turkey and it was a skeleton before the next weekend. But what can you do? The house is always full and the refrigerator is always empty.”
The house is in Windsor, across the street from where she grew up, the only child of Italian-born parents. Since she’s been in Washington, both her parents have died. “It’s hard,” she says sadly. And smiles: “There’s nothing more pathetic than a 50-year-old orphan.”
When she’s campaigning, her husband and children usually make the rounds with her. Last weekend, she attended a delegates’ meeting, a Democratic dinner, met with her staff, held open house in her office, was interviewed by two national media reporters, had a baked bean supper in Pleasant Valley (“They’re delicious! My husband loves them, my kids love them, everybody always fights to come with me.”), visited a group of disabled veterans, reviewed a drum and majorette corps in Manchester, went to a picnic in Somers, had tea in Windsor and staggered back home exhausted Sunday night. “Then I looked around for my neighbors so we could have a bridge game.”
The hardest part of being a Congresswoman has been being away from home. One saving grace has been the steady presence of her roommate at Mount Holyoke College where she received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees. “Her name is Sally Maycock and she comes in from McLean to see me every week. She hasn’t changed from when she was in school. She’s as effervescent as ever, she can talk all night. And I can just relax and listen.”
Ella Grasso expects her transition to the governor’s mansion to be smooth. The one great change will be: “I won’t have to fly Allegheny every weekend! “I’ll be home again with my people. I’m not easily uprooted.”
[This article originally appeared in The Washington Star-News, Sunday, June 7, 1974 as “Ella Grasso:A Politician Whose Time Has Come?”. #33 in a collection of more than 100 newspaper articles by Judy Flander from the second wave of the Women’s Movement reflecting the fervor and ingenuity of the women who rode the wave.]
