Geraldine Ferraro: A Break with Tradition

In need of a political lift, Mondale picks a woman running mate

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When the primary season ended on June 5, Mondale was almost certainly assured of a delegate majority, but he suffered a jolting loss in California, and his candidacy looked shaky. Reagan, bolstered by a reviving economy, was growing stronger by the week. To Mondale and his men, the need for a bold stroke became increasingly apparent. Said one aide: "We needed a tremendous lift, no matter the risk."

Thus began the much criticized parade of possible Veep candidates to North Oaks, Minn., for interviews with Mondale. Quite deliberately, a Black mayor, Los Angeles' Tom Bradley, was invited first. A woman, San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, soon followed. She quickly impressed the Mondale aides with her warmth, polish and preparation. "Feinstein had her own specific ideas on what a Vice President could do," a Mondale adviser recalls. When Ferraro arrived to discuss the work of the party platform committee, which she heads, Mondale sized her up as a possibility too. Henry Cisneros, the youthful Hispanic-American Mayor of San Antonio, also was high on the list of visiting prospects.

Mondale and his advisers soon dropped the whole idea of selecting a candidate on the traditional basis of ticket-balancing geography. He needed much more than a Vice President who could deliver the electoral votes of a home state. When a Gallup poll showed Reagan 19 points ahead, the impulse to go for broke was reinforced. Jim Johnson held several senior staff meetings in Washington the weekend of June 27-28. All the participants either were eager to see a woman selected or were open-minded.

Ferraro arrived in St. Paul with her husband John Zaccaro on July 2. Killing time while their spouses talked, Joan Mondale and Zaccaro took a tour of an art gallery. "Now tell me," Zaccaro asked, "which of the men is he going to pick?" Her reply was noncommittal. In private, she had pushed hard for the selection of a woman. "I don't have a chair at the boardroom table," she explained later about her influence on her husband. "I don't need one."

Ferraro, like Feinstein, seemed unafraid of taking on the vice-presidential race, even with the risk that she might be blamed if the ticket failed. Mondale's advisers were impressed by both women and soon became partisans of one or the other.

The Minnesotan was interested enough in Feinstein to dispatch Johnson to San Francisco on July 5. He had a 60-minute talk with Feinstein, probing for anything in her medical history or finances—or those of her husband Richard Blum, a wealthy investor—that might prove troublesome if she were selected. On the following Sunday, the New York Times carried a report, apparently inspired by a Mondale aide who favored Feinstein, that Mondale had been disappointed in Ferraro when the two had talked. Mondale called Ferraro the next day to tell her that the story was untrue. Ferraro did not seem reassured by the call, which had almost come too late. Says her husband John: "Gerri was losing interest real quick." Ferraro had not blamed Mondale for the newspaper story, but noted, "Obviously, somebody does not like me."

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