"It was such an honor to meet influential women actively involved in the leadership of our State," says Walter. "To actually shake the hands of these women, have them congratulate me on my candidacy and encourage me, was a powerful experience."

 

Guest speakers at the event included Courtney Gregoire, legislative director and chief counsel for Senator Maria Cantwell; Michelle Gregoire, staff assistant for Congressman Brian Baird; Janelle Guthrie, communications director for Attorney General Rob McKenna and Governor Christine Gregoire.

 

Governor Gregoire shared a story about her decision to run for Attorney General of Washington. She stated that she told her daughters she decided not to run in order to be more available to them. One of her daughters became very upset and reminded Gregoire that she had always told her daughters they could be whatever they wanted. Her daughter pointed out that, by not running, Gregoire was demonstrating that if a woman had a family, she couldn't run for public office. After considering it, Gregoire reported to her daughters that for them, and because of them, she decided to run for Attorney General.

 

"That story was significant to me because it really demonstrated the balancing act that mothers must consider when making the decision to run for an office of any type," says Walter. "As women, of course, we have a duty to our families. However, sometimes that duty is to obtain that office so that we can make our city, our community, our county, our state or even our nation a better place for our children to live."

 

The Center for Women and Democracy was founded in 2000 and is a non-profit, non-partisan association. Cathy Allen, founding board member of the Center and international political consultant, believes that the most important function of the organization is "supporting women in leadership no matter what their specialty, experience or potential. We have traveled all over the world to see how women are leading in places like South Africa, the Middle East, the Baltic States, and Cuba." Allen specializes in recruiting and training women for office all over the world.

 

The Center focuses on the betterment of women as a whole and does not support political candidates. Some of the ways that the organization helps women to become strong leaders is through education and training. Allen reports, "The Center supports the [National Education for Women's] NEW Leadership program which recruits, trains and then keeps up with the progress our young recruits make in their time after the program ends. We teach women about racial equality, ethics you grow for yourself, being truthful to your inner image, determining how you will make the world a better place and generally introducing them to the network of other women who can help them achieve their dreams." Information on the NEW Leadership program may be found on the Center's website at www.womenanddemocracy.org.

 

Allen believes that it is important to encourage strong women leaders to run for office because "women bring many different perspectives to the conversation. We tend to make sure all voices are heard, not just those who scream the loudest… We raise issues of honesty, integrity, and fairness - we crave more transparency and comments from communities not usually asked about how policies might affect them."

 

For candidate Walter, one theme of the event summed up the Center's purpose - women do make a difference when called to be leaders. "Someone said, at one point during the evening, that 'women have an immense capacity to help other women.' I believe that's true," she says. "I also believe that women have an immense capacity to make a difference through leadership."

 

Representative Mary Helen Roberts offered this campaign advice to candidate Walter: "The most important thing you need to do when running for office is find comfortable shoes."

 

Walter agrees, as one of her top priorities in running for County Commissioner is getting out into the communities and meeting the constituents in order to find out what their concerns are. She promises, "My shoes are going to log a lot of miles before this campaign is through!"