All of the men running for statewide office in Tennessee – Lamar Alexander, Bob Clement, Phil Bredesen, Van Hilleary, and Ed Sanders are aggressively recruiting the votes of women. Winning elections is really very simple. You have to get more votes than your opponents do.
Politicos know that the candidate who gets the most independent and undecided voters will win the election. Just about everyone agrees that Tennessee is now one-third Democrat, one-third Republican and one-third Independent. It is going to be a real race between now and November 5, and I guarantee that Tennesseans going to see the most aggressive campaigning ever because all of the candidates know they have to get a majority of Independent voters in order to win.
Who are the Independents in Tennessee? I think that many Independents are women. I also believe that women are labeling themselves as Independents - often because we are tired of all of the posturing by the Democratic and Republican Political Parties. Women, like men, want more action and less grandstanding – and sometimes women call themselves Independents because we do not like any of our choices.
So women, get ready. If they are smart, all of the candidates are going to court our vote.
I have first hand experience working in campaigns. I have been a paid campaign staffer, full-time 24/7 never take a day off till the campaign is over, and I have also been a volunteer, working nights, weekends and holidays. What I have observed in campaigns has been inspirational and frustrating. I have seen women achieve great things, and I have also watched campaign directors who are chauvinist pigs. Most of these men were threatened by women and insecure and did not think women were smart enough to really advise the candidate about key issues. Campaigns have been just like the real world – the playing field has not been level for women. In the past, most of the high paying campaign jobs that had power went to men. Has that changed in Tennessee? I wanted to find out.
It sounded like a simple request. I wanted to know what jobs do women have on the campaign staffs of candidates running for statewide office? So, I sent the same questions to the leading candidates who want to be Governor, as well as United States Senator, from Tennessee. The question was easy to understand. I submitted a written request to the Clement, Alexander, Bredesen, Sanders and Hillary campaigns that said, “List the top 5 paid positions that women hold in your campaign. State a two-sentence summary of the qualifications that these women have and the work they are doing. These are not volunteer positions, but only salaried women who are working for the candidate.” One of the campaigns did not, or could not, list five women in top paid positions.
This was an easy inquiry to answer. All the campaign director had to do is pull out an organization chart and either email or fax me their answers. Any nitwit could have answered this question but you would have thought I was asking for their tax returns and the key to their finances by the way some of their representatives acted. Some of the managers only listed job responsibilities instead of the background or qualifications of women hired by the campaigns. Made me suspicious, like some of these folks had something to hide.
I decided not to compare apples and oranges or, paid vs. unpaid –volunteer workers. I am not taking anything away from volunteers. Media advertising can certainly win and lose campaigns and the readers of this column know the importance of volunteers who work around the clock to help their candidates. But I was really curious. Are the men running for office hiring women for the key positions in their campaigns? Every person I called said, “Yes, we have lots of women working here.” One representative even said (and I am not kidding) “ I ‘ll get one of the guys to call you back.” All of the people said many women were working on every statewide campaign, but in what roles, I wanted to know. Were they hiring a majority of women on their staff but then taking only men with them to the important strategy meetings? Were any women selected for the key positions of any campaign such as Campaign Director or Manager, Press Secretary, Scheduler, Finance Director, or Research Coordinator?
All of these men are asking women for our vote but are they inviting us into their inner circle and ---are these men paying us to join them there?
Here are their answers listed alphabetically by candidate within each race.
Top Women–Alexander for Senate Campaign www.lamaralexander.com
1. Susie Alcorn - Title - Campaign Manager
Qualifications – Managed Ed Bryant’s Congressional and Bob Corker’s Senatorial campaigns, worked for Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, and served as Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Employment Security for the State of Tennessee for Governor Don Sundquist.
2. Stephanie Fitzgerald - Title - Finance Director
Qualifications - Deputy Finance Director in 1995-96 and Finance Director in 1999 for Alexander ran for President campaigns. Fundraiser of major donors for the Republican National Committee including Convention and Inaugural -- as well as for the United States Chamber of Commerce.
3. Mandy Zeigler - Title - Scheduling Director
Qualifications – Served as Vanderbilt University as Peabody College’s Assistant Director of Development, worked in Senator Fred Thompson’s office, the Republican National Committee, and was a PAC Director for the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC)
Top Women – Clement for Senate Campaign - www.bobclement.com
1. Susan Markham -Title - Campaign Manager
Qualifications - Managed three other statewide political campaigns and a national political action committee
2. Carol Andrews - Title - Press Secretary
Qualifications - newspaper reporter, editor, public relations consultant, and the communications coordinator at the Tennessee State Employees Association
3. Linda Rotunno - Title - National Finance Director
Qualifications - Served as Director of the Institute of International Education Professional Exchange Programs; previously with the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Democratic National Committee
4. Jo Vincent - Title - National PAC Finance Director
Qualifications raised money for other United States Senators including John Breaux, Fritx Hollings (SC), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Ben Nelson (NE), and Kent Conrad.
5. Joyce McDaniel - Title - Finance Director for Victory 2002
Qualifications - Owner, Perennial Services Network, past President - National Women’s Political Caucus, Finance Director - Bob Clement for U.S. House of Representatives
Top Women – Bredesen for Governor Staff - www.bredesen.com
1. Cathy Thomas - Title – Finance Director
Qualifications – 25 year of political fundraising.
2. Melinda Medlin - Title – Director of Scheduling & Advance
Qualifications – 10 years of experience in public affairs
3. Renee Ennix - Title – Director of African American Outreach
Qualifications – MBA and 20 years of experience in project management and network planning at BellSouth.
4. Lydia Lenker - Title – Press Secretary
Qualifications – 18 years of experience in radio and television news covering state politics
5. Nancy Schelin - Title – Director of Operations
Qualifications – 10 years of sales experience
Top Women – Hilleary for Governor Staff - www.vanhilleary.com
1. Kim Kaegi - Title – Finance
Qualifications – Founder and principal with Kaegi Resources – a Nashville based fundraising firm
2. Emily Booker - Title – Political Director
Qualifications – BS University of Tennessee, oversees statewide political campaign structure
3. Jen Coxe - Title – Press Secretary
Qualifications – Develops campaign message and spokesperson for candidate
4. Carolyn Denny - Title- Deputy Communications Director
Qualifications – BS Vanderbilt, oversees website development and monitors press releases
5. Laura Tarumianz - Title – Grassroots Victory Director
Qualifications – BS Vanderbilt – plans statewide events
Top Women–Sanders for Governor Staff-www.edsandersforgovernor.com
According to Bill Haley, who is a volunteer and the Middle Tennessee Coordinator for the Ed Sanders for Governor Campaign, there are no paid positions on the Sanders for Governor campaign staff. Haley said there are a number of influential Nashville women participating in key volunteer positions but since this column is only about paid staff workers, not volunteers, I am not including their names. Otherwise, we would be listing both volunteers and paid employees in the Phil Bredesen, Van Hilleary, Bob Clement and Lamar Alexander campaigns and that is not purpose of this column.
All the men running for statewide office say they are sensitive to issues that are important to women – healthcare, pay equity, corporate accountability, prescription drugs and national security. But, are these men who want to be our Governor and U.S. Senator actually hiring women in the leading positions on their campaigns?
I am not going to interpret the answers the candidates sent me. Is there a woman as powerful as Karen Hughes working in one of these Tennessee campaigns? Readers of this column are smart enough to figure out what their answers really mean but the next time one of these men ask you to vote for them, or ask you for money, why don’t you ask them about the number of women they have in key positions? After all, if we --women, are good enough to give them money and to vote for them then we are certainly smart enough to be hired by them.
Next month’s column will address the politics of increasing the minimum wage. Find out why some candidates are opposed to helping women earn a livable wage.
Saralee Terry Woods is President of BookMan/BookWoman Used Books, an author and President of bookmanbookwoman.com. Her email is saraleewoods@bookmanbookwoman.com
