Does Roys' election to Assembly foreshadow a November shift?

Steven Elbow  —  9/17/2008 5:49 am

It's a small one, but the election of Kelda Helen Roys to the 81st Assembly seat is a step in the right direction for those who want to close the gender gap in the state Legislature.

The 29-year-old former executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin was ensured a seat in the Assembly after she bested five other candidates -- all men -- in the Democratic primary. No Republicans entered the race for the general election.

Roys took the race by just 4 percent of the vote over her nearest rival. She will represent her native north Madison, Waunakee and outlying communities.

Some say her gender played a role in the highly competitive race.

Justin Sargent, an aide to state Sen. Judy Robson who came in second by 277 votes, ran an energetic campaign that matched Roys' effort in terms of organization, money and hard work. While conceding that Roys got the jump on him by starting an aggressive full-time effort early, he said, "I think she stood out in a field of six candidates."

Democratic Rep. Dave Travis, who is stepping down as the 81st District representative after 30 years, watched the campaign carefully. He says a few factors led to Roys' victory.

"I think the fact that she had north side roots there, and she had a ton of money -- and c'mon, one woman against five guys? That's pretty compelling."

While many decry voting on the basis of gender, there are others who think that if some aspect of Roys' gender gave her an advantage, it should be bottled up and sold to other qualified female candidates.

"It's very important," said Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who was a key endorser of Roys. "We're a long way from equity."

Of the 132 members of the Legislature, only 30 are women -- 8 in the 33-member Senate and 22 in the 99-member Assembly. That's 22 percent, slightly below the national average of 23.4 percent, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And it's on a downward trend. There were five more female lawmakers in Wisconsin in 2003 than there are today.

While political observers are focusing on whether or not Democrats can gain control of the Assembly after 14 years of Republican rule, for some the gender gap is an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. It has prompted Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton to try to recruit more women for state and local elections, and it was one of the reasons Falk lent her considerable advice and support to Roys' campaign.

For women, there is hope. If all things remain the same, Roys has narrowed the gap by one. In the event that all women running in the general election win, there would be 14 more women in the Assembly and one more in the Senate.

While they're unlikely to win them all, they will get some. In the 57th District, where Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, is retiring, two women -- Democrat Penny Bernard Schaber and Republican Jo Egelhoff -- are vying to replace him.

And in the 47th District, where longtime Rep. Eugene Hahn is stepping down, Columbus School Board President Trish O'Neil is considered in a strong position to win her race against Republican Keith Ripp, a town of Dane supervisor and president of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.

While Roys' gender may have conferred some advantage, observers credit her with running a smart, savvy campaign.

Travis, who announced his retirement in May 2007, said he was impressed with the campaigns of both Sargent -- "He worked his butt off" -- and Roys.

But Roys was the first out of the gate.

"Kelda called me the morning I quit," he said. "She was the first to call."

She went to work and never let up.

"I can probably count on one hand the days I took off from doing doors," she said.

Falk is a longtime friend of Roys' father, progressive activist and attorney Arthur Thexton, and she has known Roys since she was born. And after Roys graduated from law school and delved into activism, serving on the board of the ACLU of Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Bar Association's Legal Services Committee, which arranges legal help for low-income people; and a host of other causes, Falk saw a promising leader.

"I see these younger people and I see the ones who do the work and get things done," she said. "And that's her."

A 10-year county executive who has run for governor and narrowly lost the 2006 race for state attorney general, Falk knows something about political campaigns, and she jumped into Roys' campaign with both feet, hosting weekly strategy sessions and arranging radio ads and robo calls.

"She did the program we developed for her," Falk said of Roys.

But in the end it was Roys who did the hard work.

In a race that promised a meager turnout -- county-wide, it came to 6.2 percent-- Roys said she sought votes from all political stripes, even winning support among some Republicans during her endless walks through the district.

"I think they were impressed that I would talk to them and, more importantly, listen to what they had to say," she said. "I'm not just the representative for the Democrats. I'm the representative of everyone in the district."

Steven Elbow  —  9/17/2008 5:49 am