Politics

Mary Bono bounces back

As Sonny's widow runs for his House seat, she has kind words for Cher, who urged her to take up politics -- and pointed advice for Hillary Clinton.

At home in Palm Springs, Calif.: Mary Bono and her children by the late Sonny Bono, Chesare, 9, and Chianna, 6.

he funny thing, Mary Bono says, is that Sonny didn't particularly enjoy music. She'd turn up the stereo; he'd turn it down. "I like any and all music," she says, cruising down the Palm Springs, Calif., blacktop as Counting Crows plays on the radio. "Sonny didn't really like any music."

It's been just two months since her husband's fatal skiing accident and Bono, 36, is home in California to run for the right to serve out his congressional term (through this year). The campaign is less about preserving Sonny's memory than about "keeping myself alive," she says, her voice a whisper. Friends, including Sonny's second wife, Cher, urged her to run for his seat. "It was the last thing on my mind," she says now. If she wins the special election April 7, she plans to run in the GOP primary in June, then November's regular election.

Her chief Democratic opponent in April's special election is former Waltons actor Ralph Waite, who says: "I think it's amazing that Mary Bono is trying to take this on. But I also think it's a serious mistake for a community to send somebody to Congress based on the sympathy factor."

Mary Bono isn't the public person Sonny was, she says, and doesn't have his sense of humor. She's also less conservative: She is pro-choice (but against federal funding for abortions), more "environmentally conscious" and outspoken on some topics. On the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal: "I'm amazed at Hillary Clinton, standing by him so many times. It's sad to see somebody sell themselves down the river for power. She would do the greatest good if she'd stand up and say, 'This is enough. I'm out of here.' " Bono sighs. "I'm cynical. I've run into a lot of sleaze in politics. But I'm also optimistic I can be different."

She already has set herself apart from staid Washington, favoring jeans by day and sleek Armani suits by night. A surgeon's daughter, Mary Whitaker was a 22-year-old art history graduate of the University of Southern California when she met Bono in his West Hollywood restaurant. He was 49, separated from his third wife and enjoying bachelorhood. Or pretending to. "Deep down inside he wasn't. His thing was being in a committed relationship." They were married two years later, in 1986, and had two kids.

ow Mary Bono is sitting by the pool of her Palm Springs home. There are bikes in the driveway, two dozing dogs, a basketball hoop and a plastic picnic table in the otherwise formal hallway. On a living room table sit framed photos of the Bonos: with Ronald Reagan, George Bush, the Clintons.

The Bonos divided their time between Washington and Palm Springs, where Sonny was a blend of celebrity and folk hero. All that changed Jan. 5. Recounting the tragedy, his widow seems shell-shocked. "I had no premonition of doom, but I was feeling unsettled. Then this was thrown in my lap."

These days, her kids, having visited a grief counselor, sleep with her every night. When the phone rings, she thinks fleetingly it might be Sonny. There are also financial issues, because Sonny died intestate. "We had a will drawn up," she says. But "he couldn't sign it because he couldn't face the idea of dying."

Cher has been a comfort. "She feels like a big sister to me. Right after the accident, we talked a lot about him. We realized we both loved the same man, just at different times in our lives."

Despite her grief, Bono is concentrating on the special election. The odds are in her favor: Among first-time congressional candidates from 1916 to 1993, 84 percent of congressmen's widows were elected, compared with only 14 percent of other female candidates. Bono, a homemaker and licensed personal trainer with no job experience, is philosophical. "It's funny," she says. "My emotions right now have a damper on them. Fear is one. At the same time, I've just been through the most fearful thing ever. What's going to happen? I'm going to lose the election?" She laughs softly. "That's the worst scenario?"

Contributing Editor Stephanie Mansfield last profiled actress Gillian Anderson.

Photo Credits: Brian Davis for USA WEEKEND