Ex-wife takes on Texas congressman in race

By Lee Hockstader
The Washington Post

	JOEL RENNICH / AP, 1999 Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, is joined by his then-wife, Becky, and son Benjamin at a swearing-in ceremony for House members on Capitol Hill five years ago.
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"I do everything myself," said Becky Whetstone, who has declared her candidacy as an independent aiming to unseat Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, the Democratic incumbent who happens to be her ex-husband.

No matter that Whetstone, 45, a former advice columnist, does not have a chance of winning the race, according to political analysts. What has ignited the firestorm of interest in her candidacy is a spectacle whose script, for all appearances, seems tailor-made for daytime television: an allegedly wronged woman bent on exposing her powerful husband and bringing him down — or at least humiliating him in public.

In a flurry of interviews and national-television appearances, Whetstone has painted Gonzalez as a control freak who dislikes children and pets, a spendthrift who cannot manage his financial affairs and a bully with an explosive temper.

She says she will divulge more in a forthcoming book, tentatively titled "The Congressman's Wife." But she insists that revenge is the furthest thing from her mind.

Asked about a bumper sticker that urges voters, "Don't Get Mad. Get Becky!" she disavows it as the unsolicited work of a supporter. "I don't deny I'm angry about what happened," said Whetstone, who regales visitors with details of what she calls Gonzalez's abusive behavior during their marriage, and complains of a divorce settlement she considers miserably inadequate. "When something incredibly unfair and one-sided happens, anger is a healthy reaction. I'm taking the energy from the anger and standing up for something I believe is the right thing to do."

Her candidacy has attracted so much ink and airtime that almost no one in San Antonio can name Gonzalez's Republican challenger, Roger Scott. "More people know about her because she's (Gonzalez's) ex-wife, but nobody knows about me as his challenger," acknowledged Scott, 29, himself a political novice who works for an aerospace company.

Gonzalez, a third-term congressman whose late father, Henry, represented the 20th District for 37 years and chaired the powerful House Banking Committee, is not giving interviews on the subject. With a safe seat in a solidly Democratic district, and as the son of a San Antonio political legend, Gonzalez appears to have little reason to fear for his job.

But last month, soon after Whetstone announced she was running, Gonzalez scoffed at Whetstone's candidacy as having no merit beyond "entertainment value."

Whetstone has until May to file a petition of 500 signatures in support of her candidacy, which she said she is having trouble collecting. She figures she needs $500,000 to mount a credible challenge to Gonzalez, and has no fixed idea where to find it.

Local pundits have scoffed. The Express-News, her former employer, urged her to quit the race, calling her bid "an embarrassing flirtation" and concluding it is "nothing more than a futile attempt at revenge after an unhappy divorce."

Whetstone mostly is undeterred, if occasionally cloudy about her real intentions. Sure, she wants to unseat Gonzalez, she said. But a moment later she added: "I wish great things for him. I just hope he becomes a better man."

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