Remember the folk song that began “Where have all the flowers gone?” Well, I want to know where all the women candidates have gone. My specific question is: where are the women candidates slated by the parties to run for the Indianapolis City-County Council?
There are 25 districts remaining since the Republicans in the General Assembly eliminated the 4 at-large seats held by Democrats.
The Republicans slated seven women. The Democrats slated only five.
As a mere girl, my math skills are understandably weak, but I believe women are over 50% of the voting public. The Republicans slated women for fewer than 30% of the seats; the Democrats–presumably the party of inclusion and women’s rights–slated women in only 20%.
Worse still, each party refused to slate an incumbent woman who’d been effective and hard-working, but difficult for party bosses to control; the Republicans unceremoniously dumped Christine Scales, who had angered her GOP cohorts by demonstrating independent judgment and a willingness to work across the aisle, and the Democrats decided that LeRoy Robinson–who no longer had an at-large seat and needed to “be taken care of”–should get priority over Angela Mansfield, who has ably represented District 1.
Both women had put the interests of their constituents above partisanship. (Isn’t that just like a woman?!)
Bless their little hearts, those girls didn’t listen to their manly betters, and they needed to be removed.
Message sent and received–and isn’t the bipartisanship of that message encouraging?
No wonder more women don’t run for office.
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