Wednesday, February 18, 2004

I am looking down the list of candidates who sought the endorsement of the Allegheny County Democratic Party in the upcoming primaries.

There is not a single woman on it.

These are people interested in running for U.S. Congress and Senate, the Pennsylvania Legislature, attorney general, auditor general and treasurer, and there's not one female among them.

Now I am looking at the appointees to Pittsburgh's new fiscal oversight board, which will wield enormous power over the city's future for the next seven years. No women on the list there, either. Or minorities. Or anyone under 60.

If this is moving boldly into the new century, then we must have hit a time warp because it looks more like 1904 than 2004 to me.

With all the problems we are facing in this city and this state, it's wasteful and self-defeating to sit on top of so much untapped talent. "Business-as-usual" helped get us into this hole. It's going to take some new ways of doing things to get us out.

Take, for example, that all-male roster of candidates on the Democratic endorsement list. That is a function of several lamentable factors: women's reluctance to run; the old-boy party's failure to recruit and equip them; the donors' failure to support them.

Republicans are doing a much better job on this score. The statewide Anne Anstine Series for Public Excellence recruited and assisted 20 GOP women candidates last year, and several of them won local office.

Much to its shame, the Democratic Party has no equivalent to this program. The party leaders grind their teeth when Jane Orie lectures them, but what are they doing to find and mentor her counterpart?

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania ranks 44th in the nation for the number of women legislators, according to the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. The ranking is actually a slight gain over the past few years -- but only because other states have slipped.

Now take a look at who is doing the appointing of the city's fiscal oversight board: Gov. Ed Rendell chose John Murray, 71, former president of Duquesne University. Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona, named Jim Roddey, 70, former chief executive of Allegheny County. Senate Democratic Leader Robert Mellow of Lackawanna named David O'Laughlin, 62, who tried and failed to develop a maglev transit system here.

Two more appointments are still to come.

House Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese of Waynesburg said he'll choose Jim Smith, a bond underwriter with Merrill Lynch, Downtown. So any diversity on this panel would have to come from House Speaker John Perzell, R-Philadelphia.

"The decisions about who gets to be on this board are being made by state-level officials, and they're all men," said Allyson Lowe, a political science professor who directs The Pennsylvania Center for Women, Politics, and Public Policy at Chatham College.

"There is research to show that women in government are more attuned to bringing other women into government. They're more conscious of it."

There are many ways to describe the board's appointees so far -- experienced, well-connected and familiar with the city. They are also all older white male insiders -- not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but there is also nothing wrong with being younger, female or black, yet no one of those descriptions was called upon.

Sure, it's possible for an unrepresentative panel to save Pittsburgh, if its members are wise, fair and able to rise above their vested interests to serve the greater good.

In the end, what they are won't matter nearly as much as what they do.

How much will the former influence the latter? We have seven years to find out.

Sally Kalson can be reached at 412-263-1610 or skalson@post-gazette.com.

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