Political Action is Just the Tip of the Iceberg with Pittsfield Women

April 29, 2009

Pittsfield WHEN Organizing Women to Win City Races by Kathy Groob

In 2004 the Pittsfield, Massachusetts City Council was considered by many to be dysfunctional. Still recovering from the loss of the city’s major employer, General Electric, and long-time, dug-in “good old boy” city politics, Pittsfield’s future seemed bleak. That is until a group of women, planning around a kitchen table, decided to take matters into their capable hands.

With a slogan “become an agent of change”, the Pittsfield WHEN organization was formed to “identify and support strong women to run for city council,” said board member Jennifer Stokes. “Our city council had become a joke; there were fights and threats, and they had become completely dysfunctional.” Pittsfield, MA is a city of approximately 46,000 residents.

The group of women met on a Saturday morning and decided they needed to find good capable women to run for city council seats. The plan was to identify and actively recruit women to run in the next election. “We called other women to join our organization and to help us plan and support our candidates,” said founding board member, Ann Pasko.

The Pittsfield WHEN group listened to potential women candidates list their barriers to running for public office. A combination of job issues, children, family obligations and money were just some of those obstacles. The WHEN group mobilized their troops and provided solutions to every challenge.

“We provided child care, child transportation, meal preparation along with campaign coaching,” said Ann Pasko. “We groomed the candidates for speeches and public appearances along with taking care of their personal needs so they could campaign around the clock.”

The going wasn’t easy for the WHEN women. They were vilified by some of the men in the political establishment and were the brunt of negative campaigning. “We were very committed to being positive and the public responded well to our positive message,” said WHEN President, Judy Williamson.

Pittsfield’s WHEN group had some early help from women’s organizations from Boston providing guidance and training. They also formed a PAC and began to raise money to help support their candidates. “We came together and organized very quickly,” added Williamson.

Their hard work paid off. In their first year of existence, the three sponsored candidates won, and two were even the top vote getters. “The electorate was really engaged and the energy they saw by WHEN helped people see that change was needed in our city government,” said Williamson.

Pittsfield WHEN is gearing up for 2010 elections and will be involved in both city and school district races. To learn more or join the organization, visit: http://www.pittsfieldwhen.org/

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