Sarah Palin inspires record number of GOP women candidates

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Alex Spillius, The London Daily Telegraph's man in Washington, D.C., writes in the paper's Sunday edition about how Sarah Palin and others, including U.s. Representatives Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn are providing new role models for conservative women in a Republican Party that was written off after the 2008 election as too male, too old and too out of touch:

"They are not clones of Sarah Palin, but they have far more in common with her than with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B Anthony List, which supports anti-abortion female candidates, referring to the Democratic Party's three leading female liberals.

"They tend to come from traditional backgrounds. They have had kids, maybe gone back to work and are now in a third act of life running for office," said Mrs Dannenfelser, who paid tribute to the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s for breaking down barriers that conservative women have taken much longer to traverse.

Republicans have traditionally lagged far behind the Democrats in attracting female candidates and voters. Of the 73 female representatives currently sitting in the House of Representatives, only 17 are Republicans, while the party has only four out of the 17 women senators.

The closest the United States has come to a female president - a feat accomplished by Pakistan 22 years ago - was Hillary Clinton's failed bid for the Democratic nomination when she was narrowly defeated by Barack Obama.

Issuing a clarion call, Mrs Palin has argued that commonsense female values are needed at a time the US is heavily in debt. She has dubbed her conservative female followers "mama grizzlies", for their determination to defend the futures of their young.

That particular moniker may not have quite stuck as planned, but conservative and anti-abortion activists have no doubt that the former Alaska governor's example as a working mother has persuaded many others to get involved, as well as making female candidates more popular in conservative constituencies.

"There's an unsettling of the political apple cart," Mrs Dannenfelser said. "Sarah Palin kicked the door open and a lot of women started going through."

The rise of the Tea Party movement, which treats Mrs Palin as a spiritual leader, and its anger with President Barack Obama's heavy-spending agenda, has also encouraged more conservative women to run for office, activists say.

Spillius says the GOP hierarchy has finally realized that it needs to recruit and elect female candidates. Where Sarah Palin leads, eventually the Republican establishment will have to follow.

Read the full Alex Spillius column here.

- JP