Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.31) on April 01, 2001 at 20:23:
A Jewish Woman's Place Is In The Senate
Gabriella Burman MARCH 03, 2000
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When Sen. Paula C. Hollinger (D-11th) first arrived in the state legislature in 1978, she was the first woman to win a seat from her district, and there were only 770 women legislators at the state level nationally. A nurse and mother of three, she carved out a niche sponsoring legislation on health care and education, as a delegate and, since 1987, as a senator.
Today, at 60, she is vice chairman of the Senate Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee, and one of 1,669 female legislators at the state level nationally.
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Like her constituents and co-legislators, Ms. Hollinger "plays the great American juggling act," she says. She has children and grandchildren, a husband, a job and an aging parent. The fact that everyone is juggling, she says, fosters camaraderie among lawmakers, and enables her to connect with voters. "You can't represent people unless you know them," she says, and she makes a point during door-to-door campaigning to stay on someone's doorstep until she does.
It was unfortunate, she says, that in the 1990 redrawing of political lines, she lost 80 percent of her constituency to a then-newly created 10th District and to population shifts that turned the majority of the 11th District Republican.
The redistricting turned her 1994 win into an "uphill battle," recalls Ms. Stevens. "I had to campaign hard," says the senator.
Ms. Hollinger is worried that redistricting next year will have the same effect on the 2002 campaign. "It will not be a good thing," she warns. She balks at the thought of losing the southern portion of her district, which encompasses Pikesville, to the 42nd District (Baltimore City/County), which will need to pick up precincts in response to the city's shrinking population. Regarding Pikesville, where she resides with her husband, Paul, a packaging engineer, she says: "those are my voters."