In 2007, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, chose a former auditor to be its next mayor. An outsider might have guessed that the election of Mark Funkhouser would usher in a boring era of city politics. Boy, would that be wrong. Much of the excitement has stemmed from Funkhouser's decision to include his wife, Gloria Squitiro, in nearly every aspect of his administration. Squitiro, a plain-spoken natural-childbirth instructor, accompanies Funk nearly everywhere he goes, and she has a desk at City Hall. The unusual arrangement is grist for the mayor's critics. Councilman Ed Ford, furious after being removed as the point man on light rail, griped to The Kansas City Star that Funkhouser was "treating every day as 'Take your wife to work' day." It was a comment as bitter as it was true.
