Women Senate Hopefuls Focus on Economy

WASHINGTON —  Three Democratic women candidates for the U.S. Senate agreed Sunday that they should be elected to help revive the nation’s economy rather than because of their sex.

“The big issue is really not gender. The real issue is moving the economy,” said California’s Dianne Feinstein, appearing with the other women on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Feinstein faces Republican Sen. John Seymour.

” . . . The real family value is a job,” she said. “Women are seen as spear-throwers of change.”

Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois said because women manage household finances, women “can do a better job of managing this nation’s finances, do better with managing the economy and putting people back to work. . . . Women can nurture this economy and this country back to health.”

Braun defeated veteran Democratic Sen. Alan J. Dixon in the primary last March; she faces Republican Rich Williamson. If Braun wins she would be the Senate’s first black woman.

Lynn Yeakel of Pennsylvania--who decided to run because of the Senate’s treatment of Anita Faye Hill during hearings on Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court last year--also called the economy the main issue. Yeakel’s opponent is Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, Hill’s chief questioner.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is 8.2%, Yeakel said, “consistently higher than the national average. . . . We’ve lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs in this state since 1980, when my opponent went to Washington, and $16 billion in federal funding, and those dollars for housing and education and economic development are terribly important.

“So I think that we (the female Senate candidates) share the same priorities of really turning this economy around, focusing on families, investing in people,” Yeakel said.

Feinstein recalled her narrow defeat for California governor two years ago, saying that this year the electorate is more receptive to women candidates. “It’s a very different climate today. People are hurting and looking for change,” she said.

“It’s really the first time in my political life that I have found that being a woman isn’t a disadvantage, that people don’t look at you any longer as if something were wrong with you for running, as if you don’t belong there.”