Women Senate Candidates Celebrate ‘New Era’ With Fund-Raiser

The National Women’s Political Caucus celebrated the start of a “new era” Thursday with a gala fund-raising event to mark the extraordinary success of women candidates so far this year.

“In 1992, everything’s coming together,” said Harriet Woods, the group’s president. “This represents a new era--when women are winning because they’re qualified and voters see them as the agents of constructive change.”

But Woods, who lost a 1982 Senate race in Missouri, added a cautionary note, saying, “It’s a long, tough road from June to November.”

Those attending the fund-raiser included Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), who along with Dianne Feinstein overwhelmed male candidates to win dual Senate nominations in California’s Democratic primary on Tuesday. Boxer noted that California alone could double the number of women in the Senate to four.

“It’s really almost like a tidal wave out there,” Boxer told a cheering crowd.

Boxer also quoted a line popularized by Feinstein during the primary campaign, saying, “Two percent may be great for milk, but it isn’t good for the U.S. Senate.”

Feinstein did not attend the event. An aide said she spent the day at her office in San Francisco, telephoning her thanks to supporters and seeking to raise money for her fall campaign.

Joining Boxer at the fund-raiser were Democratic Senate nominees Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Lynn Yeakel of Pennsylvania and Jean Lloyd-Jones of Iowa, as well as two women who are among four candidates vying for the Democratic Senate nomination in New York--former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro and former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman.

Also at the event was one of the Senate’s two women members, Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who said, “This is history in the making . . . I’ve been waiting for six years for new Democratic women to come to the Senate, and in 1992 it’s going to happen.”

Several speakers said the contentious hearings that the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted last October on sexual harassment charges against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas galvanized their interest in seeking office.

Yeakel said she was watching the tough questioning of Thomas’ accuser, law professor Anita Hill, by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), when she decided Specter should be defeated “and if nobody else is going to go after him, I’ll go after him.”

After beginning her campaign as a virtual unknown, she won an upset victory in Pennsylvania’s April 28 primary.