Glaringly notable in the historic Chula Vista District 4 election—come to think of it, both historic district elections this year—is the absence of female candidates.
On Tuesday residents of District 4 in Chula Vista will decide if Mike Diaz, Rudy Ramirez, Eduardo Reyes or Emmanuel Soto will represent them on next year’s city council. Chances are the June election will only narrow the field from four to two candidates.
In November two more men, District 3 candidates Steve Padilla and Jason Paguio will join the winners of next week’s election as they all make a grab for power in the fall.
When it was time to draw district boundaries women were an important part of the discussion, both as members of the council’s districting commission and residents of the neighborhoods who offered their insight and expertise. But when it came time to pull papers and campaign? Nothing but X and Y chromosomes. Carmelita Vinson made an initial attempt to run but was disqualified after failing to get enough eligible signatures supporting her.
Did the other ladies of D3 and D4 have no interest in speaking up for their respective districts or was there some other reason?
Because there are only two people running in District 3, Paguio and Padilla have been spared the burden of early campaigning that includes public forums, media interviews and mud slinging. (Don’t be fooled, the nefarious and soul-draining fund raising is an ongoing drudgery that starts for serious contenders the moment they think about running for office).
District 4’s fab four have been intermittently slap boxing since about the middle of April. Actually, it’s their supporters who have been engaging in the verbal fisticuffs and propaganda battles.
And maybe that’s what was keeping the ladies out of the district scrums this go around.
It would be sexist to believe or say that women are not capable of engaging in dirty politics and negative campaigning. There are enough examples on the local and national levels that demonstrate the finer sex can get just as down and dirty as their male counterparts, though maybe in our dated and chauvinistic mindsets we choose not to acknowledge just how rotten they, too, can be.
Maybe what kept any women from running this go around is an abundance of common sense and not enough time, as in “they don’t have the time” to deal with the shenanigans that go into seeking public office, choosing instead to wield their influence behind the scenes.
What ever the reason is that the first true representatives of District 3 and District 4 will be men, the fact remains that the elections are historic ones. And, as is the case throughout a lot of political history, somewhere in the not distant future a woman is waiting for the right time to emerge from the background and claim her place on the mu-slinging battleground.
