It's almosts 2018; Where are the Female Candidates?

    Where are the Women?   

A new report from the Sacramento Bee confirms what we have known for a while; the number of female elected officials in California falls far below the goal of fifty/fifty by 2020, the goal of the many women's political groups, both nationally and internationally. It's 31% (or 149) of the City Council seats in 482 California Cities, 69 more than two years ago, but still not parity. In the Legislature, the numbers have actually been going down: 26 as opposed to the 31 in the 2015-2016 session. or 22%. 25% of Supervisors in the 58 Counties are women, and about 42% (or 137) of Mayors are women. Of those only Libby Schaaf of Oakland is the Mayor of one of the ten major cities. 

Mayor Libby Schaaf, Oakland

We do have 2 U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and newly elected Kamala Harris, but only one Statewide officeholder, Controller Betty T. Yee. Now Fiona Ma is vying to become State Treasurer and former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin is running for Governor. And Green Party member, and former Mayor of Richmond Gayle McLaughlin is running for Lt. Governor.

It's a start. Now it's your turn. Think about what you might run for, on the local level, first. City Council, School Board, Water Board, Hospital Board and on and on. The positions are there. Don't let them go begging.

        Run to Win!

Need help figuring it all out? If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, or even if not and you can get here, the Marin Women's Political Action Committee is having a mini-seminar in Running for Office, the basic nuts and bolts, how to get endorsements and raise money for your campaign. August 23, in San Rafael. It's only $30, including a buffet dinner and helpful handouts from experts in the local campaign world, yours truly and others in GreenDog Campaigns, my consulting firm among them. Go to www.mwpac.org and sign up today.