ON THE AFTERNOON OF May 25, 1984, the rising It Candidate of the current electoral season committed an unwitting faux pas at a fundraising event for le tout California that set his high-flying campaign on its heels. As recounted by Jack Germond and Jules Witcover in the book they wrote, Gary Hart and wife Lee converged on a “sumptuous home” in Los Angeles, where, on the patio that overlooked most of the city, Hart tried his hand at some fun.

“The deal is we campaign separately,” Hart said. “That’s the bad news. The good news for her is she campaigns in California and I campaign in New Jersey.” Amid the laughter, Lee broke in to say that while campaigning in California, she got to hold a koala bear. To which her husband observed, “I won’t tell you what I got to hold–samples from a toxic dump.” At first, Hart denied that he had a problem. “He kind of gave me a look,” one of his managers related, “like, ‘Come on, Billy, we have bigger things to worry about than that.”‘