Pam Shriver Eyeing a Career In Politics

When she finally hangs up her sneakers and lays down her tennis racket, Pam Shriver says she is weighing a jump to a whole different type of arena--the political one.

The No. 4 ranked woman tennis player in the world says it will be “six or seven years from now”--if ever--but a run for the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland’s 2nd District is a distinct possibility.

She would be the first professional woman tennis player to try to make the transition from the locker room to the House cloak room.

Shriver, 23, a self-described conservative Republican from Lutherville, Md., dabbled with politics during the 1984 presidential election, serving as the Maryland state chairperson for the Reagan-Bush campaign. But, she said, the position was strictly honorary.

While Shriver deflects much of the speculation about a future run for the Hill as “too early,” her own publicity material for upcoming tournaments includes prominent references to it.

One press release on her behalf asks, “Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley, possibly Tom McMillen and now Pam Shriver?”

Bradley, the NBA Hall of Famer, is a U.S. Senator from New Jersey; Kemp, the former AFL and NFL quarterback, is a U.S. Representative from New York, and McMillen, the Washington Bullets’ reserve center, has announced that he will run for Congress.

Shriver is a third cousin of R. Sargent Shriver, George McGovern’s running mate on the 1972 Presidential ticket buried by Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

“His running, to me when I was 10, didn’t mean a whole lot, except the fact that we had the same last names,” Shriver said.

“I met him only once, at a Baltimore Orioles game in (team owner) Edward Bennett Williams’ box, of all places. And it was the night after his son was caught for scalping (tickets). Leave it to the Democrats to embarrass the Shriver name,” she added, laughing.

Without question, Shriver is a member of the Reagan generation.

“He was the first president I could ever vote for, and I did,” she said. “Most kids have someone they look up to when they grow up. But I never had any tennis player, any athlete I really looked up to. He’s the first person I can say has been sort of a hero to me.”

The 6-foot tall tennis star, who has forged a reputation as a fearsome serve-and-volley style player, begins to sound a lot like a candidate when asked to comment on an array of political issues -- although she’s the first to admit she hasn’t polished her political philosophy.

Shriver blasts the social programs, such as welfare and food stamps, developed during the Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

“I just think it leads to complacency in society,” she said. “You have to be so careful because if you start criticizing the amount of welfare and food stamp programs -- people think you’re turning your back on the needy. But I just feel that since (the programs) came in, they have grown and grown and grown to the point where people take it for granted that there is a way out besides working.”

She attacks the Democrats for gutting the defense programs during the 70s.

“I think it was pretty scary where the defense was when Reagan came in,” she said.

And she chides supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment.

“I’ve never been a big feminist,” she said. “I’ve never had any bad experiences, I’ve never felt put down because I was a women at all. Obviously, it happens or else women won’t be going crazy. On the other hand, I should say men’s tennis has so much more prize money than women’s tennis, so that falls into that category. (But) given my income level playing women’s tennis, I just have trouble moaning about my opportunities.”

Shriver does part from her fellow conservatives on the issue of abortion, saying it should be allowed during the first two months of a pregnancy.

“I’m for abortion, pro-choice,” she admits. “Especially given my field. (With) a tennis player, obviously your career stops for a given period of time (with a pregnancy). If she can’t have that choice, that’s bad.”

“I believe a baby is a finished product and I don’t think two months is a finished product. I have trouble seeing something in the first weeks or so as being real life,” she added. “Reagan won’t like me now, but that’s OK.”

On dirty elections: “What I don’t like the most about politics is the smearing. That would probably be a factor (in her decision to run). I would say to myself, can you stand being insulted for the next year. If that’s what it took to be good at it, then maybe I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

On George Bush: “I’ll be on the bandwagon if he runs (in 1988). He’s very, very capable.”

On Nancy Reagan: “On occasion, she takes a beating (in the press) that at times is completely unnecessary.”

Shriver said she enjoyed working for the Reagan-Bush machine in 1984, but concedes that the work was little more than a few special appearances and photo opportunities. And it certainly didn’t hurt the Reagan campaign to have a prominent athlete who also happened to be a woman heading its Maryland committee.

Shriver made her jump into professional tennis with a splash, reaching the finals of the 1978 U.S. Open as a 16-year-old. Since, she has teamed up with Martina Navratilova to form what many regard as the finest women’s doubles team in history.

The tandem reeled off a streak of 109 consecutive doubles triumphs and most recently won last month’s Australian Open.

While they operate like clockwork on the court, Shriver and Navratilova argue politics off the court, Shriver says.

“We’re on opposite sides -- I’m a conservative Republican and she’s pretty liberal and a Democrat,” Shriver said. “We often times have little discussions. Her main pet peeve is the environment -- that’s where she think’s Reagan has goofed up the most. She doesn’t think he’s paid enough attention to it.”

Shriver, one of the young tennis phenoms in the mid-70s, has never attended college, but does not see that as an obstacle.

“To me the education I have received since the age of 16 -- being in front of the public and learning to deal with all sorts of situations is as valuable as I could have gotten from anything in college,” she said.