Electing more women to a state Senate a few X chromosomes shy of sensible
|
Version 0 of 1. At 4:30 in the afternoon, Jill McCabe’s third shift began in a cul-de-sac in suburban Virginia. She started her day 12 hours earlier, getting one kid to swim practice before dawn, then getting the other kid to school. After that, she went to work at Inova Loudoun Hospital, where she is an ER doctor and a medical director. Exhausted for her yet? Just wait until we get to that third shift. She’s running for office, a Virginia state Senate seat that covers parts of affluent Loudoun and Prince William counties in one of the hottest races this election season. It’s an important race on Tuesday that could tip the political balance of the Virginia Senate. And in a state that flips blue-to-red faster than a police squad car light, it’s also the warm-up for the quadrennial battle for Virginia to win the White House. The nastiness in this race for Virginia’s soul has been epic. And, more tellingly, a little sexist. Only seven of the 40 state senators are women. It’s a pretty sad representation for more than half the population. And in their male majority, this legislative body is known to get stuck in fraternity theatrics and clubby deadlocks. During each election cycle, poll after poll shows that women are the ones most fed up with the political process. [Trust me guys, women aren’t going to vote for the guy with the biggest ad] So, McCabe, a power woman with a power husband (he’s the associate deputy director of the FBI), and two power kids (11 and 13) who sometimes go door-knocking with her, decided to try and do something about it. And it has been ugly. She is taking on incumbent Sen. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun), a longtime politician who served in the state’s House of Delegates for eight years before his election to the state Senate in 2012. He has gone after McCabe hard. When the heavily edited video clips of a Planned Parenthood doctor being duped by an imposter into talking about the donation of fetal tissue surfaced, Black, 71, used that to accuse McCabe of being a doctor who “supports selling late-term abortions for bigger body parts.” PolitiFact gave him a Pants-on-Fire rating for that one. [Dick Black says Jill McCabe backs selling fetal parts for profit] When McCabe, 47, started getting some serious funding and support, Black tried to slam her in a tweet comparing their qualifications. For himself, the former Marine combat pilot listed résumé items such as “delegate,” “accountant,” “career prosecutor” and — wait for it — “herpetologist.” Yes, he lists his reptile hobby as a qualification for office. He dismissed McCabe (and working parents everywhere) with only two résumé items: “doctor” and “mother.” Of course, being a father and grandfather doesn’t even register with him as an experience that could inform legislation affecting people’s lives. [The Twitter war of the sexes is getting nasty in Virginia] And this, right here, is Virginia’s political problem in a nutshell. A laser-like focus on divisive issues that split across party lines rather than a concentration on the granular, unsexy, day-to-day issues that show up when you’re stuck in traffic, looking for child care or going to the doctor is what’s deadening a legislative body that’s a few X chromosomes short of common sense. It’s the doctor’s first foray into politics. And it’s because she’s angry about all this. “I was frustrated with the politics in Richmond and decided to run,” she explained to a woman who opened her townhouse door to McCabe’s knock during an evening door-to-door she did before heading to a community meeting on power lines. There, between two smiling scarecrows and a swarm of pumpkins, the two women talked about politics. Not Republican this or Democrat that. The folks opening those doors don’t really want to talk about late-term abortions or baby parts or even guns — despite what all those political ads hammering them would tell you. Tolls, power lines, all-day kindergarten, jobs. That’s what they want to talk about. And that’s why McCabe, a Democrat, is hoping to unseat Black. Not just because he spends his time sending little pink plastic fetuses around when there’s a vote about women’s health choices. And not because he used his official powers this spring to send a letter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad calling his army’s actions “heroic.” And not even for all the other appallingly tone-deaf, testosterone-addled things that Black has said that made Emily’s List target him. She’s angry because she’s so used to groups of men like this. Most power women are used to being the only woman in the room. And they’re used to working twice as hard to get their voices heard. When she’s not in administrative meetings acting strident, or bossy or any of the other words that describe women in leadership roles, McCabe spends 12-hour shifts interacting with people from all walks of life who come to her in their worst times, the result of often unimaginable circumstances. Gun control? Okay, McCabe — who has guns in her home (remember, the FBI thing) will talk about it like a public health issue, about the people with mental illnesses who come to the ER and have access guns at home, about the victims who come in because of accidental shooting. Abortion? Okay, she’ll talk about the tough time she has “helping women from getting into those ‘choice’ situations.” A plan to charge some commuters for using Interstate 66 inside the Beltway? While some of her Democrat peers like the idea, she’s opposed, hearing from working folks about how costly commuting is. But mostly, in the ER and on the doorsteps, they talk and talk to her — tolls, schools, small business — all the things that barely make a whisper in Richmond. Twitter: @petulad Read more Petula Dvorak: |