Patricia White's trouble with NOW
NO ONE deserves support just because she is a woman.
But no female candidate should be marginalized by a group that purports to represent women, either.
Those are joint themes of a story involving Patricia White and the local chapter of the National Organization for Women.
White is a candidate for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council. She finished sixth in the recent city preliminary election. On election day, the top four vote-getters will win at-large seats.
If White, the daughter of former mayor Kevin H. White, cannot upset the preliminary election results, she is out. For that reason, she is reminding voters that if she is not elected, Boston will have no female at-large city councilor for the first time since 1973. At a Monday rally, White also showcased her credentials on issues important to women, such as healthcare, elder care, and education. She worked on their behalf at the Heinz Foundation, Work/Family Directions, and Boston Partners in Education.
Her credentials do not impress NOW, which did not endorse her.
According to Emily Hall, acting director of NOW's political action committee, endorsements are based on an analysis of a candidate's stand on five issues: abortion rights, economic justice, racial justice, gay and lesbian rights, including same-sex marriage, and domestic violence. All candidates are invited to answer questionnaires; some are invited in for follow-up interviews.
NOW endorsed three male at-large candidates -- incumbent Felix Arroyo and challengers Matt O'Malley and Sam Yoon -- because ''their answers perfectly matched our issues areas, they have lots of energy, lots of ideas, and they will really stand up for women's issues," said Hall. She said White, while prochoice, was not ''as strongly committed to all areas of reproductive rights" based on the information she provided via questionnaire.
Hall declined to say which candidates were interviewed. White said she was not. ''I was disappointed. I felt that given that they are an organization for women, I would have liked them to reach out. I've never spoken to them and never met them," she said. As a result, she said, she does not understand their reservations. ''I am prochoice, period," she said.
To some women who support White, NOW is best described as ''then." Susan Tracy, a political consultant and former state legislator, believes it is important to have a female perspective ''at the table," with the understanding that not all women think exactly the same about all issues. ''For NOW to get so locked up in ideology is to fundamentally miss the whole reason why their organization exists. It's just wrong," Tracy said.
White does not have her father's ability to take the merest sliver of an idea and run lyric circles around it.
But, is that what the Boston City Council needs? Adult supervision and attention to serious issues would be preferable to poetry. It's all talk and little action now, with a yen for headlines, not results. When did the Boston City Council last accomplish something important or even try? It exists mainly as a feeder of hopes for higher political office.
If you spend time talking with White, you realize that she loves the city and embodies a family-bred sense of political history. She wants the council job and is working hard to earn it. And she is a natural bridge between old and new Boston. She, her husband, lawyer Isaac Fine, and 2-month-old son, William, live in Roslindale. They represent the kind of young family Boston needs to hold onto. If White can articulate the concerns of young families, she can be their connection to Boston City Hall.
She has until election day to make her case. Her famous political surname is not enough. Neither is gender, with or without NOW's blessing.
If NOW defines political muscle as the ability to undercut women who do not precisely share their ideological priorities, that is not good.
And if White bases an entire campaign on gender, that is not good, either.
Joanne Prevost Anzalone, a veteran from the Kevin White years, said she told Patricia White: ''You are not going to win because you are a woman. You are going to win because you are a good candidate."
That is sound advice, from one political generation to the next.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
