Political Notes

ALL FOR LOVE

When he married after years in the jet set, and she took a fourth husband after lucrative years on her own, cynics noted that starry-eyed New York Governor Hugh Carey was also espousing a fortune and that his exuberant bride, Evangeline Gouletas, was also wedding a political career.

Carey, 62, helped restore New York City and State to financial health. But his personal behavior was sometimes erratic. When a dentist started building a house that would block the view from Carey's summer home on Shelter Island, the Governor wanted the neighboring property seized under the right of eminent domain. Engie Gouletas had foibles too. She incorrectly said that her first ex-husband was dead and claimed that there were only two exes, not three. On top of all that, American Invsco, a large real estate company owned by Engie and her brothers, tumbled into financial disarray.

Slipping in the polls and facing challenges from fellow Democrats, Carey announced last week that he would complete his second term this year, then retire from elective politics. He pulled out, he explained, partly to spare his wife the pressures of the campaign. He said he quit, exactly as he wed, all for love.

MY FRIEND BARBARA

The campaign sounded like a referendum on President Reagan's first year. The Republican predicted that Reaganomics would bring economic recovery; the Democrat denounced "tax cuts for the rich."

But the Republican distanced herself from Reagan, while the Democrat stressed the idea of sending a message. The outcome: a 59% landslide that sent Democrat Barbara Kennelly to Congress in a special election last week in Connecticut's First District, which embraces Hartford. But the vote was probably more a reflection of her party's 2-to-1 advantage in registration than a plebiscite on the President.

Kennelly, 45, Connecticut's elected secretary of state, and her opponent, Republican Antonina P. Uccello, 59, had both campaigned the last time the House seat was vacant, in 1970. Ken nelly stumped for her husband James J. Kennelly; he was defeated by William R. Cotter for the Democratic nomination. Uccello, then mayor of Hartford, narrowly lost the general election to Cotter, who held the seat until he died Sept. 8.

Kennelly, daughter of the late Demo cratic national chairman John M. Bailey, got help from her father's friends, including Senator Edward Kennedy; in the course of one rally he called her McNelly, Connelly, and Kannally before giving up and referring to "my friend Barbara."

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