Caffeinated Politics

Upon hearing the news that Janice Swoboda, 82, of Luxemburg, had died, one of the first thoughts that came to mind was that a very unique couple was together again. She was married to former State Representative Lary Swoboda. who served for 24 years in Madison. He died at the age of 73 in 2012.

The couple was wed in 1968, and as the obituary for her read, everyone who knew them well understood that they were each other’s best friend and inseparable. Beginning in 1970, Lary and Janice began their career in state service, with Lary a member of the state assembly and Janice serving as his political ears and eyes. She worked for a few years in the Speaker’s office but proved most valuable when providing guidance on the tone and style when smoothing out troubling spots in the First Assembly District.

She would laugh while telling the story of a major glitch when creating a cookbook handout for one election season, which included Oleo as an ingredient for baked goods. In a very agriculturally driven area. Lary would add to the telling by sharing that farm wives asked him point-blank if the cookies he had enjoyed on a previous visit to the farm tasted like she used a butter substitute! The next election cycle after that fiasco was my first in the office, and somehow, I was put in charge of creating a new cookbook in time for the county fair season.

The true mission Jan provided for Lary and the office was to keep him focused and on time. When I called her a navigator at the time and now in this column about her death, I mean the word to apply to both driving him constantly to places he needed to be and directing him with advice and methods of attaining what he wanted to achieve politically. While he was very bright and cared about a few issues with passion, she was the one who saw bigger themes that needed to be addressed for his next elections. She steered him where he needed to go, sometimes when he never totally understood or agreed with it.

I was in the car with them on East Washington Avenue when Lary was very upset and loudly said he would never be as smooth as Speaker Wally Kunicki. She had one hand on the steering wheel while gesturing with the other, pointing out that Lary had been the first Democrat to win his seat in 100 years. She told him his ability to talk and govern with a middle coalition that stretched from the tip of Washington Island to a few wards in Brown County put him behind no one in Madison. She continued by saying that safe Democrats in powerful positions get their majority made possible by those who have to walk narrow paths back home. I was in the back seat, thinking that in a verbal brawl, I wanted her on my team.

One of the things to truly respect about Lary was his desire to keep his marriage working while serving for decades in the state legislature. He often told me there was no way he could have been in political office for the number of years he had and left his wife in the district while he worked in Madison. So, while there were some jokes about always seeing his wife, Jan, around the Capitol, there was also an obvious commitment to being a married couple. While I would have found it easier at times to make the office operate with only Lary, I admired the commitment that they shared with each other.

Over the years, I have written about each member of the Lary Swoboda legislative office as they died. Kay Fauerbach for knowing one needs hyacinths for the soul on bad days, Ruth Schohl, who smiled while recollecting in 1960 how she got a kiss on the cheek from John F. Kennedy when he was in Madison, Geneva Rode, who was keenly interested in the Korean War, and Lary, who often asked me to ‘take a walk’ with him down State Street as he loved to visit used book stores. I am mindful of an old saying about things living as long as the last person who remembers them. Now Janice.

I suspect she has already gathered this group together for a rollicking gab session, while all are having what she always called a ‘Toddy for the body’.

Godspeed.