European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 27, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday october 27, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page-17 entrepreneurs politics their business Tom Baxter Austin Texas America meet the new ceo. Depending on the state his name is Bush or Millner Benson Romney or Huffington. Names and personal biographies differ but wealthy businessmen who have never held office Are in big time races this year All Over the country. Not every one of these business types is going to get elected out Here the memory Oto oilman Clayton Williams spectacular crack up in the closing Days of his 1990 race against Ann Rich Ards is still fresh. This year though there Are too Many of these entrepreneurial class candidates for All of them to fal Ter and As a group they Are on a roil right now. There is Noth ing new about businessmen from John Hancock to Paul Coverdell running for office. In the past however most started by serving on local commissions or state Legislatures. The generation of the 90s prefers to bypass the stepping stones jumping into politics with a shot at a Senate seat or governorship. If Ross Perot can Start at the top they May reason Why not us real estate Jeb Bush in Florida for example and Oil and Gas Bruce Ben son in Colorado and Michael Huffington in California figure heavily in the portfolios of several of these new ceo Candi dates. Some like Guy Millner in Georgia built their fortunes from scratch but most we reborn into wealth and prominence As were the Bisish Brothers Mitt Romney in Massachusetts and Huffington. Where they have gone into their own ventures the new cos have gravitated toward emerging nontraditional oppor Annie Rich warning to american women the moment you say i do the value of your life on the open Judi Cial Market plummets. That s one conclusion you can draw from the sentencing of Kenneth Peacock who killed his wife after he found her in bed with another Rhian. The Maryland truck Driver got a Mere 18 months for shooting the 31-year-old woman with a Hunting Rifle in a classic drove me to it defense. Assessing Sandra Peacock like a flawed commodity which is what both her husband and the judge did she was Worth about two and a half weeks time for each year of her  infidelity counted As contributory negligence. Lest you imagine Peacock entering the marital Home and losing his head bang bang bang at the sight of his wife and another Man in flagrant be advised that his heat of passion survived several hours of argument and a whole lot of hard drinking before he blew Sandra  seriously wonder How Many men married five four years would have the strength to walk away with out inflicting some Corporal punishment the judge Robert Cahill said  appreciate How truly stupid that remark is As a sentencing guideline you need Only reconfigure it thus in the Case say of a Man accused of having stolen Money from a Patron at a Cash machine i seriously wonder How Many men earning the mini mum wage would have the strength to walk away from a handful of Crisp new  Worth of a woman s life is still oddly dependent on the Luster of her sexual reputation. Witness the defense in the Robert Chambers murder trial in which the dating patterns of Jennifer Levin sometimes seemed More Central to the Case than her death. Unities Millner got into the booming temporary worker Field while George w. Bush is a part owner of the Texas rang ers baseball team in these new style ventures image often counts for More than older standards of production and the new eos carry a similar fixation into their campaigns. V a Bush has said he worries that Texas is starting to look like the rest of the coun try while Millner boasts that he will be Georgia s top marketeer. There Are Many reasons Why so Many of these candidates have emerged this year. One which has not been widely noticed is that from a business Point of View the Cost of taking on incumbents has become much More attractive. These candidates Are much More will ing to bankroll campaigns with their own Money. The focus has been on the big spenders like Huffington who has spent$17 million so far in his race against sen. Dianne Feinstein. But even a reasonably successful Busi Nessman willing to spend can find More races in his Range these Days. The Rule of thumb used to be that it took $650,000 to beat an incumbent con Gressman said Republican consultant Jim Lovejoy. Today you see congressmen getting beat with a Hundred  this year every new ceo who comes to mind is Republican and a Ryan. It May not stay that Way. If this crop of cos brings a number of conventional democratic politicians careers to an end they could be creating opportunities for their democratic counterparts. There is even less Chance the ceo candidates who come after this wave will be All male. Most women in the business world Are still too involved in making their fortunes to think of blowing it on a Senate or governor s race but they Are Well rep resented in the sort of new age entrepreneurial Fields where most of the new cos come from. Out there amid the Jenny Craigs arid Oprah Winfrey there is someone lives when a so called Friend of Nicole Simpson s named Faye Resnick published a Memoir of sex and drugs and breast enhancement Robert Shapiro complained that his client could not gotta fair trial. Judge Lance Ito ordered potential jurors not to read the Book or even visit bookstores perhaps believing that Resnick s Contention that . Had threatened to kill his sex wife if he Ever found her with another Man could be prejudicial. But what about the rights of the nearly decapitated Nicole who instead or hot and cold running lawyers like the Well heeled . Sometimes seems to have no one but her family to defend her if Achiu s attitude toward Peacock reflects some wide spread View of the world the jury Pool May already be polluted through publicity by some creeping sense that Nicole had a Little More fun than another of two should that she was too much spa ride and too Little apron. The defense worries that jurors will have a Lin Gering sense that . Was violent and threatened his wife what of the danger that Nicole s life has been de valued by party girl pictures and amorous adventure stories there Are no hard statistics but certain anecdotal evidence and some studies on murder sentences Sug Gest that men accused of killing their wives Don t have to worry about spending As much time in jail As their female counterparts even those who retaliate after years of abuse. Michael do cd director of the Pace University Bat Anna Quindlen who Longs to get elected and her Day can t be too Long in coming. C co knows service ,. In cub tired women s Justice Center says that across the Board women Are sentenced More harshly than men. H v a that Point was made in Maryland Toothe Day after Cahill handed Down a sentence half As Long As prosecutors had requested in the Peacock Case another judge handed Down a sentence three times As Long As prosecutors thought she deserved to a woman who said she killed her husband after More than a dec Adeo abuse. Patricia Hawkins said that at the end of a Day in which her husband beat her yet again and threat ened to kill her arid Hurt her son she doused him with lighter fluid and set him afire. She was Given twice As much jail time As Peacock. All these numbers reinforce a Peculiar kind of old.  -. Jail sentences have Many functions but one is surely to Send a message about what our society abhors and what it values. This month the equation was twofold female in Fidelity twice As bad As male abuse the life of a woman half As valuable As that of a Man. The killing of the woman taken in adultery has a Long history and survives today in Many cultures. One of those cultures is our own. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government