How do female candidates fare under the Clean Elections system?

Excerpts from a brochure titled "Women.Legislators.Leaders. Personal Stories - Women Speak Out in Support of Clean Elections", written by Eric Palmer, Campaign Strategy and Research Director at Northeast Action.

View the entire document online

Women are underrepresented in American government due to many factors, including a history of discrimination and disenfranchisement, as well as a relative lack of access to money to run political campaigns. The role that Clean Elections can play in increasing the representation of women is beginning to unfold. It captured national headlines in 2002, when Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano ran and won her campaign relying solely on public funding. But the real news is happening behind the scenes, in living rooms and small cafes, where friends are talking to friends and thinking about running for office.

Clean Elections plays to women's strengths.
Surveys show that women legislators tend to spend more time with constituents than do their male colleagues. Clean Elections encourages that, while privately funded campaigns force candidates to devote time to a smaller number of large donors, who often live outside their district.

More women are using Clean Elections.
A greater percentage of women candidates than men are using the new public funding systems in Maine and Arizona. This has been consistent every year. Surveys of candidates in Arizona and Maine found that the availability of public
financing was a very important factor in women's decisions to run.

Women using public funding are financially competitive.
Among Maine Senate candidates in 2002, women running with public funds raised $2.54 for every $1 raised by privately financed women. Among House candidates, Clean Elections women raised $1.21 for every $1 raised by privately financed women. The pattern was similar in Arizona, although the differences were less dramatic.

The promise of Clean Elections is demonstrated not only by well-known officials - such as Arizona's governor - but also by lesser-known leaders such as Rep. Deborah Pelletier-Simpson of Maine. Pelletier-Simpson, a waitress, was urged to run for office in 2000 by a customer in her restaurant. She thought she could never do it, she said, because she was a single mother. "Then, I thought about it for a moment and I thought, 'Well, maybe that's the reason I should.'"

USING CLEAN ELECTIONS TO ELECT MORE WOMEN TO OFFICE

As this message from a popular bumper sticker reminds us, women can make great leaders. In the last few decades, American women have shattered misconceptions and demonstrated their ability to lead in every sector
of society. The courageous women who went first, and the determined women who followed, prove every day that a society which encourages each of us to reach our fullest potential is stronger, more productive, and more able to make the world a better place.

But some spheres are more resistant to change than others. Political leadership is one where glass ceilings still exist. One reason for this: raising the huge sums of money required to run for office is still mainly a man's game. Now, in a growing number of places, women who can't fund their own campaigns or who don't have access to donor networks have a choice. They can enter the relentless fundraising fray, or they can "run clean" and spend more time talking to voters.

Clean Elections has qualitatively improved the campaigns of women running for office. It has eliminated the time candidates spent soliciting funds from large private donors and increased their contact with constituents, their personal satisfaction and fulfillment. The Clean Elections movement is still in its infancy. What would it take to turn its promise into the reality of equal representation by women in elected office? Advocacy groups, especially women's groups, can lead the way:

• Recognize campaign finance reform as a women's issue. A healthy democracy encourages everyone - regardless of gender, income, or race - to participate;



• Where Clean Elections exists, promote it in communications, endorse women candidates who use it, and encourage members to run for office using it;



• Where Clean Elections do not exist, point out the corrosive effect private money has on issues women care about, and fight for passage of Clean Election laws.

Of course, the problem of money in politics goes beyond campaign financing. The system is embedded in a complex world of political practices, most of which depend heavily on money. These problems all need to be addressed, and Clean Election reform is a critical step in this direction. Using Clean Elections, and with encouragement from family, friends, organizations and communities, more women can run for office and continue breaking barriers
to equal representation.

The preceeding was taken from a brochure titled "Women.Legislators.Leaders. Personal Stories - Women Speak Out in Support of Clean Elections", written by Eric Palmer, Campaign Strategy and Research Director at Northeast Action. It was edited by Janet Groat and David Desiderato. You may view the entire document at http://www.neaction.org/women.legislators.leaders.pdf