Keeping politics in the family
Recent political spouses who won election after the death of an officeholder:
1978: Beverly Byron, a Democrat from Maryland, was elected to the House four weeks after her husband died. She held the seat for 14 years.
1996: Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican from southern Missouri, replaced her husband, Bill, in the House after his death in 1996. She still holds the seat.
1998: Mary Bono, widow of US Representative Sonny Bono, easily won a special election to succeed him in the House. She still holds the seat.
1998: Lois Capps, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, Calif., won a special election to fill a House vacancy after her husband, Walter, died of a heart attack. Capps still holds the seat.
2000: Jean Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri, won a Senate election after her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash three weeks before the election (Her husband's name was on the ballot, but it was announced before the election that she would be appointed to the seat). Jean Carnahan narrowly lost a special election two years later to Republican Jim Talent, a former four-term congressman, who argued that she was inexperienced.
2005: Doris Matsui, a Democrat from Sacramento, won a special election to fill a vacancy in the House caused by the death of her husband, Robert. She had previously worked at a Washington lobbying firm and was an aide in the Clinton administration.
SOURCE: News reports
Globe Staff
