In Texas, a New Twist On Partisan Politics
A tornado of media coverage has descended on the race for Texas’s 20th Congressional District, training its full might and fury on a divorced San Antonio marriage counselor with no staff, no experience in electoral politics and a campaign war chest of $150.
“I do everything myself,” said Becky Whetstone, who has declared her candidacy as an independent aiming to unseat Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, the Democratic incumbent who happens to be her ex-husband.
No matter that Whetstone, 45, a former advice columnist, does not have a chance of winning the race, according to political analysts here. What has ignited the firestorm of interest in her candidacy is a spectacle whose script, for all appearances, seems tailor-made for daytime television: an allegedly wronged woman bent on exposing her powerful husband and bringing him down — or at the very least humiliating him in public.
In a flurry of interviews and national television appearances, Whetstone has painted Gonzalez as a control freak who dislikes children and pets, a spendthrift who cannot manage his own financial affairs and a bully with an explosive temper.
She says she will divulge even more in a forthcoming book, tentatively titled “The Congressman’s Wife.” But she insists that revenge is the furthest thing from her mind.
Asked about a bumper sticker that urges voters, “Don’t Get Mad. Get Becky!” she disavows it as the unsolicited work of a supporter. “I don’t deny I’m angry about what happened,” said Whetstone, who regales visitors with details of what she calls Gonzalez’s abusive behavior during their marriage, and complains of a divorce settlement she considers miserably inadequate. “When something incredibly unfair and one-sided happens, anger is a healthy reaction. I’m taking the energy from the anger and standing up for something I believe is the right thing to do.”
Yep. No bitterness there.
