Booze, Babes, and Asking Women to Run

Two things crossed my screen this week that seem to go together in some way.

One is an effort by the Womens Campaign Fund, called She Should Run (www.sheshouldrun.com) which asks women to nominate another woman they think should run for office. This strikes me as a grand idea as we could use more women in elected office.

The other was an article in the New York Times on changes to the social life in Albany NY now that Eliot Spitzer is governor, “In Albany life has seeped out of night life,” by Nicholas Confessore, 6/18). Apparantly new rules on lobbying and gifts have put a damper on the bars and nightlife, though coffee shops are said to be booming. (h/t Brett of Pennsyltucky Politics)

This quote in particular struck me:

Some grumble about bad apples ruining it for everybody else. Others say that Albany’s old collegiality owed a lot to lobbyists’ largesse. As one lawmaker, who wished to remain unknown, put it, “It’s funny how when you take away the free booze and take away the babes, people just aren’t as interested in hanging out.”

It seems to me that we have a greater likelihood of getting more women into office once the pathway to political power no longer has a semi-obligatory stop in the lap dance room.