NOW Leaders Run and Win in November Elections

November 14, 2006

In November NOW activists worked tirelessly to create social, cultural and political change in the U.S. by electing candidates who support women's rights. Some members donated to feminist candidates, and others helped by making phone calls, passing out campaign literature, walking precincts and holding up signs, all to convince others to vote for equality.

Many NOW activists and leaders, tired of asking politicians for our rights, took to heart our exhortation to "be the candidate you'd like to vote for" and ran for elective office themselves.

Hundreds of NOW members were elected on Nov. 7 to all levels of political office. We especially celebrate NOW leaders who won elections on that day:

Susan Chew, Idaho State Legislature: Chew is the President of Idaho NOW and is the first Chinese-American ever elected to the Idaho State legislature (Boise, District 17-b). She is an adjunct professor at Boise State University and a licensed pharmacist.

Beth Edmonds, Maine State Senate: Edmonds was elected to her fourth term in the Maine Senate (District 10) representing Freeport. She currently serves as president of the Maine State Senate and is a former National NOW Board member and Maine NOW state president.

Sue Errington, Indiana State Senate: Errington is a former Indiana NOW state president and National NOW Board member, who most recently served as the director of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Indiana. She was elected to the Indiana State Senate (Muncie, District 26).

Barbara Evans Fleischauer, West Virginia House of Delegates: Former West Virginia NOW and Morgantown (WV) NOW President Barbara Evans Fleischauer won re-election to the West Virginia House of Delegates. An uncompromising feminist, Fleischauer sponsored the 1998 West Virginia Equal Pay bill establishing the Equal Pay Commission, which studied pay inequities in state employment particularly in occupational classifications dominated by one sex or the other. Because the Commission discovered significant disparities in pay between women and men, funding was placed in the 2001 state budget to begin to address the disparities.

Anne Gannon, Palm Beach County (Fla.) Tax Collector: Three-term State Rep. Anne Gannon, of Delray Beach, Fla., won her first county-wide election to be Palm Beach County Tax Collector. Gannon, a former state president and National NOW Board member, owns a manufacturing company in Delray Beach.

Terry Schooley, Delaware State Legislature: Schooley was reelected to the state legislature representing Newark, Del., (District 23). She is a former NOW state president and member of the National NOW Board. She currently serves as director of KIDS Count in Delaware, an organization that advocates for policies to improve children's lives.

Patricia Todd, Alabama State Legislature: Todd, a NOW activist and former NOW national staff, has become the first open Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) person ever elected to the Alabama state legislature (Birmingham, District 54). Todd is currently the associate director of AIDS Alabama.

Duchy Trachtenberg, Montgomery County (Md.) City Council: Trachtenberg, National NOW Board member and Mid-Atlantic regional director, was elected at-large to the Montgomery County (Md.) County Council. She is a clinical social worker specializing in treating adolescents.

Kathy Webb, Arkansas State Legislature: With her election to the Arkansas state legislature (District 37) on Nov. 7, Webb became the first open LGBT elected official in Arkansas. Webb is a former National NOW Secretary, a recent president of Arkansas Stonewall Democrats and the founding president of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Chicago affiliate.

Congratulations to our NOW leaders. If we have inadvertently omitted a newly elected NOW leader please let us know.

Information compiled by Linda Berg, Political Director