Empowerment

My home state may very well fill all four of its congressional positions with women, come this November. One (Shaheen) seat doesn't come up for competition until 2014. The other three showcase a Democratic incumbent with a large support base (Shea-Porter) and two newcomers. Democrat Annie Kuster goes up and against former congresscritter, Charlie Bass. And the current holder of Bass' former seat, Paul Hodes, will face Palin backed Kelly Ayotte. Ayotte, mostly known for prosecuting cop-killer Michael Addison in a capital case (which sent a black man to the death house, as the first likely execution in the state in nearly a hundred years*) also has the backing of the GOP establishment.

Each woman currently runs either even, or better than her male contender. In a state which propelled Clinton over Obama.

Somehow, I imagine, my wife will gain "empowerment," should this occur. By magic, I guess...


* - I knew the man Addison murdered. In a strange twist of fate, the man he murdered had once saved his life, several years prior to their fatal encounter. Briggs was a good man. Not something I'd usually let myself write about a cop. Ayotte's fame was made, on this case. She got an easy sell:  poor, hard-case black man, with a history of violence versus white "hero" cop, in an alley in the only minority neighborhood of the state's largest city. In a state with a very few non-white people, with a not-insignificant skinhead and race group presence, and a population far more amenable to "dirty Hispanic immigration" arguments than one might expect several thousand miles away from the Mexican border, but snuggled up against an uncontrolled, poorly managed and porous Canadian one...