Elly Peterson: "Mother" of the Moderates

Epilogue

Epilogue A year and a half after Blanchard’s victory, Peterson’s seventieth birthday provided an opportunity for old friends and political adversaries to gather for a“Tribute to Elly Peterson.”The dinner was billed as a bene‹t for the Republican Women’s Task Force; Blanchard’s of‹ce, for one, bought $1,280 worth of tickets. Re›ecting again on the campaign, Hugh McDiarmid wrote, “Arguably , Elly Peterson and a handful of her feminist Republican pals did more to help elect Blanchard—and defeat Dick Headlee—in 1982 than any other small, single-issue group in the election.”1 That same year, 1984, she was installed in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in its second class of inductees. Of the Blanchard campaign,Peterson wrote,“Being unable to get any of the party leaders in Michigan to realize the importance of the women’s vote and to understand that certain issues made a difference with women, drastic steps were taken.” Headlee, she asserted, was “overbearing and boorish, bragging about how much more‘productive’he was”since he had nine children and Blanchard had one.“And so the business of a number of Republican women coming out for Blanchard was not for him per se . . . it was a protest, a statement, a SCREAM to be heard and to be considered.” She contended that the Reagan White House had paid attention, appointing women to more of‹ces, including an RNC job for Reagan’s daughter Maureen.“So maybe,”she concluded,“the effort was for the general good.”2 In 1985,“Mrs. E.C. Peterson”received a direct-mail solicitation for the Fund for America’s Future, directed to “Dear Ellie” over the signature of 260 Vice President Bush. She replied to him tartly, saying, “I cannot join this Fund, because I do not wish to support many of the oncoming [sic] Republican candidates.” She said she had supported “certain Republicans” with three checks that year. “But we will not join PAC’s—because we believe many candidates supported are not the kind of Republicans who should be running, or indeed acting as civil servants.”3 To those who asked, she would say she was an independent. Although she still believed in ‹scal conservatism, she declared in a 1995 interview for the Michigan Political History Society, “I don’t believe that I would work in the Republican Party today.”4 Peterson remained engaged, writing letters to her far-›ung “children” and making an occasional speech. She continued to travel widely and to wait for Pete to come home from his golf games and hunting trips.“I have often said he goes into a duck blind in September and comes out in time for Christmas,” she told one reporter.5 She stayed in touch with the Romneys, and visited them when she returned to Michigan. Lenore was not well, and so George would make lunch. “But it never was quite the same,” she recalled, “because we couldn’t talk about the Equal Rights Amendment or choice.” So they talked about people. “And they were always happy to hear about the people out in the states.”6 As the Petersons grew older, they decided to move closer to their nieces and nephews on the mainland. Mary was reluctant to leave Hawaii, even to be closer to her own son, but Elly and Pete insisted. They sold their farm in Charlotte and the condo in Hawaii and bought adjoining condos in a retirement community on a golf course outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At eighty-one, Elly dusted off a speech one more time, this time for a local men’s group. She and Pete were still the life of the community’s parties, dressing up one year as Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus. Like any mother, she could take pride in her children’s achievements. Christine Todd Whitman was elected governor of New Jersey, then served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Nancy Risque Rohrbach, another aide from her RNC days, went on to serve as cabinet secretary and as an assistant secretary of labor. John McClaughry served in the Vermont legislature. Pat Bailey served nine years on the Federal Trade Commission. Willie Lipscomb, who directed the Detroit Action Center, became chief judge of Michigan’s Thirty-sixth District Court in Detroit. Epilogue 261 John Marttila built a political consulting ‹rm in Boston that advised Democratic campaigns, including...