On A Woman's Role in Hudson County

Don't Forget Hoboken (0.00 / 0)

Where the HCDO and Mayor Roberts are backing outsiders Dawn Zimmer and Beth Mason for Council.

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by: Fielding Mellish @ Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 12:06:58 PM UTC

Journalists often don't title their own pieces (4.00 / 1)

So, the blame for the title probably goes to the editor.

With the spate of retirements, it looks like there might be more women running for legislature around the state this year than there have been in the past.  Not to say that they're being put up in places where they can win.  The article quotes an example we've seen time and again:

The machine culture of many liberal states helps explain another odd phenomenon: why so many of the women who have succeeded at high levels of state politics in the Northeast--think governors Christine Todd Whitman (New Jersey), Jane Swift (Massachusetts), and Jodi Rell (Connecticut)--have been liberal Republicans. Schneider, who is pro-choice, was an environmental activist before she ran for Congress and probably would have been a more natural ideological fit in the Democratic Party. "But, when I looked at Rhode Island's Democratic politicians, all I saw were white Catholic males," she says. "And I thought, 'Whatever party the incumbents are, I am not.'" If the majority party appeared unreceptive to women, the state GOP welcomed her with open arms. Republicans in the Northeast are often so outmatched that they are happy to have just about anyone run. And, in Schneider's case, attempting to depose an incumbent with sky-high approval ratings did seem like a fool's errand. But, after a failed first attempt, she snagged the seat and was sworn into Congress at the age of 31.

Whitman running against Bradley and coming close enough that she was then put up for governor is also cited in the article.

I thought the comparison to the West was interesting too.

...New Jersey isn't the only state with deep-blue political tendencies and a virtually all-male power structure. Massachusetts and Rhode Island don't have any women in their congressional delegations, either, and Pennsylvania has one of the lowest percentages of female state legislators outside the South. In Rhode Island, female delegates make up a paltry 19.5 percent of the legislature--placing the state behind such liberal bastions as Kansas, Nebraska, and Idaho.

Indeed, if many left-leaning Northeastern states have proved surprisingly inhospitable to female politicians, the reverse is true of many conservative Western states. In 1999, women held the top five statewide offices in Arizona, which is also the only state where female governors have served back-to-back. Meanwhile, Colorado has the fifth-highest percentage of female legislators in the country and is one of only six states where a woman serves as speaker of the state Senate. Why do so many liberal states lag behind conservative states in female representation? It's a puzzling question with a simple answer: machines. Northeastern states may be some of the most liberal in the country, but they are also the most likely to have political cultures shaped by bosses...

In the West, political conventions are very different. Claudine Schneider, who represented Rhode Island in Congress for ten years before relocating to Colorado, offers this comparison: "You don't have the old boys' club inner circle here, which is almost institutionalized on the East Coast. Here, it is wide open spaces. If you can build a constituency, you can run." And women have: Not only were Western states the first to grant women suffrage, they were also the first to send a congresswoman to D.C. and to elect a female governor.

She also mentions Loretta Weinberg and Nia Gill's opposition to the party machine, identifying their championing of "independent legislative agendas" as part of the reason for their not being backed by their chairmen.

I think I'll keep a copy of the article handy for next time I have the discussion about how women don't like politics, are too busy, etc. 

 

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by: kwilkinson @ Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 21:14:06 PM UTC

I've met Dawn Zimmer & Carol Marsh (0.00 / 0)

Carol Marsh is going to fit in, down in Trenton just fine, she's very intelligent, dedicated & very articulate. Dawn Zimmer is a bit green but she'll be good for Hoboken, she gets it.

Check out my 3 paragraph primer on Polywell Fusion.

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by: FogerRox @ Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 02:30:39 AM UTC

"Gets it?" (0.00 / 0)

I admit to being totally biased, but what exactly does Dawn Zimmer "get" exactly?  As far as I've observed, her entire candidacy is based on chicken little-ism, trying to claim that Hoboken is going to be washed away, ala NOLA.  Well, the rains came (the worst in 30 years -- thanks again, global warming!) and the 4th ward certainly experienced flooding, but it definitely wasn't the Katrina-level disaster Dawn had been predicting (or was it 'hoping for'?).

On top of that, her repeated 'insider' claims that there was no NJT plan to upgrade the city's sewers have been proven completely false. Is this something she's apologizing for or backing off from? No. Now she's claiming that the NJT plans aren't the issue. Well, if they weren't the issue, why was she so outraged when she believed (or at least claimed) that no plans existed? You can't have it both ways.

As I said, I may be biased, but there have been times in the past that my clients' opponents have made me sit up and take notice. (The incredibly capable staff at the Wildes, Zisa & Wilson campaign, for example, were not folks I looked forward to facing off against.) Dawn Zimmer is not one of those opponents. As you yourself admit Roger, she's a little green. I just don't think the Hoboken City Council -- especially under the present circumstances -- is the place for on-the-job training.

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by: Scott Shields @ Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 22:38:31 PM UTC

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Hm, OK,..........I'll stick with green... (0.00 / 0)

Check out my 3 paragraph primer on Polywell Fusion.

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by: FogerRox @ Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 23:00:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]