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Democracy
USA Advisory
TIME TO RECALL THE REPRESENTATION GAP Women and racial minorities nearly shut out of major statewide offices State Spotlight: The October 7
recall election in California may elect the state's first governor who is
not a white male, but U.S. Senate remains without blacks or
Latinos Washington, DC – August 12, 2003 – Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the frontrunner in California’s recall election, but he would be following Ronald Reagan’s path from Hollywood to Sacramento. A win by Arianna Huffington, Cruz Bustamante or Peter Camejo would be truly historic because California has never elected a governor who was not a white male. In 2002, women candidates received much attention in high-profile gubernatorial races, but only six women now serve among our 50 governors. The number of women in Congress did not change, and the number of women in state legislatures actually declined. Racial minorities are even more poorly represented in governor’s mansions and the U.S. Senate, with only one of those 150 offices represented by an African-American or Latino. Our elected representatives also poorly reflect the racial diversity of our population. According to the 2000 census, racial and ethnic minorities make up 38% of the U.S. population, but they make up only 3% of the U.S. Senate and 7% of the U.S. House. Only one state has elected a black governor since reconstruction, and Bill Richardson of New Mexico (a Latino) and Gary Locke of Washington (an Asian-American) are the only current non-white governors. The growth of women elected to Congress appears to have peaked following 20 years of increases. The highly-publicized “Year of the Woman” in 1992 nearly doubled the number of congresswomen, but since then progress has slowed. According to The White House Project, (www.thewhitehouseproject.org, 212-785-6001), women make up only 13% of Congress and 22% of state legislatures. That ranks 52nd in terms of women representation around the world. “Thirteen percent doesn’t make for a representative
democracy. We certainly aren’t a democracy from the standpoint of
representation of women and people of color,” said Marie C. Wilson,
president of the White House Project. “When you have women in state
legislatures they support issues of concern to women, but more
importantly, they change the process. They make it a democracy because
they bring more people into the process and make it more
transparent.” The California recall election showcases our representation gap. Despite being our largest state and, after Hawaii, our second most diverse, every elected governor has been a white male. (Romualdo Pacheco served as acting governor in the 1870s.) More than a third of Californians are now Latino, and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (who in 1998 became the first Latino to win statewide office) and the Green Party’s Peter Camejo seek to become the state’s first elected Latino governor. Independent Arianna Huffington seeks to become the state’s first women governor. Democracy USA is a new initiative designed to protect, enhance and exercise the power of the right to vote. Its November 21-23 Claim Democracy conference in Washington, D.C. has backing from several leading national organizations. For more information visit www.DemocracyUSA.org.
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