TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: LOUREY AND MAYBE KISCADEN FOR GOVERNOR

Once again, now that Becky Lourey is running for governor, the story below and this post is even more interesting.

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Lori Sturdevant: Women eyeing a run for governor

As if on cue, here comes state Sen. Becky Lourey.

Finally, there's the prospect that when the candidates for governor appear on TPT's "Almanac," a skirt (other than Cathy Wurzer's) will be on the couch.

Before the senator from Kerrick said last weekend that she's "very, very serious" about making a second try for the DFL endorsement for governor, the absence of a female contender in the emerging gubernatorial lineup had not gone unnoticed, or unlamented.

More than a few Minnesotans, of more than one gender and partisan persuasion, have lately offered this writer their opinion that state government's recent difficulties might have been tempered, had a woman or two or three been in the top leadership circle.

If by that they mean that women have a corner on wisdom, virtue or civility, I don't buy it.

But if they mean (and I think they do) that women have life experiences different from those of men, and that to be truly representative of humankind, lawmaking bodies ought to amply include women, I'm with 'em.

What might have been different last session, if a woman had been a caucus leader or governor? Maybe nothing.

Then again, maybe someone who spent years resolving the conflicts that erupt in the back seat would have a clue about how to resolve a budget fight somewhere short of a state government shutdown. Maybe someone who habitually balances competing needs and demands in her family would better appreciate the value of win-win policy solutions, and not keep pressing for "we win, you fall on your face."

That notion got a warm reception -- naturally -- at the Minnesota Women's Campaign Fund luncheon in Rochester on Sept. 28. So did the hint that one who could fill the feminine void in state government's leadership ranks is the local state senator, Sheila Kiscaden. Her name was mentioned in the same sentence as the word "governor," to spontaneous applause.

"I'm listening," Kiscaden said in response. It's a well-practiced dodge, she admitted, that she's had to employ almost daily of late as speculation swirls about her future.

What's Sheila running for, and in what party? A Kiscaden watch has been mounted that reaches well beyond Rochester, as evidenced by this month's feature-length profile in Minnesota Monthly magazine.

That's in part because of Kiscaden's lonely partisan sojourn. For 10 years, she was a Republican. Only when that party denied her endorsement, largely because of her prochoice abortion stance, did she move to the Independence Party in 2002. Now, she is that dwindling party's sole legislator.

She's also the only Minnesota legislator in modern times to be expelled from a caucus. Senate Republican leader Dick Day gave her the boot in 2004, accusing her of betraying a confidence -- a charge she denies. Since then, she joined the DFL caucus, becoming the only Senate committee chair who was not elected under a DFL banner.

Kiscaden is also a very good legislator. Her record of delivering the goods, at a time when the rest of the lawmaking apparatus is on the fritz, has to fuel interest.

But my hunch is that gender plays a role in the Kiscaden watch, too. Solid research says that, though women have been running for office in respectable numbers for 35 years, they are still widely seen as political change agents. Given state government's recent performance, change could be a hot commodity next year.

Lourey's near-announcement might stifle some of the calls for Kiscaden to seek higher office.

If it's a woman's experience that voters are seeking, Lourey offers plenty. She raised 12 children, eight of them adopted, while founding a business in rural Minnesota with her husband and spending the last 15 years in the Legislature. The death of her son Matthew in Iraq last spring has made her voice only more compelling.

At this still-early stage in the state's political cycle, though, I'd urge Kiscaden's callers to keep calling. Call other promising women, too, in both parties, and urge them to give elective office a try. Women are a long way from parity with men in government. Electing more of them is bound to shake a status quo that needs shaking. Source: Star Tribune, October 9, 2005