With Election Day a week away, five female senators, citing the need to bring more Democratic women to the Senate, rallied voters and promoted the Women Senate 2006 campaign at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel on Friday.
The speakers, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Debbie Feinstein (D-Calif.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ariz.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) addressed an audience of college students, corporate contributors, elected officials from Massachusetts and other politicians running for office.
Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said the event would help raise awareness of the need to elect more Democrats to the Senate. “2006 is very important, not just for Massachusetts, but for the country,” he said. “Health care, higher education … are the issues that are important to us. A Democratic Senate will make a big deal of difference.”
The senators addressed those issues and others during their speeches. Stabenow in particular addressed the importance of expanding health care coverage to all Americans.
“It is shameful that in the greatest country in the world, health care is not available for every single American,” she said.
Lincoln told The Daily Free Press that it is important to bring a woman’s perspective to health care and other national issues.
“I think women have a lot to offer, and they certainly bring a different and important perspective to these issues that our nation is facing,” she said. “And it’s not just women and family and health care issues – it’s tax, and trade and all kinds of different issues.”
Because of the publicity and success of the event, the future for women in politics appears to be very promising, Feinstein said.
“I think the future is great for women in politics,” she said in an interview. “I think the important thing is that they do their apprenticeship, that they start out on a local level, that they run for school board or city council [and] build up their credentials. Sometimes women don’t do that, and then they lose, and they get very discouraged.”
Having more elected women in politics is beneficial for sending a message to women running for office at any level, Rep. Jennifer Flanagan (D-Leominster) said.
“I think it is important for people to realize that we need more women in government, no matter what level we’re at,” she said. “I think [the senators] are sending a strong message that women can be in leadership in all forms of government, and that it’s important to promote that.”
Rep. Ruth Balser (D-Newton) said it is important to reelect the female senators who spoke at the event because they have strong liberal positions that are being quieted by the Republicans in Congress.
“They are outstanding senators, and we want to see them return to the United States Senate,” she said. “I would support all the Democratic women senators.”
To rally the support of voters in the Boston area, host Barbara Lee, who promotes women’s civic engagement, was responsible for gathering the senators to speak to hundreds of supporters.
Lee said younger voters are especially aware of the importance of voting women to office.
“The college students here tonight — they’re the future,” she said in an interview with The Daily Free Press. “They are going to make it happen.”
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