Eleven years ago, Jeremy Alford was sitting inside Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, holding his newborn daughter, Zoe, while watching then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco announce on TV that she would not seek a second term.
“Like most others tracking election hopes at the time, I wasn’t surprised by the news,” Alford recalls in his latest column. “Blanco had been battered by the politics of Hurricane Katrina, and her prospects weren’t great. Still, sitting there with a baby girl in my arms, I felt like Zoe had been robbed of an opportunity to spend her first, formidable years knowing that a woman could occupy the Governor’s Mansion.”
That sentiment rang true again years later, when Alford tried to find a coloring book—or any book—about Louisiana women at the Old State Capitol, and yet again later when Zoe learned more about America’s long line of chief executives and innocently commented that only boys could be president.
“Like any other parents, my wife and I always advised her otherwise,” he writes. “And like normal parents, we made sure our girl’s upbringing has included more than just politics and government. But it’s still a topic we discuss often.”
As he prepares to celebrate his daughter’s 11th birthday, Alford says there seem to be ripples in our electorate that point to a different trend. He notes that of 47 legislative districts that LaPolitics has reported on thus far, 25 have women candidates ready to run.
“If the stars align just right,” Alford writes, “they could be enough to make a difference.”
Alford points to data gathered by the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics as well as the National Conference of State Legislatures, which shows the Louisiana Legislature saw its high water mark for female membership under Banco, when 17% of the elected body were women. The figure dipped under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, from 16% in his first term to 11% in his second.
“Today, the Louisiana Legislature has a 15% female representation, placing it at the bottom of the national list alongside Alabama and Mississippi. The national average is 25%,” Alford writes.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
