Gary Hart

Gary Hart was a United States Senator from Colorado and was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 presidential election. Soon after he announced his candidacy for President, rumors began to circulate that Hart was having an extramarital affair. Hart responded to the rumors by daring the press and said “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” Previously to that meeting with the press, two reporters from the Miami Herald observed a woman who was identified as Donna Rice coming out of Hart’s Washington D.C. townhouse. The paper was able to publish the story on the same day as Hart’s challenge. Hart claimed that the reporters had no knowledge of exactly when the woman arrived or why she was there. Two days after that story, the Herald obtained a photograph of Rice sitting on Hart’s lap in Bimini aboard a yacht ironically named Monkey Business. The celebrity tabloid National Enquirer immediately published the photograph and within five days, Hart dropped out of the Presidential race.

Interesting Fact: Because of the scandal, Donna Rice lost her job as a marketing representative for a pharmaceutical company in South Florida. She refused many opportunities offered to her after the scandal including an appearance in Playboy magazine.