Women in Politics: Breaking Down the Barriers to Achieve True Representation by Mary Chung Hayashi; Sacramento, California: MKC Press; © 2023; ISBN 9798989-003921; 186 pages including extensive end notes; $38.99 (hardback).
SAN DIEGO – Former California Assemblywoman Mary Chung Hayashi has written a guidebook for women seeking political office, discussing some formidable obstacles to their success and some strategies for winning. The book is divided into three major parts: “Inspiration,” “Barriers” and “Achieving Gender Parity.”
The narrative is a blend of her own experiences with commentaries from other women in politics as well as from some men. Although no mention was made of the fact that they were Jewish, the names of at least nine men and eight women of our faith found their way into Hayashi’s story.
Some, for better or worse, were mentioned just in passing, such as Madeleine Albright, her father Josef Korbel, Rebecca Bauer-Kohan, Michael Bloomberg, Norm Coleman, Doug Emhoff, Dianne Feinstein, Mark Leno, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Harvey Weinstein.
Others merited repeated references: Fellow Californians Sally Lieber, Sunny Mojonnier, and Darrell Steinberg, as well as State Senators Lauren Book of Florida and Sandy Pappas of Minnesota.
Steinberg, today the Democratic mayor of Sacramento, was a member of the state Assembly in 2004 when he authored a ballot measure (Proposition 63) known as the Mental Health Services Act that imposed a one percent tax on incomes over $1 million to pay for mental health programs. Hayashi, who had served as founding president of the National Asian Women’s Health Organization, had a particular interest in mental health because her older sister, Bo Yoon, had committed suicide. In addition to her job serving as executive director of the Capitol Unity Council in Sacramento, she became the Alameda County Coordinator for passage of the ballot measure.
After that campaign, Hayashi ran successfully for a state Assembly seat. Steinberg “invested his time and energy in offering me countless advice and guidance,” Hayashi wrote. She quoted him as saying, “I feel I have an obligation to help women and people of color. To me, it’s part of my responsibility.” Fellow Jews may read between the lines: Steinberg is strongly motivated by the concept of tikkun olam, repair of the world.
Later, Steinberg served as president pro tempore of the state Senate. Even though he has been Hayashi’s mentor, he declined to endorse her in an unsuccessful 2014 bid for the state Senate. She wrote that was because Steinberg was “leader of the Senate, and he had close ties to other candidates running in my race.”
Another reason that went unmentioned in Hayashi’s book may have been the fact that she pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of attempted shoplifting in 2011 at a Neiman Marcus store in San Francisco. She was fined $180 and sentenced to three years’ probation. Her attorney, Douglas Rappaport, said a benign brain tumor and a cell phone distraction might have resulted in her acting so out of character.
Joyce “Sunny” Mojonnier, a Republican Assemblywoman who represented a northern San Diego County district from 1982 to 1990, was cited in Hayashi’s book as a positive role model for female officeholders.
Because of her gender, Mojonnier was not allowed into the Sutter Club – a place where male members of the Legislature met informally. Rather than fight the “boys club,” she started the Capitol Network – a club for women legislators, staff members, lobbyists and journalists – which became powerful in its own right. Capitol Network members discussed best practices, how to overcome obstacles that female politicians face, and encouraged each other.
Sally Lieber, who currently chairs the California State Board of Equalization, was elected in 1998 as mayor of the Mountain View City Council and went on in 2002 to become a member of the State Assembly, serving as its speaker pro tempore in 2007-2008. Hayashi wrote that during her own first campaign for the Assembly, she received each week a 20-30-page memo from Lieber about upcoming events, networking opportunities, and fundraising. After Habashi’s election, Lieber was “an important role model for me as I learned the ropes in Sacramento.”
Lieber ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2012 and 2020. She won a seat in 2022 on the state Board of Equalization. She serves on the advisory board of the San Franciso section of the National Council of Jewish Women.
Lauren Book represents part of Broward County in the Florida State Senate. A survivor of sexual abuse by her nanny, Book “realized that she could use her traumatic experience to help others,” Hayashi wrote. She quoted Book as saying, “When you go so long in your life without a voice, you can’t stand by while others remain voiceless.”
Sandy Pappas has been a Minnesota State Senator since 1990 and served as its president from 2013 to 2017 when Democrats were in the majority. She was replaced in that position by Michelle Fischbach, a Republican who went on to serve as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, and a member of Congress.
How can more women be elected to public office?
Pappas responded, “Mentor women and vote for women.” This advice is sometimes easier given than accepted. Sometimes, women fear that there can be only one woman at a time in a leadership position, Hayashi wrote. Pappas recalled that one woman who headed a Senate committee “didn’t value having other women legislators on her committee, so she didn’t let anyone else in.”
Although Hayashi’s book was published as recently as 2023, time and events move on. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein died and Laphonza Butler, who is identified in the book as president of Emily’s List, was appointed as her interim replacement.
I wondered why some prominent California women were not mentioned in Hayashi’s book including March Fong Eu, Barbara Boxer, and San Diegans Lynn Schenk, Susan Davis, and Toni Atkins. State Sen. Atkins served as both Assembly Speaker and as state Senate President pro tempore, the first woman to do so. She’s now running for governor.
Notwithstanding some noticeable omissions, I recommend this book for anyone—female or male—who seeks public office because it contains a wealth of hard-won political wisdom.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
I have to laugh. On another level, the first time I ran for School Board our male lobbyist patted me on the shoulder and said I needed to act more like a man if I was to win. One of my opponents campaigned by telling people at the door that Sue Braun takes “money from Jews”. I also got a death threat over the phone that the FBI were able to trace and stop. Susan Davis had also gotten the same kind of treatment when she ran for office in the beginning. Being a Jewish woman makes it that much harder. I have not asked Shana Hazen if she got any of that.