A record number of women are running for the state legislature and seven are from the local area.

Declaring 2008 the "Year of the Woman," Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced that 102 women are running for the General Assembly this year, compared to 99 in 2006 and 91 in 2004.

Bysiewicz, a Democrat, said the state has made progress, but more women are still needed in the legislature. While two-thirds of Connecticut's statewide elected officials are women, only 28.3 percent of the General Assembly is female. The legislature has 53 women today, compared to 44 in 1983, according to Bysiewicz spokesman Adam Joseph.

"At the top, it might look like women are doing well, but we have to make more progress," Bysiewicz said.

Bysiewicz credited Democrat Ella T. Grasso's historic 1974 gubernatorial victory with inspiring generations of women to run for public office. Grasso was the first female governor elected in her own right, rather than being the widow or wife of a past governor.

Local women running for office agreed Wednesday that women have come a long way and said women make strong candidates, due to their local connections.

"A lot of politics, at the end of the day, is about relationships between people," said Elizabeth Esty, Democratic challenger in the 103rd District, "and women are very good at building relationships."

Esty, of Cheshire, said female challengers will thrive using the state's new public campaign financing system. She said they can easily identify the network of small donors needed to become eligible for the public money.

Many women, she said, develop "broad networks" through their local involvement on groups such as PTAs and religious organizations, which they can tap into as political candidates. The perception that women cannot raise money, she said, is not true.

Recent research, however, indicates that public campaign financing does not make women more likely to run, said Vincent Moscardelli, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut. The recent research looked at public campaign financing programs in Maine and Arizona.

Esty and other female candidates agreed that it is hard for younger women to run for office when they have to balance the demands of a family and a career.

Long-time Democratic incumbent Mary M. Mushinsky, of Wallingford, knows about this firsthand. Mushinsky, who represents the 85th District, was pregnant twice while serving in the legislature, in 1987 and 1989. She said she can relate to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

"I had a crib in my office and those kids actually got their start at the Capitol," said Mushinsky, of Wallingford.

When she started as a representative in 1981, she said, most women in the legislature were of retirement age, but an increasing number of younger women have been elected through the years.

Mushinsky described a culture change at the Capitol as well. She said the legislative building in the 1970s had a small room decorated with fake palm trees, known as the "Hawaiian Room," that amounted to a men's bar. Female legislators, in turn, created their own lounge area for the Order of Women Legislators, she said.

Incumbent Rep. Mary G. Fritz, of the 90th District, was president of the Order of Women Legislators for two terms. When she was first elected in 1982, "there was just a preponderance" of men in the legislature, said Fritz, a Democrat.

Women, she said, make good politicians.

"I believe (constituents) feel the women don't play games so that if they come to us with a problem, we will try to get a resolution," said Fritz, of Wallingford.

Incumbent Democrat Catherine F. Abercrombie, who is running for the 83rd District, said there is a "great opportunity" for women in politics these days, since there are women in the state's executive branch, such as Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Many women, she said, start locally.

"A lot of us start at the local level with grassroots activities," she said, "and I think that women have realized over the years that we really have a voice that needs to be heard."

Abercrombie, of Meriden, started off as a PTO president and won her bid for the 83rd District seat in 2005. Abercrombie also agreed it is difficult for women to run for office when they have young children.

"For me, personally, I would not have run when my kids were younger," she said.

She ran when her children were 16, 18 and 19 years old.

Bysiewicz also credited the state's Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and the Women's Campaign School at Yale University for increasing numbers of female candidates. Esty and her daughter attended the Women's Campaign School in 2005.

gmoore@record-journal.com

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