Gloria Get Your Gun
MARGOLIS, RICHARD J.
States of the Union GLORIA GET YOUR GUN BY RICHARD J.MARGOLIS Delegates get blue badges," explained M W the smiling reception lady as she handed Diane her name-card. "And delegates' spouses," she...
...I pointed to Gloria, who was standing on a speaker's podium across the room...
...His performance featured finger-wagging ("Mark my words . • •"), outstretched arms ("Give me your tired . . ."), and a succession of sour grimaces ("We live in troubled times...
...Our hostess, Gloria Rice Clark, was ready to announce her candidacy for high sheriff of Fairfield County, thereby adding a notch to America's taut feminist bow...
...I liked her instantly...
...he asked...
...Diane had received an invitation because she is one of 255 "sheriff's delegates" who will choose a Democratic candidate at the July convention...
...How'd you know...
...Then this aide said the news should come from me...
...Around a corner of the civic center I could see half a tennis court splendidly occupied by a lithesome brunette in white...
...He had such a fierce reputation, we were a little scared of him, but he was a good man to work for...
...They're supposed to keep order in the courtroom, guard and transport prisoners, serve writs . . . things like that...
...Heavy, moderate, or light...
...How would you rate the boozing here...
...I introduced myself to Gloria and asked if there was any basis to the rumor that she was the fastest gun in the East...
...I was sitting in my office in New York when my secretary said I had a call from the White House...
...Patronage...
...It is true that the present sheriff, one John P. Previdi, a Republican, has spent immoderate sums to get elected...
...But the way it works now they're not trained for their jobs...
...We all need boldness to get by in life...
...I'm Bill Murphy," he told me...
...I'm a delegate from Darien...
...He was bold...
...When he ran in 1970-for a third term-he didn't bother to make a single public appearance outside his hometown...
...She is a 34-year-old lawyer who two years ago became the first woman constable in Greenwich's history...
...After Gloria's speech, as people began edging homeward, a small boy mounted the podium and leaned toward the dead mike...
...I watched as she double-faulted...
...So that night I went over to the man's house, told him about his appointment, and got him to contribute $150 to the party...
...but we knew something about her...
...Bill's a delegate from Darien...
...I'm your friend," he said...
...You're Bill Murphy," I said...
...On the contrary, if the sheriff is handing out jobs I want to be at the front of the line...
...He seemed pleased...
...As Bill Murphy pumped my arm I got a blurry closeup of a pink shirt, steel-rimmed glasses and a gray crew haircut...
...everyone had a drink in his hand...
...I said sure, go ahead and appoint him...
...they're hired because of the money they contribute to the sheriff's campaign every four years...
...I asked Jack if he was enjoying himself...
...I want you to meet Bill Murphy," he said...
...Just the opposite," he said...
...She said she knew how to use a gun but she didn't think that was the main point of her candidacy...
...I told Tom what I had just heard about sheriff's patronage...
...And I ask you to consider not what the office of high sheriff has been in the past but what I hope to make it-the focus of judicial progress in Fairfield County...
...I, noticing that the drinks seemed ungenerous and therefore un-Democratic, lingered to explore the situation...
...At the bar Diane grabbed a ginand-tonic and vanished into a swirl of pants-suits and tattersalls...
...Everyone talks about it, but nobody around here ever sees any of it...
...We pinned on our names and were heading for the big room with the bar when our state Democratic committeeman, a gregarious chap, put a hand on my shoulder...
...I turned to see an elderly man with a tall drink in his hand talking to a stout lady in a blue dress...
...Later we all shipped out to the South Pacific...
...I asked a teenage bartender...
...I couldn't imagine what the White House wanted with me...
...The deputies paid for the billboards, and Previdi won in a breeze...
...She'll be a bold sheriff," I said...
...I'm Bill Murphy," he said...
...Look," she said to the patronage-seeker, "the sheriff can appoint 50 deputies...
...If I'm elected, I'll hire deputies on merit, and I won't accept campaign contributions from them...
...Army and my car insurance broker...
...I ask your support...
...You're a delegate from Darien...
...Gloria made a short, graceful speech, reminding us that she was a loyal Democrat, a worker for Robert Kennedy in 1968 and for Edmund Muskie in 1972...
...The gentleman's face brightened...
...I've heard about you," I assured him...
...And delegates' spouses," she said to me, "get white badges...
...I fought with Patton...
...I asked if he thought Democrats drank more than Republicans...
...There wasn't much applause...
...I watched as he mimed an oration without once uttering a sound...
...It was pleasant to drift toward a large floor-to-ceiling window and look out on sunny Greenwich, where the lilacs and dogwood bloomed and the greensward (zoned for four acres) rolled on forever...
...Only once can I remember being offered patronage, and the offer came from Washington...
...Patronage...
...I shook his hand and wandered off...
...he straightened his cap and fled...
...Residents of the other 22 towns in Fairfield County had to settle for seeing his face on huge billboards set along every main road...
...That goes back a few years, to when LBJ was organizing the Great Society...
...She took the question very decently...
...It was the wrong question...
...At the Civic Center in Greenwich, Connecticut, a Saturday afternoon cocktail party was going from strength to strength...
...None of the above," was his reply...
...That's one thing Pat-ton taught me...
...They're just friends of the sheriff...
...At the door we shook hands with an old friend in a pink shirt...
...She said, '"The taxpayers and voters are fed up with games they always lose and with political pinball machines that promise homeruns but end up 'Tilt.' " And she concluded with a JFK-like peroration: "I ask you to share the seriousness of my effort...
...When he stopped I eased over and asked him what he was running for...
...You probably don't know it," he said, "but it was in this town exactly 33 years ago that I raised a whole battery...
...We were told to go easy on the drinks, but we're getting a lot of complaints...
...Jack is a fire commissioner in Wilton, a lieutenant colonel (retired) in the U.S...
...Greenwich does not seem any the worse for it...
...We had never met Gloria (why are women candidates always called by their first names...
...Jack Cahill joined us...
...It's the Republicans these days who are trying to forget their worries...
...It was a man wearing a pink shirt...
...The Greenwich sun was setting now behind an empty tennis court and Diane was throwing me time-to-go-home glances...
...I was forgetting my own worries one sip at a time...
...The lady, her badge proclaimed, was Gloria Rice Clark...
...I also saw action in Europe," he went on...
...While she was talking I felt a hand on my arm...
...I don't fault patronage," someone at my back was saying...
...the main point was to remove the taint of patronage from the judicial system...
...They were clearing the appointment with me...
...At the bar I ran into Tom Mil-more, lawyer, commuter, and longtime chairman of the Democratic party in Weston, the town next door to mine...
...He didn't answer because someone was at the microphone introducing Gloria as "the next high sheriff of Fairfield County...
...I said I hadn't known that...
...The correct choice is very heavy...
...I had never even met the man, but I knew he was a Democrat...
...He was wearing a New York Yankees cap and a jacket with the names of other baseball teams sewn onto it...
...Well, this Presidential aide was calling to tell me they intended to appoint some guy from Weston-i think his name was Benjamin Harris-to the National Library Commission, whatever that is...
...Tom sneered...
...I'm a delegate from Darien...
...We politicians," I answered, "never forget a face...
Vol. 57 • June 1974 • No. 12
