Some regular readers of my Daily Post editorials might think of me as a ‘contrarian.’ In fact, an acquaintance used that very word, in our conversation just a couple of days ago.
“The community needs contrarians like you,” is how I recall the comment. And that may be true — yes, a community does benefit, in some ways, from the presence of people willing to stand up and challenge the Good Ole Boys Network — and Team Status Quo — even if the challenge often feels like a wasted effort.
Likewise, some readers may recognize that I’ve been disappointed, recently, by the behavior of our Board of County Commissioners — especially regarding our abandoned County Jail, and the vacant courtrooms and Sheriff’s offices in our historic downtown courthouse.
But what do we expect, really, when two Good Ole Boys — count ‘em, two — constitute a majority vote on a board of three Commissioners. That’s a board that controls an annual expenditure of about $34 million a year. That’s a board that can put the taxpayers deeply into debt using a clever financial device known as “Certificates of Participation” — if just two of them wish to do so.
Two men — count ’em, two — can do that, without a vote of the people. Even after a majority of voters refused to approve a similar debt on November 6.
Which brings us, in a somewhat round-about way, to the subject of the 2018 mid-term elections, and the so-called “Year of the Woman.”
And to the role of women in politics, locally and nationally.
The first step — a woman’s right to vote — is no longer a matter of debate, but it was an essential first step. The United States of America had been a democracy for about 50 years before any meaningful conversations took place about allowing women the right to vote. That conversation was tied to other concerns, including the right to hold public office; to enter into legal contracts; to have equal rights in family law; to fair wages; to own and control property; and to obtain an education.
The conversation about women’s rights first garnered national recognition in 1848, when the first national women’s rights convention — the Seneca Falls Convention — passed a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage (despite opposition from some of its organizers, who believed the idea was too extreme.)
Obviously, the wheel of justice and fairness turns slowly. Oh, so slowly.
More than 70 years later, the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was adopted on August 18, 1920 — prohibiting the states and federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
That was the first step. But influence in federal, state and local government has always depended on two key factors:
1. Do women actually vote? and
2. Do women actually run for office?
Fast forward to the mid-term elections of 2018. The U.S. House of Representatives will now have a record number of women, but there were high-profile losses for women in the U.S. Senate, including two incumbents who lost their reelections to men.
American voters retained the record number for female governors: nine. Not all the races are yet final, with some still too close to call as recounts take place… but the number of women in state legislatures could hit an all-time high. The 2018 level of female representation is 25 percent and has been within a percentage point of that since 2009. A pre-election analysis by Reuters of state ballots suggested that the new figure could be somewhere around 38 percent.
In Colorado and Nevada, women helped propel “trifecta” wins — where a political party gains control of both legislative chambers and the governorship. In both cases, the trifecta was won by the Democrats. The Democratic Party won a total of six state government trifectas in November.
Here in Colorado, however, the percentage of registered women who actually turned out for the mid-term election appears to have been slightly lower than in 2014. Out of the total amount of ballots cast this month, 51.4 percent were from women. That’s actually 0.4 percent less than 2014’s turnout of 51.8 percent of Colorado women.
From the article, “2018: Another Year of the Woman” by Brookings Institute writer Elaine Kamarck:
Nevada may also make history by electing the first majority-women legislature. As of Wednesday afternoon, women had won 20 of the 42 assembly seats. Two races were too close to call. The state already has one of the highest percentages of women in its state legislature in the country at 38 percent. Only Arizona and Vermont have higher representation at 40 percent.
It appears that, when the final votes were tallied, Nevada didn’t quite make the “woman majority” grade, but the state legislature looks like it will be about 48 percent female.
More from Elaine Kamarck’s article:
In Texas, women were part of a surge in which Democrats gained 12 seats in the Texas House of Representatives. Most of the women flipping seats were running in races along the Northern Texas border and the greater Houston area.
Mirya Holman, a political science professor at Tulane University, notes that many of these races weren’t considered competitive a year ago. “A couple of these candidates ran without party support and basically worked really hard and were able to win,” she says…
This year’s gains at the state level portend even more U.S. Congresswomen in future years, because state legislatures tend to be a pipeline for congressional candidates.
And local elections, of course, tend to be a pipeline for state candidates.
So, how are women doing, locally?
What do you say, gals? Are we still a town run by Good Ole Boys?
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.