Sonny Bono (1935-1998)

The national mourning and media euologies for California Rep. Sonny Bone (R-Calif.) last week understandably focused largely on its career as an entertainer who entered politics later in life. But readers of HUMAN EVENTS and our reporters who covered him saw the California Republican in a somewhat different light.

Bono, who died in a tragic skiing accident near Lake Tahoe January 5, burst onto the political stage in April 1988 when he was elected mayor of Palm Springs (on the morning after, interestingly, former wife Cher won her Oscar for Moonstruck). Known as "Sonny Bonaparte" to political enemies, the hard charging mayor erased a $2.5-million deficit in his city and attracted new business and cultural activity to Palm Springs, including the now annual film festival.

Although unsuccessful in his bid for the Republican Senate nomination in 1992, the always cheerful Bono made many friends during the campaign and bounced back, two years later, easily winning the House seat from the Golden State's 44th District. (A faithful HUMAN EVENTS subscriber, at one point during the campaign Bono skipped a meeting in Washington of fellow GOP House hopefuls to attend the HUMAN EVENTS 50th Anniversary Dinner.)

Styling himself "a very conservative Republican with plain thalk and common sense." Bone sought to upend federal regulation that, in his words, "automatically says industry is the bad guy." He also targeted the Endangered Species Act, noting that "something is dead wrong with the system if you lose jobs because the kangaroo rat is on the site of your proposed plant." At the time of his death, House Judiciary Committee member Bono was leading the charge to limit the power of federal judges to upend state-passed referenda.

One of the early backers of the California initiatives to end quotas and to limit state services for illegal immigrants ("if somehting's illegal, why not enforce the law?" was his view of the issue), Bono's wit and straight-shooting style made him a popular fixture at GOP events around the country. Among House members, next to Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) the Californian was the man Republicans most wanted at their fundraising dinners.

The son of Italian immigrants, Sonny Bono was a high school dropout who inspired Americans by excelling in everything he did. As he said in a 1994 interview with HUMAN EVENTS, "I can't read music, but I wrote 10 hit songs. I had no busines experience, but ran several successful businesses. And I had no political experience, but won the mayoralty by the largest margin in our city's history. I guess I've never been qualified for what I'm successful at."

Unlike so many members of Congress, he did not come to Washington for egotistical power reasons but because he wanted to change things. He will be missed.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jan 16, 1998
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