Cantwell's mother a hit on campaign trail

CANDIDATES' families often help in political races. But Rose Cantwell's spotlight role is unusual, leaving the staff of her opponent, Sen. Slade Gorton, wondering how to respond.

The camera zooms in on Rose Cantwell's hands curled around a family picture.

"I remember the time our furnace went out, and for days all we had was a gas stove to keep us warm," the 68-year-old woman says in a TV ad. "We didn't have much, but we got by."

Rose Cantwell goes on to tell television viewers of the hardships that her daughter, Maria Cantwell, a high-tech millionaire and former congresswoman, overcame to land in a high-profile campaign for U.S. Senate.

"I'm so proud of Maria," her mother says, peering into the camera. "She's never forgotten where she came from."

Rose Cantwell has become a regular on the campaign trail for her daughter, popping up in campaign commercials, at parades and coffee talks. And yesterday she was featured at a news conference arranged by the state Democratic Party to urge incumbent Sen. Slade Gorton and other Republicans to pass a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare recipients.

She even has her own campaign schedule, albeit a light one.

Cantwell's campaign manager insists there's no strategy behind her mother's appearances. People simply like her, said Ron Dotzauer, who refers to her as "Mom."

"She is absolutely the neatest lady in the whole world," he said. "It's great to have Rose out there. To meet her is to love her. She's everybody's mom."

Regardless of strategy, Rose Cantwell's appearances on the campaign trail have given her 41-year-old daughter a boost as she tries to stay in touch with senior-citizen issues and at the same time paint herself as a generational alternative to the three-term incumbent. Not only did Gorton enter politics in 1958, the same year his Democratic opponent was born, but he is four years older than her mother.

Rose Cantwell, a retired secretary, was born in Terre Haute, Ind. Her father's job was making stereotypes, printing plates for newspapers that were cast from molds. She spent most of her childhood in Indianapolis and later married Paul Cantwell, a county commissioner and two-term city councilman.

After he died three years ago, she packed up her belongings and her diabetic Yorkshire terrier named Chuck and moved in with Maria in Mountlake Terrace.

At home, she tends to Chuck, who is blind and in need of daily insulin shots. She spends time getting to know other seniors at the South Snohomish County Senior Center, a waterfront hangout for graying locals.

She insists she's shy and uncomfortable with public speaking. But yesterday in South Seattle, she seemed poised behind the podium as she spoke at a news conference - without notes - about prescription drugs.

"Slade Gorton and the Republicans have been in control for six years and they have avoided this issue at every turn of the road," said Rose Cantwell, standing behind a lectern at a Georgetown union hall. ". . . We can have more of a voice for prescription-drug coverage if we elect Maria Cantwell to the U.S. Senate."

Cynthia Bergman, spokeswoman for Gorton, said she thinks the campaign appearances are "quite unusual."

"We're running against her mom," she said. "We expected Maria to attack us but not for her own mother to have press conferences attacking Slade Gorton . . . I just really don't know how to respond to Maria's mom attacking us."

Bergman said Gorton supports adding a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare, but that he wants to try to lower the cost of prescription drugs first.

When Cantwell jumped into the Senate race earlier this year, Rose Cantwell said she sat her daughter down and told her to work to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Social Security and health care also are hot topics in this year's race, and they're weighing heavily on the minds of senior citizens.

Christine DiStefano, University of Washington associate professor of political science, said family members often play a role in campaigns - but usually in the background, photographed in brochures. Cantwell is not married and has no children, a fact a former opponent made into a campaign issue in 1994.

But DiStefano has never heard of candidates showcasing their mothers in campaigns.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carlson also has used footage of his mother in TV ads.

A mother in tow shows off a candidate's softer side and, in Cantwell's case, a "good daughter image," DiStefano said. That could be particularly useful for Cantwell, who even her supporters acknowledge sometimes comes off as aloof.

"There's an attitude that politics is dirty and corrupting, and if you bring women, specifically in their capacity as moms into the campaign scene, you're sort of bringing something good, clean and pure," DiStefano said. "Everybody loves moms."

Rose Cantwell seems well-received on the campaign trail. On the night of the primary election, the crowd at Cantwell's victory party went wild when she came on stage with her daughter. The candidate didn't mention a peep about Gorton, but she gushed about her mom for several minutes.

Steelworkers clamored for Rose Cantwell in Spokane. And when a campaign worker was injured during a game of basketball, she nursed the young man back to health at her home.

"He hasn't eaten so good - three meals a day in a big bed with a TV and newspaper, and Rose making sure he takes his medicine," said campaign manager Dotzauer.