While scores of Michigan women are running for state-wide and federal offices in this year's mid-term elections, they represent only a small fraction of the candidates whose names will be on ballots in August and November.
MichiganWomensForum.com analyzed candidate filings published on the State of Michigan's Web site prior to the Wednesday, May 12, 2010 deadline. What we've found will be published in a series of posts over the next several weeks.*
Of more than 60 candidates who filed for Congressional seats, eight are women, just 12 percent of field. Seven of the 15 races - the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th and 15th - have no female candidates. Democrat Connie Saltonstall's highly publicized bid to replace Bart Stupak in Michigan's 1st Congressional District ended Monday; Republican Linda Goldthorpe remains in that race. The other seven women candidates are:
2nd: Nicolette McClure, D-Idlewild
10th: Candice Miller, R-Shelby Township
11th: Natalie Mosher, D-Canton
13th: Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit
14th: Pauline Montie, R-Southgate
The only woman who sought to replace term-limited Governor Jennifer Granholm, State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Township) ended her campaign just two days before the filing deadline. Republicans Mike Bouchard, R-Birmingham; Mike Cox, R-Livonia; Tom George, R-Lansing; Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland and Rick Snyder, R-Ann Arbor and Democrats Virg Bernero, D-Lansing and Andy Dillon, D-Redford, will face off in August primaries.
Men will replace women in at least two state legislative seats. All the candidates vying for the seat held by term-limited Rep. Marie Donigan (D-Royal Oak) are men. The same is true for Sen. Gilda Jacobs (D-Huntington Woods) in the 14th District. There is already one "all women" November race; incumbent Republican Sharon Tyler of Niles will face Democrat Cindy Ellis of Sawyer in the 78th District. Other women-only races may emerge after the primaries; in the 71st District, all four Republican candidates are women, and in the 79th, both Democrats are women.
According to a February report issued by the Michigan Women's Commission, 37 women currently serve in the Michigan House and Senate. Eight women senators and five women representatives are term-limited. Over the past 25 years, women's participation in the state legislature has doubled, from 13 percent in the House and five percent in the Senate in 1984, to 25 and 24 percent, respectively, in 2010.
However, the current numbers are significantly lower than peaks of 28 and 32 percent reached in the past six years.
Coming next: How many women are in State House and Senate races?
*Editor's Note: Links to campaign Web sites are provided as we have been able to locate them. A complete and current list of all 1,028 Michigan candidates can be found on the Michigan Secretary of State website.
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