Monday, August 28, 2006
This is just silly
Must be a slow news day in Madison.
For a few months, the old image of the political insider - the backroom man and decision-maker who spews cigar smoke and crass talk - will be out of step with reality in Wisconsin. Until November at least, for the first time in nearly 20 years, the chiefs of staff to the state Capitol's highest-ranking politicians are all women.
November's elections will bring at least one change in this bipartisan trifecta of top aides, which ranges from the young Eileen Schoenfeldt, interim head of Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz's office, and Ellen Nowak, of Assembly Speaker John Gard's office, to the veteran Susan Goodwin, the right hand of Gov. Jim Doyle. But for a few weeks, it stands as one example of the slow shift that has brought women into one of the least-known and most influential positions in government.
Women in office are the obvious indicator of their influence in politics, and this season there are several in prominence. The Democratic candidate for attorney general will be a woman, either incumbent Peg Lautenschlager or Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.
The lieutenant governor's race has incumbent Democrat Barbara Lawton and Republican challenger Jean Hundertmark, who's squaring off against primary opponent Nick Voegeli. Congressional races in the state include both women incumbents and challengers.
But control of the chief-of-staff's office gives another picture of women's influence - the backroom kind that's exercised outside of the public eye and often assumed to still be the domain of the good old boys in smoky rooms, said Mordecai Lee, a UW-Milwaukee professor of governmental affairs.
Labels: Election 2006
