Southern Belles

"KENTUCKY CRAFTS," the sign says. "You'll come to love them." A stuffed white teddy bear and a blue and white checkered tablecloth adorned the billboard. Not surprisingly, this encouragement to the local economy bears the name of Gov. John Y. Brown. But it also carries the endorsement of Phyllis George Brown, CBS sportscaster, former Miss America and wife of the governor. More than just advertising the products, however, the first lady is also continuing a surprising recent tradition of women active in politics in the South.

The stereotypical image of Southern politics involves politically powerful, usually aging, men wielding great though soft-spoken influence in statehouses and Congress. But weep no more, my ladies, for this image is rapidly changing. Maryland became the first southern state to have an equally divided House delegation; Florida was the second state to elect a woman U.S. Senator in her own right, and the first to send a woman not from an important political family. Last summer, Mississippi held a hotly contested Democratic primary for governor with a woman candidate, Evelyn Gandy. Even conservative Houston, Texas has a woman mayor who apparently will be easily re-elected this fall.

But it is in Kentucky that women have had the most influential impact on state politics. Several years ago, whenever former Gov. Julian Carroll ventured out of the state, Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall used the opportunity to exercise her rights as the acting governor, often to contrary purposes of the governor. In one instance, she vetoed the Kentucky legislature's recession of its ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment--an issue whose legality had to be decided in the courts. This year's gubernatorial election involves the current Democratic Lt. Gov. Martha Layne Collins; Jim Bunning, a Republican state legislator and former baseball pitcher; and "Doc" Stumbo, a Democrat who is running as an independent. Current polls show Collins preferred by 60 per cent of those queried.

Collins current lead is not that surprising in a heavily Democratic state. But one should consider what role sex has played in this campaign. "The people of Kentucky have had ten years to realize that Martha Layne Collins is a woman," the candidate said, and her experience in state government has probably been the most important factor in dispelling any lingering prejudice. She has worked her way up through local and state offices, spending time as clerk of the Court of Appeals for Shelby County before winning election to statewide office. Further, because of Gov. Brown's travels and illness after triple bypass surgery this summer, she has served as acting governor for almost 500 days, over a quarter of Brown's four years as governor. During this time, she has done little if anything to antagonize the governor or the people. One pollster noted that the contrast between her actions as acting governor and Stovall's have been a strong mark in Collins favor. Good exercise of power tends to blur the memory of the perceived bad exercise of power. Anyone who wondered whether a woman could handle the job of Governor of Kentucky could be shown that in fact the commonwealth has had a woman governor for 492 days.

So according to the pollster, being a woman "has hurt her no more than being a Republican has hurt Jim Bunning in Kentucky." While the statement indicates some lingering prejudice against political outsiders, it also shows that a state which voted for Nixon and Reagan can also keep an open political mind.

There have, unfortunately, been some charges of sexism in the campaign. Perhaps modeling his northern neighbor Gov. "Big Jim" Thompson of Illinois, Bunning mounted a platform with rolled-up shirt sleeves to state that the governor has to "butt heads" to attract industry to Kentucky. Negotiations over a debate between the two major candidates also involved the size of the podium for the candidates (Bunning is 6' 3').

If the polls are correct, the Bluegrass State will elect its first woman governor this year. The administration of "Martha Layne" as she is familiarly known to Kentuckians--should help revise the stereotype of Southern politics. Perhaps Kentuckians have learned the truth of their commonwealth's motto--"United We Stand; Divided We Fall." In any event, the sun seems to shine bright on the future of women in politics in Kentucky and throughout the South.