“He said that he could assist her in finding employment,” Brighthaupt says. “A lot of people who are his loyalists, that’s the way they get in.”
Got in she did: The 40-year-old started working as Barry’s driver and a personal assistant. She was lightly compensated—campaign finance records show she got only $600 over the course of the campaign. “Like Bugs Bunny,” Brighthaupt says, “where the carrot is there, but the character never gets it.”
But there were fringe benefits: Convention time came, and she accompanied Barry to Denver. Despite the Crowne Plaza encounter—the first sexual overture, to Brighthaupt’s knowledge—and the subsequent drama, Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt left Denver on good enough terms that Barry, not more than two weeks later, invited her to tag along to Jamaica, where Barry was headed for a little post-primary R&R. Come Inauguration Day in January, she tagged along with Barry as a van took them up Pennsylvania Avenue to the special viewing area reserved for city officials. “She didn’t have credentials; she was afraid,” said one councilmember in the group. “Marion was like, ‘Come on, nothing’s gonna happen. I got you.’” In May, she accompanied Barry to Las Vegas for the annual retailers’ convention.