Mary Lou Marzian is wrong, GOP men did not target Louisville’s female Democrats: Opinion
In a recent press conference and op-ed, Mary Lou Marzian withdrew from the Democratic primary for the newly-drawn 41st House District. She lashed out at the Republican majority, claiming the GOP men drew districts that specifically target female Democrats.
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For The Opposing View, read "Why women legislators suffer most from redistricting but must continue the battle"
It’s disingenuous for Louisville’s Democratic women to continue this narrative. In the absence of actual facts, Marzian’s comments went ad hominem. She labeled the redistricting “a sadistic and misogynist game of pitting Democratic women against each other” and an “ultra-extreme, right-wing (attack) on every female in the House and every female in this commonwealth.” So, the key question is: Did the GOP men deliberately draw districts that target the Democratic women of Jefferson County?
Obviously, it’s not possible for anyone to draw a political districting map that eliminates women. Women on both sides of the aisle are ready to run for these offices. I’m one of them.
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Also, the facts of the 2022 House races simply don’t support the argument. Lisa Willner, Nima Kulkarni, Tina Bojanowski and Keturah Herron will retake their seats with no opposition. Beverly Chester-Burton will take Joni Jenkins’s seat. Pamela Stevenson will likely defeat her lone Democrat challenger. Whether the man or the woman candidate, an unopposed Democrat will take Marzian’s old 34th seat. If previous cycles predict correctly, a Democrat will take Raymond’s old 31st seat (50/50 chance it’s a woman), and Raymond herself has a strong chance to win the new 41st.
If the men in Frankfort were trying to silence Louisville’s vocal Democratic women, they did a really lousy job of it.
Marzian and her colleagues argue that not only did the GOP men target them, but also they are afraid of vocal Democratic women in the house. When the maps were originally released, she asked, “What are they afraid of?” To the press, she said she was “a voice that the Republicans wanted to get rid of because they were afraid of truth to power.” This cannot be true, either. I do not believe anyone in Frankfort is afraid of Marzian or her colleagues because their arguments and even votes do not affect the outcome of any of the majority’s policies.
It’s true that I sharply disagree with both Marzian and Raymond on what seem to be their primary platforms. Tax and spend. Let women do whatever they want to their unborn children. Advance pet causes without regard to public will. However, I believe they genuinely care about the children in our schools, the hungry on our streets, the neighbors shopping with SNAP benefits. None of that matters in Frankfort, though. Because Louisville’s Democratic women camp on such widely opposed platforms the majority of the time, lawmakers ignore them on almost everything else, too.
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Mary Lou Marzian and Josie Raymond have been quite vocal this General Assembly session, grandstanding on platforms with no traction in Frankfort time and time again. Marzian had the opportunity to leave Frankfort with grace, and Raymond had the opportunity to build relationships across the aisle that get bills heard in committee and then voted on the floor, like Democrats Patti Minter and David Yates have. Instead, what Louisville got was another baseless lashing-out that further shuts the doors to any chance for progress for our urban districts.
Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell is an educator and businesswoman in the Highlands. She is a Republican candidate for the 41st House District, in a field that includes two other Republicans in the primary, and Democratic Representative Josie Raymond.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mary Lou Marzian is wrong GOP did not target female Democrats: Opinion
