Women jumping into gubernatorial frays
By Dee-Ann Durbin
Associated Press
DETROIT — The day Jennifer Granholm was elected Michigan's first female attorney general in 1998, she said she was proud to be shaking the shards of that glass ceiling from her hair. Now she's done it again.
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The Harvard-educated lawyer trounced two well-known male opponents in the Democratic primary Tuesday to become the first woman nominated for Michigan governor by a major party. She will face Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus in the general election this fall.
Democrat Jennifer Granholm will face Republican Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus in the Michigan governor's race this fall.
Another female candidate did not fare so well as a record 27 percent of Michigan's 6.8 million registered voters cast primary ballots: Four-term Democratic Rep. Lynn Rivers was ousted by Rep. John Dingell, the longest-serving member of the House.
Rivers had challenged the 23-term veteran on abortion, the environment and gun control but ended up losing 59 percent to 41 percent. Dingell is expected to win this fall in the heavily Democratic district west of Detroit.
"Campaigns are a whole lot of different things — it's TV and radio and mail and it's personal contacts with a lot of people," Dingell said yesterday. "Our efforts in this were extraordinarily successful."
Granholm is one of 19 women running for governor in 17 states, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Six are Republicans and 13 are Democrats, including Kathleen Sebelius, who was unopposed in the Kansas primary and will take on GOP nominee Tim Shallenburger in November.
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Already, a record number of women — five — are serving as governors, in Arizona, Montana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Delaware. Three are Republicans and two are Democrats.
Republican Linda Lingle is considered one of the top contenders in the Hawai'i gubernatorial race.
Center spokeswoman Gilda Morales said she expects the number of female governors to double in November. Granholm and Sebelius are considered strong candidates, while all the Arizona candidates are women as are top contenders in Hawai'i, Democrat Mazie Hirono and Republican Linda Lingle.
Morales said the influx of women isn't surprising: In 1994, voters elected the largest number of female statewide officeholders ever and those women are now seeking their states' highest office.
Granholm didn't mention her gender after her primary victory or at a party breakfast yesterday. But she made subtle references to it throughout her campaign against Rep. David Bonior and former Gov. James Blanchard.
"If you want the same old, same old, I'm not your man," she said during a debate last month. She made a similar comment in a recent TV interview and winked at the camera.
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The women who are being elected governor have generally held statewide office before. New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen was the state Senate president when she first ran in 1996; Arizona Gov. Jane Hull was secretary of state when she ran the same year.
Lt. Gov Mazie Hirono is another top canditate for the next Hawai'i governor.
Of the current candidates, Sebelius is Kansas' insurance commissioner and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is Maryland's lieutenant governor. Hirono is Hawai'i's lieutenant governor.
"These women were very well known in their states. They had held high office before," Morales said. "That's a new phenomenon."
In Kansas, Sebelius' nomination was hardly groundbreaking. The late Joan Finney, a Democrat, was state treasurer when she was elected governor in 1990.
But in Michigan, which elected Debbie Stabenow as its first female senator in 2000, Granholm's nomination was cheered by fellow Democrats.
"We are going to produce a historic victory in Michigan in November," Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said.
