Number of female Delaware lawmakers on decline

• Delaware is still one of three states to have never elected a woman to serve in Washington, D.C.
• The state is ranked 28th in the nation when it comes to women serving in politics.

Women have made great strides in Delaware politics over the last several decades, occupying the state’s highest political offices, like governor and attorney general, and holding several influential roles in leadership and on key budget committees in the Statehouse.

But as women have amassed power in Delaware’s capital, the number of rank-and-file women in the General Assembly is the lowest in 10 years.

The Statehouse included 21 female lawmakers in 2005. There are 15 today, representing 24.2 percent of the General Assembly. By comparison, women comprise 51.6 of the state's population.

“We went backwards,” said former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, the only woman to hold the state's top elected title, from 2001 to 2009, and a longtime state lawmaker. “It seems like the women aren’t running anymore. The ones we do have … I don’t think they are strong enough. You have to be strong to battle the wars in that building.”

Delaware first elected a woman to the Statehouse in 1924, when voters in New Castle County sent Florence Hanby to the state House. Vera Davis was the first woman elected to serve in the state Senate in 1946. She went on to be the first female president pro tem and the first woman elected statewide when she became treasurer in 1956.

Delaware is ranked 27th in the nation when it comes to women serving in politics, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The center grades states based on the number of women serving in statehouses.

Neighboring states vary. Pennsylvania is ranked 39th. Its Legislature, with vastly more positions, is 19 percent female. But neighboring Maryland is ranked seventh, with nearly 32 percent of women serving in its Legislature.

The dip in Delaware numbers is a question that women in politics are having a hard time answering. Some point to losses in elections, like when longtime and influential state Sen. Nancy Cook lost to Republican Sen. Dave Lawson in 2010. Others say recruitment has become a problem.

“If I had a crystal ball, I’d be able to answer that question,” said longtime Wilmington Rep. Helene Keeley. “It’s not without trying to recruit women, or get them involved. The fact of the matter is … a lot of people are turned off from politics altogether nowadays.”

Keeley said there are a lot of households now with two working members of the family. To then be involved in a third job, like politics, which takes up time during session, and then everyday with community meetings, can prove to be a challenge. Next year, Keeley will serve as the chairwoman of the National Foundation for Women Legislators.

“Every family is different, but at the end of the day, a female is still the mother, the wife and, in a lot of cases, still the person who takes care of the laundry, the groceries, the day-to-day operations of the house,” Keeley said. “To put another full-time job on top of that, which a lot of people do, is challenging.”

Keeley remembers what it was like when she first ran for office in 1996; there were nine women in the House, but only two Democrats including herself. But statewide there were several women in elected positions, including M. Jane Brady as attorney general, Minner as lieutenant governor, and longtime state Treasurer Janet Rzewnicki.

Keeley said the decision to run for office is one that requires a lot of questioning.

“Do I really have a chance? Am I going to be able to raise some money? Going to be able to handle any type of scrutiny? Can I do this up against a well-established person, an incumbent,” Keeley said.

For her, she beat a 28-year incumbent. And when she won, things were vastly different.

“I walked into our caucus room; the first thing someone said was, ‘Oh, we have to watch our language now,’ ” she said.

House Minority Whip Deborah Hudson, R-Fairthorne, said she thinks women are clearly accepted when they decide to run for office.

"It's not an entitlement. You must earn your way as a candidate or as a person in leadership," said Hudson, who was first elected in 1994 and then became part of the House Republican leadership in 2012.

She said she's not seeing a lot of women who want to run. The one exception being Eileen O'Shaughnessy-Coleman, who ran against Rep. David Bentz in a special election this autumn for outgoing Newark Rep. Mike Barbieri's seat. Bentz won the election.

Hudson said she is concerned about the lack of women, especially when there are only two with House Republicans, herself and Rep. Ruth Briggs King, R-Georgetown.

Once women are elected, there can definitely be difficulties balancing work, life and being a woman in power, said House Majority leader Valerie Longhurst, D-Delaware City.

“Men are seen as strong and powerful,” she said. “Women stand up to the same thing and they’re [seen as] bitches.”

Women in leadership positions like Longhurst and Senate President Pro Tem Patricia Blevins have said they are doing all they can to recruit women to run for office. A political action committee, Delaware Democratic Women's Leadership Council PAC, was established in 2009 to help women get elected. But in recent years the PAC has been fairly inactive and, according to the latest campaign finance reports, has a war chest of about $1,800.

During the 2014 election cycle, the PAC doled out about $1,800 to candidates, none of whom won their races. Not a single woman running against an incumbent, regardless of party, succeeded in 2014.

Longhurst said it has been a challenge in recent years.

"It has diminished," she said. "We have sought out female candidates. I just don't understand why they're not connecting. It is frustrating because I think women add such a different level and value to the process."

A balancing act

When women run, they win at the same rate as men, said Debbie Walsh, director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. But women and men get into politics for different reasons, she said.

“When we asked men and women why they ran, women said they were interested in making change,” Walsh said. “Men talked about an interest in having a career in politics.”

For state Sen. Nicole Poore, D-New Castle, she said never thought of a career in politics. For years, she bounced around the private and nonprofit sectors with an aim of trying to help people. A political opportunity came on a whim. Poore is one of the newest women in the Statehouse and said that running for office wasn’t something she had ever considered. But after a hard-fought election, she defeated longtime Sen. Dorinda Connor.

“It was a chance that people took on me to run against a 30-year incumbent,” Poore said. “I knew that I wanted to have this job.”

A mother of three kids, including one with special needs, Poore said women who want to run definitely need to have a support system in place. She said she ran because she wanted to help people.

“You have to love what you are going to do. If you’re doing it because you think you’re going to be powerful, or make a lot of money, or if you think you’re going to do it for any of those reasons other than serving the public, don’t do it.”

She said she and her husband had been able to find a structure that works for them. It helped that before her life in politics she spent a lot of time in the business world, where she said she would travel a lot.

“It’s all about finding the right balance,” she said. “As an example, tonight I could go to a really cool event in my district or I could go watch my daughter’s varsity volleyball team go to the playoffs."

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Minner got into politics in the 1970s after first starting out as a per diem employee in the Statehouse and then as secretary to former Gov. Sherman Tribbitt. She ran for office and was elected as a state representative in 1974. While in the House of Representatives, she served on the Bond Bill Committee, before she was elected to the state Senate. A mother of three children and a widow after her second husband, Frank, died of cancer in 1991, Minner said she and Cook worked their way up from the bottom.

"Everybody wants to start at the top," she said. "They don't want to work their way up."

Being a woman in politics requires some sacrifice, Minner said.

"It is worth it if you get the things done you really want to get done," she said, adding that she was particularly proud of the indoor smoking ban she ushered into effect in 2002.

Minner said she hoped to start a place where she could work with women and help them get involved in politics. They need to know what to expect, she added.

"Work," Minner said. "A lot of them going in thinking it will be fun and games, but if you do it right, you work."

Delaware women in statewide and federal positions

A more complicated picture is painted on the federal level, where familiar faces with tight ties have occupied the limited seats in D.C. for years. Delaware is still one of three states, including Vermont and Mississippi, to have never elected a woman to serve in Washington, D.C.

“It’s just been musical chairs,” said Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton. “The Castles, the Carpers and the Bidens, they just move from one seat to another. There was never a chance for any outsider, let alone a woman outsider, to break through that while they played musical chairs all those years.”

At the national level, interest groups like EMILY's List have played a large role in recruiting and supporting women candidates. The group raised nearly $60 million in the last cycle and, according to officials, plans to raise even more in 2016.

In Delaware the pro-abortion rights  group has helped elect several women, including Minner, Keeley and former state Reps. Diana McWilliams and Teresa Schooley.

“EMILY’s List is proud to have worked with and helped elect women up and down the ballot in Delaware, including Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, and we are constantly looking at opportunities to elect more pro-choice Democratic women to office at all levels of government,” said Rachel Thomas, press secretary for EMILY’s list, in a statement. “We are keeping a close eye on the Delaware at-large congressional seat and are excited about the opportunity to finally have a woman’s voice in Congress from Delaware.”

They also reached out to Longhurst to run for Carney’s seat. She said she turned the opportunity down because she wanted to be there for her son, who is a senior in high school.

But Peterson and many women involved in Delaware’s political scene point to 2016 as the year where they could make massive strides. Now, more than ever, there are women running for statewide positions like lieutenant governor and for U.S. Congressman John Carney’s open seat. Carney is running for governor in 2016.

“One thing we are really seeing this year in the statewide races is that we’re seeing as many women run as men, and that is really encouraging,” Blevins said. “That’s one place we are really underrepresented.”

Current lawmakers like Sen. Bethany Hall-Long, Wilmington Councilwoman Sherry Dorsey Walker, and Rehoboth Beach Councilwoman Kathy McGuiness have joined the large pool of candidates for the state’s second-in-command post. Republicans also have gotten in on it as well, with retired state trooper Lacey Lafferty running for governor. Former congressional candidate Rose Izzo is eyeing another run. Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart, a Democrat, is also running for re-election.

Former state Labor Secretary Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, is making a strong run for Carney’s seat and is backed by EMILY’s List, which reached out to other women to run for federal office.

“I think many of us might not see ourselves in our positions, or might not have had the opportunities to actually try for a position such as Congress,” Blunt said.

Contact Jon Offredo at (302) 324-2226, on Twitter @jonoffredo or at joffredo@delawareonline.com.