(Radio Iowa) – Ruth Harkin — the wife of former U-S Senator Tom Harkin — has written a book titled “When My Husband Ran for President and Other Short Stories” and proceeds from book sales will go to the Harkin Institute at Drake University. Tom Harkin served for a decade in the U-S House and for 30 years in the U-S Senate, but Ruth Harkin won elected office in Iowa before he did. As Story County Attorney, Ruth Harkin was one of the first women in the country to be elected as a local prosecutor. She also ran a government agency that managed billions in investments in other countries and served on the board of directors for an international corporation.
“Each job that I had, I really found myself just by happenstance, the only female in the room,” Harkin told Radio Iowa. “And my goal, aside from doing my job, was to get more women to join me in the room.” Harkin said the best part of writing the book was laughing at the memories and she hopes that’s conveyed to readers. “Really to understand the fun and adventure I had in trying to get more women into responsible positions within the workforce,” Harkin said. “I just hope that people who read the book have as much fun as reading it as I did writing it.” Harkin, who served as deputy legal counsel for the U-S-D-A during the last two years of the Carter Administration, describes the initial push back she got from the U-S Secretary of Agriculture. 
“Bob Bergland called me over and he said: ‘I don’t want you to work here with me at the Department of Agriculture because when I look at you, I see my wife, and my wife could never do this job,'” Harkin said. “I started work there with a little uneasiness, but I just did my job and finally one day Bob Bergland called me over and he said: ‘I was totally mistaken about you…and I’m really sorry that I misjudged you.” Harkin, who celebrated her 80th birthday last week, has a chapter in the book about the day she and Tom Harkin met. They were both in Tokyo, at a shrine during a once-a-year carnival. She was on R-and-R from her job, working for the Army, running a service club along the D-M-Z in Korea, and Harkin was on R-and-R leave from the Navy.
“As I was walking along I started eating cotton candy and suddenly some guy comes up to me and says: ‘Say, could I have a bite of that cotton candy?’ And I looked at him and I said: ‘Where are you from?’ because of his Midwestern accent,” Harkin said. “We were in the largest city in the world at the time — Toyko — and he was from Cumming, Iowa, a town of 150, and I was from Vesta, Minnesota, a town of 350.” The couple married in 1968. Her book — as noted in its title — provides her perspective to Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign — starting her account with their discussion about whether to run. “I really was not keen on this idea at all, then the highs and lows of doing a presidential campaign — always raising money, getting ready for all of these different venues and juggling home,” Harkin said. “…I was working full time.” She, however, uses the word poignant to describe the decision to end the campaign and Harkin shares those details in her book.
Harkin laughs when asked if her husband has the patience to follow her lead and write his own memoir. “I wish he did,” Harkin said. “I would love to have him write a book about some of the challenges and battles he had working in the House for 10 years and in the Senate for 30. especially working on his trademark legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act,” she said. “He has great stories to tell, but I just don’t think he has the focus and patience to do it.”
A “book launch” event for Ruth Harkin’s collection of short stories will be held this Thursday, September 5th at the Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University.
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