“Never underestimate the power of a woman,” Nellie McClung, Canadian suffragist and author, said a century ago. RECENT polls have put the governor’s race at a dead heat, with U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and independent Greg Orman hovering within a point of each other.
Wichitan Lynn Stephan may never have heard of McClung, but she certainly has seized on the idea that women are perfectly capable of effecting change.
According to an Associated Press account, the social club Stephan once helped established has “morphed into a bipartisan grassroots political organization calling itself Women For Kansas,” with the goal of ousting the state’s conservative leaders.
WFK is one of many local-level groups having an impact in today’s political arena.
Top statewide races are fist-tight today, in large measure because Stephan and others have turned to social media to help overcome the cash that has flooded the state on behalf of incumbent Republicans.
Notable: When Stephan’s Women For Kansas met in Wichita in August, more than 500 women came to the sold-out event.
Organizers say they want a fair, progressive tax system that adequately funds public education, the arts and health care; improvements to voting rights; and a court system free from political influence.
Local groups have picked up on what in the past was found on the right, i.e. the Tea Party and those with very special interests. A good many moderate Republicans — considered liberals by those on the far right — also have joined in and thrown their weight, and votes, behind challengers.
Paul Davis has had support of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense, a consortium of moderates, from early on in his efforts to unseat Gov. Sam Brownback.
In Allen County many long-time Republicans have confounded friends by signing onto Davis and other Democrats.
What occurs in the next few days — with the general election less than two weeks off — will be exceedingly interesting. The prospect is a barrage of political ads, many likely to reach new lows in negativism, will fill airways and mailboxes.
The outcome may well depend on the lasting power and influence of such organizations as Women For Kansas.
And don’t ever count out a woman.
— Bob Johnson
Will women have their way Nov. 4?
