In state legislatures, Democratic women surge, as Republican women lose ground

[DeepModem Mom]

In State Legislatures, Democrats Are Pushing Toward Parity Between the Sexes
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: February 15, 2007

....On the low rungs of the nation’s political system in the state legislatures, Democrats are pushing close to real parity among men and women — a historic threshold that is changing more than mere numbers.

The new Democratic women, epitomized by the Woodbury Three, as they are known here (three Democratic women newly-elected to the Minnesota State Legislature), are focused on the bread-and-butter issues of the suburbs, like property taxes, schools and health care. They are the soccer-mom swing-voters of years past, now making the laws themselves, and that could end up changing both parties here and beyond....

***

Nationally, Democrats picked up more than 320 seats in state legislatures — about 140 of them by women — and gained control of 10 chambers, 4 of them here in the Upper Midwest: the Minnesota House, the Wisconsin Senate and both chambers of Iowa General Assembly....Almost everywhere, women were crucial to those Democratic margins. In the New Hampshire Senate, which swung to Democratic control for the first time since 2000, women outnumber men almost two-to-one in the new majority caucus.

The Oregon House of Representatives shifted to control by the Democrats, 38 percent of whom are women. In the Colorado House of Representatives, where Democrats increased their majority in 2006, women now constitute almost 49 percent of the Democratic caucus.

Republican women lost ground and saw their numbers slide everywhere but in parts of the South. There are now only 534 of them out of more than 7,300 party-affiliated state legislators nationwide, compared with 1,187 Democratic women, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group....

“Republican women tend to be more moderate than their colleagues, especially in legislatures, and as their party has shifted to the right, they’re more vulnerable,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/us/15minnesota.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. Pub women are becoming rare as dinosaurs

I wonder why????Hmmmmmmm

The Pub Sour Story begins with Newt 16 years ago...peaked in 2000 and 2004...lost in 06....when the Pub Story went sour...

[Hekate]

2. Great news. I didn't know this. kick

:bounce:

Hekate

:kick:

[JNelson6563]

3. In MI it was a woman who

lead our state House Dem caucus to a majority in just two cycles as chair of that caucus and Minority Leader. Dianne Byrum is her name. She's termed out of our state Senate and House now. I hope she runs for governor here one day. She'd do an even better job than Gov. Granholm IMO.

Julie