Total Women in Congress Declines From 16.3% Representation

Women Senators, 2008RedTracker| Since Bonnie Goldstein wrote her Politics Daily post, Democratic incumbent Patty Murray has been declared the winner in Washington State. Republican incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski continues to await the results of her potentially successful write-in bid in Alaska. Senator Murkowski was dumped by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party crowd. Palin called her decision to run as an independent as ‘shameful’.

Clearly, Senator Murkowski has a lot of support from the voters of Alaska, who may well have not liked the sequence of events in Alaska politics. When Mrs Palin speaks of the ‘will of the people’ (as if we’re all one unappy family in agreement on issues), she’s not speaking of the rights of Alaska’s citizens to vote to retain their current senator.

While women soar in political representation in other countries, American women are going backwards, breaking a three-decade run of ever-increasing representation in Congress to a paltry 16.3%. In our hearts, the majority of American women appear to believe that men are better at governing our lives.

Prior to Tuesday’s election there were 56 Democratic women in the House of Representatives and 17 Republicans for a total of 73. For the upcoming 112^th Congress, the exact number of women’s places in the House is still not certain — in 4 contests involving women candidates remain unconfirmed. but the number of GOP congresswomen projected to win seats rises to 23, while the headcount of Democratic congresswomen is expected to drop to 47. 

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will give up her gavel. There is a lot of talk that many Democrats want Pelosi to run for Minority Leader and stay for the next big fight.  The Speaker won her own California district by a landslide on Tuesday.