COMMENTARY ON POLITICS : It’s Time for Women to Take Leading Roles on Electoral Stage : In Orange County, as across the nation, powerful changes are coming. Women must seize the opportunity.

Like it or not, the rules have changed. How big the change may eventually be is anybody’s guess, but many believe it could be downright cataclysmic. It is not prompted solely by radicals, reactionaries or zealots. The change is women and how they’re getting politically involved. It’s happening all over the country, including Orange County.

What sparked this political change is a matter of debate. Certainly, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and the William Kennedy Smith rape trial were major factors. The question of whether the U.S. Supreme Court will overrule Roe vs. Wade is also pushing more women to get involved in politics.

Women’s assertiveness has already impacted the political process as evidenced by two recent U.S. Senate primary elections. In Pennsylvania, Lynn Yeakel, a first-time candidate, beat out the male incumbent lieutenant governor to win the Democratic nomination. She’ll run against incumbent Republican Sen. Arlen Specter in November. In Illinois, Carol Moseley Braun defeated incumbent Sen. Alan J. Dixon to become the Democratic nominee. These are races where women turned political interest into political clout and emerged victorious.

Women are enthusiastic, realizing that they can make the difference in what has traditionally been a male-dominated political system. Women activists from all political persuasions are now mobilizing behind candidates and causes. Recently, a group of Republican women formed WISH List (Women in the Senate and House) to elect their own pro-choice women candidates, augmenting the Democrats’ EMILY’s List (Early Money Is Like Yeast--”It makes the dough rise”), which was designed for the same purpose.

The change is not limited to women supporting just women. Women are also supporting male candidates. Yet, while women have typically played a supportive role, relatively few women have successfully made the transition from casual supporter to political power broker, from backstage to onstage roles. But here, in Orange County, we’re seeing a real change.

Several local elected women have long played key roles, such as Marian Bergeson, Harriett M. Wieder, Sally Anne Sheridan and Evelyn R. Hart. Others who have traditionally been involved with mobilizing and fund raising include Charlotte Mousel, Lois Lundberg, Audrey Redfearn, Dorothy Hughes, Anita Ferguson, Eileen Padberg, Jackie Heather, Shirley Ralston, Angela (Bay) Buchanan, Sara Katz and Lynn Turner.

Yet there remains a great deal of room for politically confident women and new players. Some Orange County women who are stepping forward and actively joining the mobilization and fund-raising efforts for candidates include Janice Johnson, Tricia Nichols, Nancy Skinner, Pat Cox, Karla Bell, Pat Callahan and Lisa Hughes.

Even though Kathryn Thompson, who was always involved in Republican fund raising, caused a stir when she co-hosted an event for Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, she recently obtained a Bush Administration appointment, showing that her Republican standing is intact.

More Orange County women are becoming candidates, including Lisa Mills, Jo Ellen Allen, Arlene Sontag, Iris Swanson and Debra Allen. Patricia C. Bates, Molly McClanahan, Rhonda McCune and Doris Allen are all involved in tough open primary battles. Judy Ryan is running for Congress against incumbent Robert K. Dornan, and Mary Hornbuckle is running for the Assembly against incumbent Gil Ferguson. Ryan and Hornbuckle have both been criticized for trying to unseat incumbents.

Coming up the ladder from elected or appointed posts are Eileen Krause, Linda Moulton-Patterson, Melody Carruth, Helen Wilson, Pat Krone, Mara Brandman, Paula Werner, Sharon Cody, Joanne Coontz, Mary Ellen Hadley and Maureen DiMarco.

This is new and risky stuff. Running for office, standing up for a candidate or raising money is courageous for many women. Orange County’s women leaders are learning firsthand about the confrontations and hard-ball antics often entailed in a contested race.

It must be underscored that the key to women’s political assertiveness and successful campaigning is raising money. Yet, while women may be motivated, when asked to contribute to a campaign or to conduct a fund-raiser, many women are frequently reluctant. Women often shy away from writing a check for a candidate because it is assumed the money will be wasted or that it won’t make a difference.

Women must come to understand what men learned a long time ago, that money is the mother’s milk of politics. Without money, a candidate cannot buy the brochures, advertisements and name-identification he or she needs to get the message out to the voters. What good is it to back a candidate if there has been no opportunity through advertisements and brochures to get the candidate’s message out to other voters?

Politics requires taking sides, and women stereotypically avoid conflict. Rather than sidestepping controversy, women must realize that getting behind a candidate early in the race, while it may displease the opponent’s supporters, is part of the political maneuvering process. From risk comes opportunity--and from opportunity comes power. You cannot win if you don’t play the game.

Women in Orange County are increasingly taking the initiative to back candidates through fund raising and by running for office. But it does take strength to be out in front. There are plenty of people who would prefer to inhibit these efforts and don’t like women’s political activism. Why? Because there are customary back-room decisions, with party bosses who would prefer to control the nominations. Challenging incumbents and funding an opponent is considered to be “overstepping the boundary.”

These women are right to take the lead in fund raising and in running for office. More women ought to be doing it. They won’t gain political clout until they do.