Political Strategists Share Info About Women in Politics in WA

Earlier this month the members of the NWPC-WA’s May Hutton Society were treated to an intimate discussion on women in politics with three top political consultants/strategists: Cathy Allen, principal of the Connections Group who works with women candidates around the world; AlisonPeters, pollster who works with candidates to develop research-based messaging, principal of Alison Peters Consulting; and Erin McCallum, President of Enterprise Washington, a non-partisan statewide organization that recruits, trains and helps elect business minded individuals.

Joining us for the conversation were Rep. Laurie Jinkins, Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark, past Rep. Laura Ruderman, and past candidate for the House, Marcee Stone.

Here is some of the great information our presenters shared:

An Interview on Women's Leadership with Rep. Ruth Kagi

This interview with Ruth Kagi, State Representative in the 32nd District in Shoreline, was conducted by Guest Blogger, Tarja Kallinen.

Q) When was the first time you were in a leadership role?

A: I worked 15 years for US Dept. of Labor and helped start a new regional office for the Employment and Training Administration. Later I chaired the Washington Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. I also worked on the King County Commission on Children and Youth. When I first ran for office I was terrified about standing before people. I was a policy nerd, not used to being in front of large crowds. Experience has changed all that. What I discovered was that it was important to learn from your mistakes.

Q) Can you think of a turning point or a ‘defining moment’ in your life that describes your values as a leader?

The Other Side of the Notebook

By Guest Blogger, Jean Godden

I am among a number of women journalists who have exchanged their press cards for a nametag that reads: “the Honorable.” It’s a modest trend – journalists as politicians. But, frankly, it’s not all that surprising women journalists would aspire to office.

I want to salute three other women journalists who joined local City Councils in the recent past: Stacy Goodman, a longtime reporter for the Issaquah Press, recently became an Issaquah City Council member, beating more than a dozen other topnotch applicants for the job. The opening happened when Maureen McCarry had to resign her seat due to a terrible illness. Jane Meyer Brahm, a longtime reporter for the Mercer Island Reporter, won the appointment contest for the open seat left by Steve Litzow’s election to the State Senate. And, my own Seattle City Council colleague, Sally J. Clark, got her start as a print journalist reporting and editing for many of our local and regional newspapers.

I am hardly alone when it comes to women journalists serving in public office: the lines between journalism and public service are actually quite close.

Limited Service Pregnancy Centers: Unapologetically Selling Women Lies and Deception

Posted by: Antoinette Bonsignore

This is a battle between “darkness and light,” said Anne Lotierzo, the Executive Director of a crisis pregnancy center located in Fort Pierce, Florida. 

Wednesday night NARAL Pro-Choice WA Foundation presented the remarkable documentary 12^th & Delaware at the Central Cinema in Seattle.  The Seattle showing was the first stop of a nationwide tour that NARAL Pro-Choice America has organized around the country.  The documentary takes an in depth and up close look at the deceptive practices used by so-called crisis pregnancy centers or Limited Service Pregnancy Centers (LSPCs).  The documentarians spent one year observing the practices of an LSPC in Fort Pierce, Florida. They also documented how that LSPC’s presence has impacted the abortion clinic located right across the street.  You can find more information about this documentary and the co-directors, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, here.

Wednesday’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion that included presentations from representatives for NARAL Pro-Choice WA, Legal Voice, a woman that visited an LSPC in Tacoma, and a Seattle ob-gyn.  Washington State would be the first state in the nation to hold these LSPCs accountable to the women that seek out their services.  The NWPC-WA has endorsed the Limited Service Pregnancy Center Accountability Act.  

Keeping Seattle’s Working Moms Healthy and Safe: Seattle’s Paid Sick Days Campaign

Posted by: Antoinette Bonsignore

Is Seattle ready for a paid sick days law?  In Seattle 42% of the workforce has no paid sick leave.  Far more alarming is the fact that in Seattle, 78% of restaurant workers, 55% of retail workers, and 29% of health care workers do not have paid sick leave.  The increased likelihood of spreading contagious diseases is something workers and employers should be very concerned with.  Rising health care costs combined with a sickened workforce is bad business for all employers. 

Paid sick days benefits would create a healthier and more secure Seattle workforce.  It would ensure that workers could stay home when they are sick without losing a day’s pay.  When sick workers are forced to go to work they not only increase their own healthcare care expenses but those of their coworkers.  Sick workers cost employers productivity and spread disease.  For workers in the services industry, like restaurant workers and grocery store cashiers, they risk making the public sick as well.  In Washington State most workers in the food service industry or those working directly with the public have no access to paid sick leave. 

The workforce segregation resulting in women working mostly in health care services, child care, and retail in Washington means that women take the brunt of the consequences of having no access to paid sick leave.  The lack of paid sick leave is particularly troubling for working mothers.  When working mothers cannot afford to take a day off to care for a sick child that child is oftentimes forced to go to school, spreading disease to other children and teachers. 

The Media and Sexual Assault Victims: Blame and Hate Flood the Conversation about CBS’s Lara Logan

Posted by: Antoinette Bonsignore

It did not take long for yesterday’s shocking news that CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was sexually assaulted last Friday amid the celebrations in Egypt’s Tahrir Square to invite hate filled commentary.  Bloggers and people posting comments on the internet vacillated between either victim blaming or ramping up the already vile Muslim bashing throughout the media.  A good deal of the victim blaming has been coming from female bloggers focusing in on her blond hair and good looks; but also from respected journalists.  Journalist Nir Rosen has since resigned as a fellow from NYU’s Center on Law and Security amid backlash for his sickening comments; he went so far as to tweet “I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get…”  This kind of victim bashing is particularly shocking coming from other women in the media. 

Instead of discussing the dangers that female journalists experience overseas, many have also resorted to the predictable suggestions that all Muslim men are savages and rapists.  NPR was so inundated with such hateful posts from readers, either blaming Logan for daring to do her job or suggesting this crime was proof positive that Egyptians are evil and undeserving of democracy, that they were forced to remove posts from their website. 

Thankfully, at the Daily Beast, Ursula Lindsey instead chose to speak about the unique dangers female journalists face in foreign countries; even recounting her personal experience of being a near victim of sexual assault while reporting from Egypt in 2004. 

The GOP's Ongoing War on America's Women and Children: Demonizing Women's Choices

Posted by: Antoinette Bonsignore

The sponsors of “The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” (H.R.3) do not seek to codify the existing the Hyde Amendment to prevent federal funding of abortions – there is no federal funding of abortions in the U.S.  The sponsors of H.R.3 seek to go far beyond the Hyde Amendment to prevent all women from obtaining abortion services.  In 1976 the Hyde Amendment created a two tier system that discriminates against poor women seeking abortions.  But now H.R.3 would increase taxes on people and small businesses by specifically targeting private health insurance plans that cover abortion.  More than 80% of health insurance plans cover abortion and those plans would become ineligible for government reimbursements for health care costs.  It will raise taxes on anyone with private insurance that covers abortion regardless of whether you use the abortion coverage in your plan or not.  The inevitable consequence will be that insurance companies will stop covering abortion services. 

According to a Guttmacher Institute study “…87% of typical employer-based insurance policies in 2002 covered medically necessary or appropriate abortions.”

H.R.3 would effectively ban abortion coverage in the new health insurance exchanges that will be created under the Affordable Care Act in 2014. 

H.R3 would also impose tax penalties on those who pay for abortion care or coverage by:

·         Denying tax credits to employers or other entities that pay for health plans that cover abortion

·         Denying tax credits to individuals or entities that pay for abortion care

·         Disallowing medical deductions for payments for any health plan that includes abortion coverage or for any medical expenses related to abortion care

·         Treating as income any amounts paid for an abortion from a tax-preferred trust or account, such as a health savings account

Yet the GOP’s war on women goes well beyond H.R.3.