Women inch closer to parity in Congress

[jackson_dem]

-snip-

Democrat Jackie Speier was sworn in Thursday to represent California’s 12th Congressional District, two days after a overwhelming and widely anticipated special election victory that made her the newest U.S. House member. And her win to succeed the late Democrat Tom Lantos in a district in and south of San Francisco carried historical weight. It restored the number of women in the U.S. House to 74, tying a record high originally set at the beginning of the current 110th Congress.

That total includes delegates from the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, who do not have the full voting rights held by the House members from the 50 states. There are presently 16 women senators, also an all-time record.

Speier’s election fully restores women House members to the level they enjoyed at the start of the 110th Congress in January 2007, after the number briefly dropped back to 73.

Three women who were re-elected in 2006 died during the course of the 110th Congress, and only one, Democrat Juanita Millender-McDonald of California’s 37th District, was succeeded by another woman, Democrat Laura Richardson . The late Republican Jo Ann Davis of Virginia’s 1st District was succeeded by Republican Rob Wittman and the late Democrat Julia Carson of Indiana was succeeded by her grandson, Democrat André Carson.


http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002702439

[tekisui]

1. Very good!

We need more women in elected office.