Why monkey business is never a good idea in politics

The heady mix of sex, politics and the media is centrestage in the new movie The Front Runner, which tells the story of the rise and fall of US senator Gary Hart as an explosive scandal torpedoed his campaign for president in 1988.

The movie, starring Hugh Jack­man as the charismatic but prickly Hart, captures the pivot point when the barrier between reporting what was public and private started breaking down and voters began to closely examine politicians’ personal lives for clues as to how they might act in power.

When Hart announced his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president in April 1987, he already had a reputation as a womaniser, which he steadfastly denied. The Miami Herald was tipped off later that month that the married Hart was having an affair with model and Miami Vice actress Donna Rice.

When reporters confronted Hart after seeing him with Rice at his Washington, DC, apartment, he denied he was having an affair. Rice insisted she was a just a campaign worker. Hart invited the media to “follow him around” to show he had nothing to hide, but later criticised journalists for invading his privacy and making allegations of impropriety.

The media frenzy around Hart’s private life exploded. He was asked at a press conference if he had committed adultery. “I don’t have to answer that,” he replied. Stonewalling did not work. Hart suspended his campaign in early May. “I’ve made some mistakes,” he conceded. “Maybe big mistakes, but not bad mistakes.”

Two weeks later, the National Enquirer published a photo of Rice sitting on Hart’s lap while on vacation in the Bahamas. Hart was wearing a “Monkey Business Crew” T-shirt. They had sailed on the yacht Monkey Business with friends William Broadhurst and Lynn Armandt months earlier. In September, Hart acknowledged he had been unfaithful to his wife.

A rising star in the Democratic Party, Hart was the frontrunner when he exited the campaign for the presidency. He had managed George McGovern’s campaign for president in 1972, served in the Senate since 1975 and came close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.

Jackman’s portrayal of Hart is not the usual all-singing, all-dancing, superhero-type character that he is mostly known for. He succeeds in depicting the cerebral and often magnetic Hart, who struggled to reconcile his ambition for the country with a growing disdain for politics. Director Jason Reitman conveys the rhythms of politics — the hotels, the takeaway food, the long hours and the exhilarating adrenalin-fuelled moments alongside the debilitating setbacks and depressing defeats — against the backdrop of the 1980s.

The Front Runner is based on a book by journalist Matt Bai, All the Truth is Out (2014), which examines the cautionary tale of Hart and the increasingly tabloid-style coverage of politics. “The sudden collision of sex and presidential politics has unleashed something latent in the popular culture, some powerful impulse towards gossip and ridicule that couldn’t be restrained,” he writes.

John F. Kennedy conducted multiple affairs while president that were not reported because of an understanding between journalists and politicians of what was private and what was public. Yet there is scant evidence that Kennedy’s reckless womanising had any notable impact on his presidential duties.

The elections of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump may show that voters have become somewhat inured to sex scandals. Yet as more politicians cultivate a public image at odds with the real person, it is the media’s duty to separate fact from fiction. Today, Hart argues that the media is to blame for fewer people going into politics, which has led to the “decline in the calibre and quality of people in public service”. This debate is what The Front Runner is essentially about.

Australia has had no shortage of political sex scandals. Andrew Broad, busted for using a “sugar daddy” dating service, is the latest poster boy. Barnaby Joyce’s sex scandal was a rolling distraction for the government that trashed the Nationals’ brand, sullied his personal standing and resulted in him forfeiting the party leadership and deputy prime ministership.

Broad and Joyce — in many ways like Hart — initially refused to speak about their scandals and accept wrongdoing. Joyce would not confirm he had fathered a child with a former staff member and subsequently raised questions about paternity. Once the story broke, he asked for privacy. But then he brazenly sold the story for a cringe-worthy tell-all television interview. And then he wrote about it in his memoir.

In the end, what matters to voters is hypocrisy. Politicians should not pretend to be somebody they are not. Those who trade on family values and the sanctity of marriage in public but ignore those values in private are fair game. Hart restarted his presidential campaign in December 1987 but his comeback was short lived. “Let the people decide,” he declared. And they did.

There is a duty to expose politicians who are not honest with voters. Hart, not the media, was responsible for his political fall from grace. He refused to accept that private conduct had public consequences.

Voters look for politicians with integrity and credibility whom they can trust, and Hart fell well short of that standard.

The Front Runner opens nationally on ­January 31.