Shriver made the most out of role as first lady
By Juliet Williams |
May 14, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Maria Shriver was sidelined as a network TV journalist when her movie star husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, suddenly decided to jump into politics - the business of her family.
Being first lady of California, a job that involves more pomp than policy, was not an easy fit for the ambitious feminist who had worked hard to carve out an identity separate from her Democratic family dynasty as a Kennedy and a Shriver.
The new role was not one she necessarily coveted, but she made it her own.
"You've got to be kidding! That's not me! I didn't grow up wanting to be first lady of anything!" she wrote in her 2008 book "Just Who Will You Be?" about her sentiments after her husband was elected in the 2003 recall election that ousted the incumbent Democratic governor. "But there I found myself, and I didn't have a clue what to do."
What she did not do was seek to fit in Sacramento, a company town where politics and state government are the core business. She and the couple's four children, now ages 13, 17, 19 and 21, never made the move to the state capital, instead jetting in for special events while Schwarzenegger flew home most nights on his private plane.
In a joint statement Monday night announcing their separation after 25 years of marriage, Shriver and Schwarzenegger said they will keep raising their four children together, calling them "the light and the center of both of our lives."
Still, she was instrumental in revamping her husband's administration after Schwarzenegger promoted a failed slate of ballot initiatives in a 2005 special election. Shriver helped persuade him to bring on a Democratic chief of staff and restore his image as a centrist Republican.
"It appeared that she was the governor's most important political and policy adviser," said Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and a Republican whom Schwarzenegger temporarily appointed to the Fair Political Practices Commission last year.
"He might not have gotten to be governor without her, and he certainly wouldn't have resurrected his governorship without her," Schnur said.
Frank Mankiewicz, press secretary for Shriver's uncle, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, said in a statement that he met Shriver when she was about six years old and watched her grow into a mature journalist and caring human being.
"I have no doubt she will get through this difficult transition. Her strength and skill and, above all, her good humor, will continue to mark her life," Mankiewicz wrote.
During the seven years Schwarzenegger held office, Shriver took on various official projects as first lady, including revamping the California Museum in downtown Sacramento, which is now called the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
Shriver noticed "the glaring absence of any type of commemoration of California women and the role they have played in the state's history," according to the museum's website.
She and Schwarzenegger also launched the California Hall of Fame, honoring famous Californians from all walks of life during an annual red carpet ceremony at the museum.
She is a child of the Kennedy Democratic dynasty - the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, and of Sargent Shriver, the first head of the Peace Corps and the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1972.
"I'd learned early on that political life was about constant travel and being surrounded by 50 people in the house, and either you lose or you get assassinated," she told Oprah Winfrey.
By the time her husband surprised her with the news that he wanted to run for governor in the state's historic recall of former Governor Gray Davis, Shriver had spent 25 years in the news business and won a Peabody award for her coverage of women in Minnesota's welfare reform program.
Despite her background as a reporter, Shriver's staff always kept her at arms-length from the California political press corps, instead favoring interviews with Winfrey and Entertainment Tonight. Her influence and concern for women's equality left a stamp on Schwarzenegger's administration. By the time he left office in January of this year, it was stacked with women, some of them Democrats, including chief-of-staff Susan Kennedy and finance director Ana Matosantos.
Being first lady of California, a job that involves more pomp than policy, was not an easy fit for the ambitious feminist who had worked hard to carve out an identity separate from her Democratic family dynasty as a Kennedy and a Shriver.
The new role was not one she necessarily coveted, but she made it her own.
"You've got to be kidding! That's not me! I didn't grow up wanting to be first lady of anything!" she wrote in her 2008 book "Just Who Will You Be?" about her sentiments after her husband was elected in the 2003 recall election that ousted the incumbent Democratic governor. "But there I found myself, and I didn't have a clue what to do."
What she did not do was seek to fit in Sacramento, a company town where politics and state government are the core business. She and the couple's four children, now ages 13, 17, 19 and 21, never made the move to the state capital, instead jetting in for special events while Schwarzenegger flew home most nights on his private plane.
In a joint statement Monday night announcing their separation after 25 years of marriage, Shriver and Schwarzenegger said they will keep raising their four children together, calling them "the light and the center of both of our lives."
Still, she was instrumental in revamping her husband's administration after Schwarzenegger promoted a failed slate of ballot initiatives in a 2005 special election. Shriver helped persuade him to bring on a Democratic chief of staff and restore his image as a centrist Republican.
"It appeared that she was the governor's most important political and policy adviser," said Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and a Republican whom Schwarzenegger temporarily appointed to the Fair Political Practices Commission last year.
"He might not have gotten to be governor without her, and he certainly wouldn't have resurrected his governorship without her," Schnur said.
Frank Mankiewicz, press secretary for Shriver's uncle, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, said in a statement that he met Shriver when she was about six years old and watched her grow into a mature journalist and caring human being.
"I have no doubt she will get through this difficult transition. Her strength and skill and, above all, her good humor, will continue to mark her life," Mankiewicz wrote.
During the seven years Schwarzenegger held office, Shriver took on various official projects as first lady, including revamping the California Museum in downtown Sacramento, which is now called the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
Shriver noticed "the glaring absence of any type of commemoration of California women and the role they have played in the state's history," according to the museum's website.
She and Schwarzenegger also launched the California Hall of Fame, honoring famous Californians from all walks of life during an annual red carpet ceremony at the museum.
She is a child of the Kennedy Democratic dynasty - the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, and of Sargent Shriver, the first head of the Peace Corps and the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1972.
"I'd learned early on that political life was about constant travel and being surrounded by 50 people in the house, and either you lose or you get assassinated," she told Oprah Winfrey.
By the time her husband surprised her with the news that he wanted to run for governor in the state's historic recall of former Governor Gray Davis, Shriver had spent 25 years in the news business and won a Peabody award for her coverage of women in Minnesota's welfare reform program.
Despite her background as a reporter, Shriver's staff always kept her at arms-length from the California political press corps, instead favoring interviews with Winfrey and Entertainment Tonight. Her influence and concern for women's equality left a stamp on Schwarzenegger's administration. By the time he left office in January of this year, it was stacked with women, some of them Democrats, including chief-of-staff Susan Kennedy and finance director Ana Matosantos.
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