Devoted to family and protective of her Mayor

RUTH Tate is not just the Gold Coast Mayoress.

She managed husband and Mayor Tom Tate’s election campaign last year for a second term and is considered a key strategist politically, acting as a regular sounding board.

That’s on top of organising the annual Mayoress Charity Foundation Ball which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local groups.

But being the city’s First Lady is not a role she has always been comfortable with despite giving her blessing when Cr Tate first stood for the mayoralty in 2012.

When the Bulletin spent a day with the pair on the campaign trail last year, she admitted it took her time to adjust to the glare of publicity: “I’m basically quite a shy person so it was quite difficult for me I guess. He’s more outgoing.

“(And) it used to really upset me when people would criticise him, especially when it was unjustified but now you get a bit of a thicker skin and don’t take it to heart,” she said.

In the same interview, Cr Tate revealed he would never have stood if she had been against the idea: “If Ruth said ‘No’, I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t even blink.”

Family friend Bob Janssen, who has known the Tates for almost 20 years, said yesterday Mrs Tate played a “major role” in her husband’s political career and was very influential.

“She is one of the smartest people I have ever met. I have the greatest respect for her,” Mr Janssen said.

“She’s pragmatic, down to earth.

“Tom is a big ideas man and can be impulsive and she balances him out in so many ways. It’s a great partnership.

“They do discuss things and Tom can be quite exuberant.

“She will just let him go but then she’ll put in her word and say, ‘But what about such and such?' And what she is doing is getting him to think of the consequences and the alternatives.”

“She does it in a way that he’s still making the decision very but she is giving him pause for thought.

“She doesn’t tell him what to do – I have never heard her tell him what to do ever. But the way she does it allows him to think a bit beyond what he’s thinking of.

“But like any great partnership, he doesn’t always go that way.”

Mr Janssen said during renovation work at their home he saw the family up close and said it was full of trust, respect and love.

“I’ve never seen them part company without saying, ‘I love you’. Whether you like Tom or not you’ve got to understand that where his family is concerned, he is very devoted.”

Mr Janssen said he last saw the Mayoress just before she went overseas and he was shocked by her health scare.

“I’m just flabbergasted someone like her would have a heart attack. Ruth is very health-conscious. She really looks after herself.”