Prominent GOP Women Seek to Expand Their Ranks

Wanted: More Republican women like County Supervisor Marian Bergeson and Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer.

Not women who necessarily share their political views, but women who share their party and their success. Not women to mop up along the campaign trail, but women to lead the charge.

That’s the driving force behind a private meeting today organized by Bergeson and Brewer (R-Irvine), two of Orange County’s most prominent women politicians, at the Huntington Beach home of another notable Republican woman, Haydee Tillotson.

All three agree there is a burgeoning crisis in the Republican Party in California--a gender gap--caused by a lack of support for women in the GOP ranks. Bergeson and Brewer have been successful in spite of the party’s help, not because of it, they say.

“Women should not be discouraged, they should be encouraged,” Bergeson said.

The three have mailed invitations to about 40 other Orange County women to join a brainstorming session that could lead to the formation of a county chapter of the year-old Seneca Network, a group that hopes to unite Republican women statewide.

The group is named after the town where the suffragette movement was born, Seneca Falls, N.Y. The group’s goal is to provide support for Republican women encompassing all views, with no litmus test on issues.

“It’s obvious that women generally have not been elected to public office in the same number that men have, and there are a number of very, very qualified women,” said Tillotson, who dropped out of a special election in the 67th Assembly District last November for fear of splitting the Republican vote. “That’s where our emphasis is going to be placed.”

While the Democrats in California have seen their number of female elected officials swell, the Republicans have lost numbers statewide. The state Legislature currently has only four female Republicans: Three in the 80-member Assembly and one in the 40-member Senate.

There are no Republican women in the U.S. Senate. Only one of 52 female members of the House of Representatives sits on the GOP side of the aisle.

Brewer, who was elected to office in 1994 by defeating two men in the primary, said the men in the GOP are recognizing the problem.

“That’s the good news,” Brewer said. “During the past year that I have traveled and interacted, I hear [national GOP Chairman] Haley Barbour saying we need more women being elected, I hear [state GOP Chairman] John Herrington saying it.”

Herrington’s daughter, Victoria, is one of Seneca’s four founders, a fact Brewer said is “very significant.”

Diann Rogers, the executive director of Seneca, said the idea came from another brainstorming session. Their conclusion was that very little money was being directed toward female candidates.

Such an organization gives women candidates a single forum to make their pitches. Each Seneca member has pledged a minimum of $50 to at least two GOP candidates per year. Members are allowed to donate to whomever they want.

“We do not endorse,” Rogers said. “This is not a PAC. There is no single issue that guides us in any direction. . . . “

None of this is really a new concept.

“The truth of the matter is that the guys have been doing this for a long time,” she said. “It will be very unusual to have women getting together to raise money and give women a good chance to win an election.”

Times staff writer Gebe Martinez contributed to this report.