Ready or not, they also run

One sang backup for James Brown, another is a shy doctor who makes house calls. One is a lawyer, another a homemaker. One is a military wife, one a daughter of Holocaust survivors and another an opinionated Mozambiquean multimillionaire heiress.

All are running for the White House. In a manner of speaking.

If you stood all these women - Kathy, Judy, Elizabeth, Jane, Gertrude, Hadassah, and Teresa - up on stage together and asked the average American voter who they were, you would be hard pressed to get a correct answer.

Though their faces are not instantly recognizable, these would-be first ladies are nonetheless key players in the political game of 2004 and, as such, fair game for consultants.

True, such advisers agree, a presidential election was never actually won or lost because of a spouse. But in a world where one popularity point can make or break a candidacy, the "spouse factor" is no minor matter.

So just to play it safe, most consultants dish out a raft of advice that might be summed up as follows: Share warm anecdotes but stay away from sticky policy points. Look pulled together, act loving, and when it comes to speeches, keep it short and sweet.

Such advice, however, tends to lead to a crop of nearly indistinguishable political spouses - except for the occasional maverick who breaks the mold.

Consultants today worry too much about the spouse being controversial, says Melanne Verveer, formerly Hillary Clinton's longtime chief of staff.

"The advisers don't want the spouse to be a burden, so they try to make her play a supportive and helpful and quiet role," she says. "So they all come out sounding the same and melding into the woodwork. It's too calibrated."

Looking at the lineup of seven democratic spouses this election year (two of the nine presidential candidates - former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio - are not married), the field can indeed often seem a bit fuzzy, with faces and messages blending together.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Jane Gephardt, wife of Rep. Richard Gephardt, Hadassah Lieberman, the wife of Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, and Gen. Wesley Clark's wife, "Gerti" Clark, are all equally considered assets to their husbands - trooping along on the campaign trail, raising money, and, whether they truly support the run or not (Mrs. Clark is said to be reluctant), effecting a bright, positive image.

The Rev. Al Sharpton's wife, Kathy Jordan, has had little to do with her husband's campaign, but has not detracted from it.

The two candidates wives that do stick out more are a study in contrasts. Mozambique-born Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, has a long record of advocating for and donating to environmental, human rights, and women's causes.

She is head of the $1.2 billion Heinz Foundation endowment, a job she inherited after the passing of her first husband, Republican Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania (she, too, was a Republican until recently). She is wealthy, headstrong, and by all accounts an ambitious and independent woman.

As such, she is already raising political eyebrows. Ms. Heinz publicly called the nine-way presidential debates "silly" and a waste of time (even as her husband continues to participate).

She has attacked her husband's political rivals (not usually a role of the spouse) and, on one inexplicable occasion, made fun of his Vietnam nightmares in an interview with The Washington Post. Not surprisingly, the Kerry campaign recently brought in a media handler to try to work with her image.

"Obviously it will be tough to mold Kerry's wife," says Sandra Sobieraj, Washington bureau chief of People Magazine. "That campaign manager must be losing a lot of hair every time she opens her mouth. Campaign consultants are freaks for control - and this does not mix well with wives who have a mind of their own."

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