Politicians invited to dine on opossum

Candidates get folksy with voters at the annual Possum Festival in a small town that admires the tree dwellers.

©Associated Press
August 4, 2002

WAUSAU -- Politicians will do a lot to get a vote.

Take Gov. Jeb Bush: He dropped $500 to buy a live opossum at auction Saturday at the Possum Festival in this tiny Panhandle hamlet, where townsfolk celebrate the animal that got them through hard times.

"The price of possum has gone up since 1994, by double," said Bush, who bought one during his first campaign that year for just $250.

Then there's congressional candidate Tom McGurk. He made a homemade sandwich-board sign with a felt tip pen, draped it over his head and marched in a 90-degree parade between the Shriners on minimotorcycles and the truck bearing the Possum Queen.

"The things you've got to do," McGurk said and shook his head at his fate. This isn't even his district -- he was hoping folks from neighboring counties were there.

And many were. The Possum Festival has become a key stop on the campaign trail, for the chance to shake hands, pose with babies, get some local press and eat one of the animals that legend says saved the town from starvation.

Well, eating it is not for everyone.

"There are some things I will not do to garner votes," said Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox, a Democrat running for attorney general. "I won't lie, I won't kowtow to the special interests, and I won't eat possum."

For the record, one of Maddox's opponents, Democrat George Sheldon, did eat some of the baked opossum.

Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson -- who rode in the parade on a trailer pulled by a big John Deere tractor -- took a pass on the opossum, but he's eaten it in previous years.

"As wild game goes, it's okay," Bronson said. "If you can get the grease off of it."

Although Maddox didn't eat any, he did buy one of the critters at the opossum auction. It's a publicity bonanza: Each person who buys one gets to get up on stage at the Possum Palace, where the event is held, and hold the thing by the tail, practically ensuring a picture in the paper or on TV.

"They use this as a springboard for the Panhandle; they get known," said Dalton Carter, the festival's organizer and chairman for most of the past 25 years.

"You can win without it, but this is the big thing that happens in Washington County, and everybody looks forward to it," said Rep. Bev Kilmer, a Republican who represents the area in the Legislature. "The local people here judge whether a candidate cares about them by whether they make this a priority."

After all, the opossum is credited with staving off famine when tough times hit these parts.

A granite marker by city hall, right under the town's American flag, pays homage to this "magnificent survivor of the marsupial family."

In addition to Bush, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daryl Jones stumped at the event Saturday. Another Democratic candidate for governor, Bill McBride, couldn't make it; but his wife Alex Sink was there, handing out fliers and competing in the hog-calling contest.

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