Women Inch Closer to Parity in Congress

[Ron Burgundy]

CQPolitics.com - Democrat Jackie Speier was sworn in Thursday to represent California's 12th Congressional District, two days after a overwhelming and widely anticipated special election victory that made her the newest U.S. House member. And her win to succeed the late Democrat Tom Lantos in a district in and south of San Francisco carried historical weight. It restored the number of women in the U.S. House to 74, tying a record high originally set at the beginning of the current 110th Congress.

That total includes delegates from the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, who do not have the full voting rights held by the House members from the 50 states. There are presently 16 women senators, also an all-time record.

Speier's election fully restores women House members to the level they enjoyed at the start of the 110th Congress in January 2007, after the number briefly dropped back to 73.

Three women who were re-elected in 2006 died during the course of the 110th Congress, and only one, Democrat Juanita Millender-McDonald of California's 37th District, was succeeded by another woman, Democrat Laura Richardson. The late Republican Jo Ann Davis of Virginia's 1st District was succeeded by Republican Rob Wittman and the late Democrat Julia Carson of Indiana was succeeded by her grandson, Democrat Andre Carson.

But the scales were balanced by two Democratic women who won special elections for vacant seats that had been held by men. Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts' 5th District won the contest to succeed Democrat Martin T. Meehan, who had resigned to become a university chancellor, and Speier won to succeed Lantos, who died of cancer on Feb. 11.

Women still make up relatively small minorities in both chambers, holding 17 percent of all House seats and 16 percent of the Senate seats. While the ranks of women in Congress increased dramatically in 1992, dubbed the "Year of the Woman," gains have been more gradual in election years since.

Additional gains are possible this year, as there is a sizable list of women who are running competitive bids this year for the House and the Senate. But any gains are likely to be incremental rather than substantial.

The first concern for advocates of increasing the number of women in Congress is that four women incumbents are not seeking re-election to the U.S. House this year: Democrat Darlene Hooley of Oregon's 5th District and Republicans Deborah Pryce of Ohio's 15th, Barbara Cubin of Wyoming's At-Large and Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico's 1st districts. But as the summaries below of House races involving women candidates underscore, there are women running highly competitive bids in all of those districts except in Oregon's 5th. In addition, Wilson is a top-tier contender for the Republican nomination to succeed retiring New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici.

Apart from Wilson's campaign, the best opportunity for increased representation of women in the Senate lies in New Hampshire, where Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen is waging a strong challenge to Republican Sen. John E. Sununu in a rematch of their close 2002 contest.

Wynn's subsequent decision to resign from his seat May 31 will prompt a special election. In the House races, one woman is certain to succeed a man: in Maryland's overwhelmingly Democratic 4th District, where lawyer Donna Edwards ousted Democratic Rep. Albert R. Wynn in a Feb. 12 primary election. Wynn's subsequent decision to resign from his seat in June will prompt a special election that Edwards will also be strongly favored to win.

Not quite sharing Edwards' status as a shoo-in, but decidedly favored to win this year, is Illinois state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, the Democratic nominee for the 11th District seat of retiring Republican Rep. Jerry Weller.

The following is a look at some of the most competitive women candidates who are running for office this year. This list, which is not meant to be exhaustive, is divided into two parts. The longer section of this list profiles women candidates who are running for offices presently held by men, followed by the shorter list of competitive women candidates in contests for seats that women officeholders currently represent. All candidates are listed alphabetically by last name.

Women Seeking Seats Currently Held by Men

Senate

- Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat, New Hampshire. Shaheen is waging a strong challenge to Sununu, whom Republican strategists say is probably the most vulnerable Republican senator seeking re-election this year. Sununu narrowly defeated Shaheen in 2002, when Republican prospects were stronger in New Hampshire than they are today.

- Heather A. Wilson, Republican, New Mexico. Wilson is vying with Rep. Steve Pearce for the Republican nomination. Tom Udall, who holds the other seat in New Mexico's three-member U.S. House delegation, has clinched the Democratic Senate nomination.

House

- Kay Barnes, Democrat, Missouri's 6th District. Barnes, a popular former Kansas City mayor, is the presumed Democratic nominee against four-term Republican Rep. Sam Graves.

- Terri Bonoff, Democrat, Minnesota's 3rd. Bonoff, a state senator, is vying for the Democratic nomination with Ashwin Madia, a lawyer and Iraq War veteran, for the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen. The winner will succeed retiring Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad.

- Tracey Brooks, Democrat, New York's 21st. Brooks, a lawyer and former aide to New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, might be the top-running Democrat in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Michael R. McNulty.

- Darcy Burner, Democrat, Washington's 8th. Burner is seeking a rematch of her close 2006 race with two-term Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in this politically competitive district in the suburbs of Seattle.

- Leslie Byrne, Democrat, Virginia's 11th. Byrne, who served one term in the House in the early 1990s, is vying to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, who unseated her in 1994. She faces several opponents in the June 10 primary, the most prominent of whom is Gerald Connolly, chairman of the board of supervisors in populous Fairfax County.

- Donna Edwards, Democrat, Maryland's 4th. Edwards' defeat of Wynn in the Feb. 12 primary election paved the way for her to succeed him in this Democratic Party stronghold.

- Joan Fitz-Gerald, Democrat, Colorado's 2nd. Fitz-Gerald, a former state Senate president, is vying with businessman Jared Polis and conservationist Will Shafroth in the Aug. 12 Democratic primary. The winner of that primary almost certainly will succeed Democratic Rep. Mark Udall, who is running for the Senate.

- Debbie Halvorson, Democrat, Illinois' 11th. Halvorson is a strong favorite to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Jerry Weller. Halvorson was emerging as the front-runner even before the original Republican nominee, local official Tim Baldermann, dropped out of the race shortly after he won the GOP primary in February. Republican officials will select a replacement nominee later this month.

- Gayle Harrell, Republican, Florida's 16th. Harrell, a state representative, would give freshman Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney a tough race in November -- provided she can win a Republican primary election on Sept. 2 against several male competitiors.

- Melissa Hart, Republican, Pennsylvania's 4th. Hart, who previously held this seat for three terms, is seeking a rematch with freshman Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire, who unseated her in 2006 in a district that includes culturally conservative precincts near Pittsburgh.

- Ann Kirkpatrick, Democrat, Arizona's 1st. Kirkpatrick, a former state representative, is probably the leading Democrat for the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, who decided to retire because of ethics controversies and has since been indicted by federal authorities. Kirkpatrick's opposition in the Sept. 2 Democratic primary election includes another woman, Mary Kim Titla, a former television journalist. The Republican field also includes a woman: Sydney Hay, the Arizona Mining Association president who lost out to Renzi in the 2002 Republican primary.

- Suzanne Kosmas, Democrat, Florida's 24th. Kosmas, a former state representative, is taking on three-term Republican Rep. Tom Feeney in a district that includes suburbs of Orlando.

- Anne M. Northup, Republican, Kentucky's 3rd. Like Hart, Northup is seeking to return to Congress after losing in 2006. Northup is taking on freshman Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, who ended her five-term tenure in district that covers Louisville.

- Chellie Pingree, Democrat, Maine's 1st. Pingree -- a former state Senate leader who was the Democrats' U.S. Senate nominee against Republican incumbent Susan Collins in 2002 -- is one of several Democrats vying to succeed Rep. Tom Allen, who is running for the Senate.

- Linda Stender, Democrat, New Jersey's 7th. Stender, a state representative, is the presumed Democratic nominee in the race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson, whom she nearly defeated in 2006. The crowded Republican contest includes two women: Kate Whitman, whose mother Christine Todd Whitman was New Jersey's governor from 1994 to 2001, and Kelly Hatfield, a former Summit city councilwoman.

- Nikki Tinker, Democrat, Tennessee's 9th. Tinker, an airline executive, is challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen in a primary on Aug. 7. Cohen won a crowded Democratic primary in 2006 in which Tinker was the runner-up.

Women candidates for House seats presently held by women

- Anne Barth, Democrat, West Virginia's 2nd. Barth, for many years a West Virginia-based aide to Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd, is the leading Democratic candidate against four-term Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a popular centrist Republican.

- Lynn Jenkins, Republican, Kansas' 2nd. Jenkins, the Kansas state Treasurer and a certified public accountant, is seeking the GOP nomination to run against freshman Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda in a district that usually leans Republican. But Jenkins must first win a primary election Aug. 5 against Jim Ryun, the former five-term congressman whom Boyda unseated in 2006.

- Mary Jo Kilroy, Democrat, Ohio's 15th. Kilroy, a county commissioner, is the Democratic nominee for this Columbus-centered district currently held by Pryce, who is retiring after 16 years. The Republican nominee is state Sen. Steve Stivers.

- Cynthia Lummis, Republican, Wyoming's At-Large. Lummis, a former Wyoming treasurer, appears to be the leading Republican candidate for the seat that Cubin is leaving open after seven terms. If she wins the Republican primary, Lummis would face Democratic businessman Gary Trauner, who nearly beat Cubin in 2006.

- Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrats, New Mexico's 1st. Vigil-Giron, a former New Mexico Secretary of State, and Grisham, a lawyer and former state health secretary, are among the four Democrats vying to succeed Wilson in this Albuquerque-centered district. Republican officials like Darren White, the sheriff in the county that envelops Albuquerque.

- Victoria Wulsin, Democrat, Ohio's 2nd. Wulsin, a physician, is challenging Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt in a Republican-leaning district in and around Cincinnati. The contest is a rematch of the 2006 election in which Schmidt narrowly defeated Wulsin.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20080411/pl_cq_politics/politics2702439 [link]