First female lieutenant governor for Pa.?

By this time next week, Pennsylvania will almost certainly have its first female lieutenant governor-elect.

Both major candidates for the second-highest state office are women -- Republican Jane Earll, who is running alongside Attorney General Mike Fisher, and Democrat Catherine Baker Knoll, running with former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell.

In light of Pennsylvania's record on electing women to statewide office, some say this development is extremely significant.

Pennsylvania currently has one of the worst records in the country for electing women. The White House Project, a non-partisan group aiming to get more women into public office, ranks the state 48th out of 50 in women's political participation.

"When we have women on the ballot, it says women belong" in politics, White House Project Executive Director Beverly Neufeld said. She added she is particularly pleased about Earll's and Knoll's candidacies because they are both experienced in fields where people sometimes find female candidates lacking.

Earll is a state senator and former prosecutor, while Knoll used to be state treasurer.

Neufeld also pointed out that lieutenant governors often become governors, and that four out of the five immediate past presidents have been governors.

Political analyst Terry Madonna said that the presence of a woman in the lieutenant governor's office is significant because it increases the probability of Pennsylvania choosing a female governor.

"I view election to some offices as sort of ladders," said Madonna, who directs Millersville University's Center for Politics and Public Affairs. "Pennsylvania's close to the point where it could elect a woman governor."

But while the experts say the candidates' gender is significant, they maintain that lieutenant governor candidates do not influence election outcomes.

"Voters don't cast votes based on their candidacies," Madonna said. "[It's] not a serious consideration. You'd think it would be different because the last two lieutenant governors have served some time as governor.

"In reality, you wouldn't know they were a heartbeat away."

Lt. Gov. Mark Singel took over when Gov. Robert Casey fell ill in 1993, and Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker became governor when Tom Ridge was appointed head of the federal Homeland Security office following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"There's no evidence that people care any more about the lieutenant governor candidates this year than they have in years past," said pollster Berwood Yost, director of Millersville's Center for Opinion Research. "Voters don't know much about either of these candidates."

The Fisher campaign says that people are not aware of Knoll and her political positions because Rendell is "hiding" her.

"If that is indeed their strategy, though Catherine Baker Knoll denies that that's their strategy, the general idea is, why make an issue out of something that takes away attention from the real race," Yost said.

The Rendell campaign claims that Knoll has been spending a lot of time campaigning in western Pennsylvania.

There is also a third woman in the race for lieutenant governor -- Green Party candidate Vicki Smedley, former president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Network.

About the Series

Every Friday until the gubernatorial elections in November, The Daily Pennsylvanian will run an article analyzing the major issues on the minds of Pennsylvania voters and how the major candidates are addressing them.

As polls change, as the advertisements start to heat up, the DP will focus on the angle coming from each candidate's campaign and the perspective provided by political experts and non-partisan analysts, as well as how ordinary Pennsylvanians react to the messages of Ed Rendell and Mike Fisher.

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