Why Won't Virginia Elect Women? (college, taxes, live in)

[CAVA1990]

I believe there's only been one woman elected to statewide office in the history of the Commonwealth and that was over 20 years ago. Presumably half or better than half the population is female, so what gives?

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I believe there's only been one woman elected to statewide office in the history of the Commonwealth and that was over 20 years ago. Presumably half or better than half the population is female, so what gives?

I don't vote on things such as race, gender, "if I want to have a beer with (enter candidate name here)" etc, most people are the same as me.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

I don't vote on things such as race, gender, "if I want to have a beer with (enter candidate name here)" etc, most people are the same as me.

That didn't answer the question. So you'd be happy with all 55+ white guys representing us as long as they're amicable beer partners. Sounds like folks who say "I don't see color" as long as those in charge are their color. oy vay.

[roanoker 4]

Mary Sue Terry almost beat George Allen for Governor in the early '90s until she
came out strongly for gun control. Many women do not favor strong gun rights and I feel that may hurt their chances in this ultra conservative state.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

That didn't answer the question. So you'd be happy with all 55+ white guys representing us as long as they're amicable beer partners. Sounds like folks who say "I don't see color" as long as those in charge are their color. oy vay.

I'm saying that I vote for someone who's socially liberal, economically libertarian and fiscally conservative. If a woman who represents those things ends up running for office, and runs against a statist, I will vote for her. There is no answer to the question because it's like your asking it in the context that we've had so many female candidates and no one has elected them for X reason. It's just not a good question.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by roanoker 4

Mary Sue Terry almost beat George Allen for Governor in the early '90s until she
came out strongly for gun control. Many women do not favor strong gun rights and I feel that may hurt their chances in this ultra conservative state.

She's the only woman ever to hold state-wide office here. There's nothing preventing the Republicans from running a pro-gun woman for office. I'm wondering if VA is the most politically mysogynistic state in the union. Perhaps women are perfectly happy letting men run things?

[slowlane3]

As an observer of area politics for decades, I've been struck by the same thing about Virginia.

Maryland by contrast, within the past 40 years, has elected scads of women --

US Senator Barbara Mikulski, and US Congresswomen Helen Delich Bentley, Connie Morella, Beverly Byron, Gladys Noon Spellman, and Marjorie Holt.

MD Gubernatorial candidate Ellen Sauerbrey, and MD Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Also the last TWO Mayors of Baltimore - Sheila Dixon and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and the Mayor of Frederick, Jen Dougherty.

[hgnmx]

The majority of voters are older, white males, demographically. This may be the major contributing factor. At the same time I have to ask, what females have run for office recently? I can't think of any, at least not in my district. To be honest I'd be more inclined to vote for a female than a male, but they just aren't on the ballot.

[LynchburgLover]

Well . . . since all of them are liberal Democrats (except Morella but she may as well have been), you're right, I wouldn't vote for them. Give me a good solid conservative woman, no problem.

But that's why I live in Virginia instead of Maryland. And with all the negative press Maryland's been getting about taxes and jobs . . .

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Having read CAVA1990's past posts, it's probably futile to provide a rational analysis that doesn't fit the hysterical labeling ("VA is misogynistic!"). But I will try.

Running for a national or state-wide office is not a part-time job. It requires much personal sacrifice, which includes neglecting the spouse and the children if the candidate is married. Male candidates can sometimes afford to do this if he has a martyr of a wife. The pool of men willing to do the same is comparatively smaller.

When female candidates do well, it is generally for one of two reasons (or both). She is an "independent" (read leftist) woman who runs in a state that is dominated by an urban area with a high percentage of unmarried women and/or women without children (e.g. WA state where both senators are female -- it's a place where if you win King County, which contains Seattle, you can pretty much win the whole state). And/or she is a scion of a political dynasty (e.g. Murkowski in AK).

VA is a center-right state. Most center-right women (not to mention men), the kind who has a college degree, worked a few years, but once married, had kids and left work to care for the husband and the kids, don't relate well to the first category of female politicians. It has nothing to do with some phantom misogyny of VA.

That is why Gov. Palin was such a phenomenon in the beginning with center-right women in VA and elsewhere (the excitement at her rallies were quite something to observe) -- here was a women who seemingly came from modest backgrounds, married a "normal" guy, had more-or-less normal kids (well, it SEEMED that way at the time) and, in the meantime, worked her way up the political hierarchy by bucking the existing pecking order in AK. Whatever she may have become of late, when she first burst into the national scene, she really galvanized the "hockey moms."