Politics in N.J.
still mostly male
By BOB JORDAN, Home
News Tribune Online (thnt.com) March 25, 2007
In 1993, Christine Todd Whitman was
elected as New Jersey's first female governor. Whitman was only the second
Republican woman elected governor in any state.
Marion West Higgins became speaker of the New Jersey Assembly in 1965, only the
second woman in the nation to be speaker of a state house.
But, since Whitman, no woman has emerged as a serious candidate for governor in
the Garden State. No other woman has served as New Jersey Assembly speaker
since Higgins.
With the exception of a few counties, the number of women holding elected office
in New Jersey is lagging behind other states.
"In New Jersey, we are woefully behind other states where women are more a part
of the process," said state Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth, "It's really
disconcerting, and I don't know what accounts for that, except for women in
particular feeling disenfranchised and feeling their votes don't count. It
seems an anomaly that the participation by women in politics is low here,
because the state is otherwise progressive and people are well educated."
Currently, New Jersey ranks 35th among the 50 states in the proportion of women
serving in its Legislature women hold 23 of the available 120 seats, or 19
percent. Nationally, 23.5 percent of the 7,382 state legislators are
women.
"We're really behind the times," said Marie Muhler, who held a number of elected
offices and retired as Monmouth County surrogate last year. "We are one of
the states with the least amount of women at every level of government."
Other data (from the Center of American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute
for Politics, Rutgers University) show that 26 percent of the 137 county
freeholders in New Jersey are women, and 14 percent of the mayors are women.
"There's been an incrementally slow increase of women (gaining elected
offices)," said Helen Yeldell, senior legislative analyst at the New Jersey
League of Municipalities, who has conducted a Women in Government Mayors Survey
for the past five years.
Yeldell said Monmouth is the state's leading county for women holding mayoral
positions, with 14.
Otherwise, the state's reputation for dirty politics may be holding back the
number of female participants, said Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth.
"The New Jersey political system has for decades been rigged around money and
power, and that means that people in the system fight tenaciously to hang on to
what they have. Newcomers women by definition find it excruciatingly
difficult to break in," Handlin said.
In Middlesex County, two women — Democrats Blanquita Valenti and Camille
Fernicola — are freeholders. The county clerk is a woman, Elaine Flynn.
Also, three women serve as mayors — Nancy Martin in Helmetta, Meryl Frank in
Highland Park and Gloria M. Bradford in Milltown — in Middlesex County.
The political landscape for women in Monmouth County seems to be improving.
Women are in the majority on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders for the
first time in the history of the board, holding three of the five seats.
Also, besides having Karcher and Handlin serving in the Legislature, Monmouth
County also has Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, a 12th District Republican.
And for the first time in years, a woman is a candidate for the office of county
sheriff: Monmouth Beach resident Kim Guadagno. There is just one
other female county sheriff in the state.
Karcher, however, says it's going to be hard for the trend to continue.
"I really think the trend is going more toward excluding women. Perhaps if
we get campaign finance reform, that will help, because in general men have an
easier time raising money than women do. Plus the tone and tenor of the
campaigns put women off. It can't stay like the blood sport it is in New
Jersey," Karcher said.
|
