Change is coming to California's North Coast.
For ten years I’ve been on the Board of the Westhaven Community Services District; we are a local public agency that provides drinking water to 237 households in Westhaven, California. Being a director is an unpaid elected position, but nobody on our Board has been elected because elections have not been contested for over a decade. No one has really wanted the job because it takes time and, let's say, it isn’t exactly a step up to a political career. It’s more akin to being a member of the local volunteer fire department.
So all the current directors were appointed to replace a resigning or dying member via a majority vote of the Board.
Two months ago, our Board president resigned and we needed to replace him. The Board decided to put a flyer into the water bills we send out each month. The flyer asked people to apply for the position. We were dumbfounded at last night’s meeting when five people showed up, all of them women. The common theme was, “I’ve got some time and I’m looking for a way to serve.” All of these women were highly qualified. So we elected the person we thought most qualified, but all of us were heartened by the interest shown and the talent that was ready to serve.
Nothing like this had ever happened before in the history of our district.
I look on this as a local sign of the times and a wonderful harbinger of a new political era. People, especially women, are mobilized. Lots of people — including those in our white, rural community (the largest “minority” here are American Indians) — are looking to contribute and to help bring us along. My gut feeling is that this isn’t a phenomenon limited to California’s North Coast. Look at Patty Schachtner’s stunning win in WI SD-10 and what Democrats accomplished in November’s Virginia’s election.
As Thunderclap Newman would put it: There’s something in the air.