C’mon Funk, Move Your Ass

When Funk, the quiet, ethical auditor of Kansas City, announces he wants to run for Mayor against an entrenched political regime, his wife, Gloria, puts aside her own ambitions—temporarily (ha!)—to run his campaign. Here is a true story of democracy at work: a rented, broken-down trailer for HQ; a campaign cobbled together by scrounging, loans, and thousands in family savings; a staff of one plus volunteers; fear, anxiety, financial instability, and the recognition that with Funk’s resignation as city auditor, the family has no income unless he wins. Gloria is the glorious heroine of this page-turner memoir that reads like a novel, busts open politics today, and makes you want more Gloria.

Funny, quirky, extravagant, and passionately Italian-American, Gloria is as much a misfit in Kansas City as she is a devoted wife and mother. (Spoiler alert: when Funk wins, she creates such trouble that she will be legally banned from City Hall, but that comes in volume three of this explosive trilogy.) A must-read for anyone interested in humans, rollicking laughter or politics.

Though Gloria was not interested in politics, in the end, the campaign wasn’t any different from what she was already used to, “The politics of giving birth in America, of being a woman in our country, even the politics of living within a family. All it took was planning and organizing. What mom isn’t good at that?”

Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Rush Limbaugh have reported on Gloria. According to one journalist, the media had 500 “hit” pieces about her during her husband’s mayoral term. This is the story of how she won the campaign and achieved fame … and infamy.

Gloria Squitiro is the author of May Cause Drowsiness and Blurred Vision: The Side Effects of Bravery. She dreams of building an artist retreat in Hawaii someday.