Democrat Governor Napolitano is the only sitting governor who’s never been married, and three candidates for her job have directly and indirectly referred to her marital status in recent campaign statements.
“This is something new?” she said at her weekly news briefing July 19 when asked about assertions made by Republicans Gary Tupper and Mike Harris that she lacks the perspective on certain issues of a married person and parent.
“My martial status has been the same,” Ms. Napolitano said. “It was the same when I was a U.S. attorney, when I ran and was elected attorney general, when I ran and was elected last time. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”
The 48-year-old governor added, however, “It’s also hot out today — that’s news. Jeez, Louise.”
Does the governor’s marital status make any difference to voters? No, says pollster Earl de Berge of Behavior Research Center.
“We’ve not seen anything that tells us that,” he said. “It just doesn’t sort out to anything significant at all.”
Polling has recently reported that a majority of Arizona Republican voters are undecided for whom to vote in the Sept. 12 primary for governor. Don Goldwater, who has led the other GOP candidates in pre-primary polls, said he has not brought up the governor’s martial status on the campaign trail.
Candidate: ‘Out of bounds’
“I’ve never talked about that at all,” he said. That to me is out of bounds.”
Although he indirectly addressed the subject of Ms. Napolitano’s martial status at a spring news conference, Len Munsil called on Mr. Goldwater to denounce Mr. Tupper’s and Mr. Harris’ assertions, which were made at a July 15 forum in Chandler.
Mr. Munsil has said that being a father [of eight children] and husband gives him experiences and insight helpful for his public life, but that marital status by itself was not a reason to base a vote for a candidate.
Mr. Tupper, who is divorced with children and a sharp critic of Child Protective Services, says his remarks referred to what he sees as the governor’s lack of perspective on issues at CPS.
“She’s never been married, never had kids, never been divorced, never had to go through custody battles…” he told Arizona Capitol Times. “She’s never had any of those experiences that she can draw into that [CPS].”
In a letter criticizing news accounts of his remarks, Mike Harris said his statements were confined to Ms. Napolitano’s perspective on single parenthood.
“I have never criticized the current governor for being single,” he said. “That would be hypocritical as I am single myself — divorced in fact —but single none the less.”
Mr. Munsil again called attention to the issue in a press release this week.
“…[T]wo of my primary opponents chose to mock Janet Napolitano for being unmarried and childless,” the release stated. “I strongly repudiate these inappropriate comments by my primary opponents and ask them to refrain from bringing further embarrassment to their campaigns and to the Republican Party. They should apologize.”
In an article published by The White House Project, a nonprofit organization promoting women’s leadership, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Amy Rosenberg says, “America is uncomfortable with an aging single woman, especially a never-married one. Just ask Harriet Miers (President Bush’s attorney whom he nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court).”
Pollster Kellyanne Conway, coauthor of What Women Really Want, has a different take.
“ …You have a whole group of women who are on the career track, or just don’t want to find Mr. Right…”
The associated Press contributed to this article.