The women candidates running for public office this year in Chaffee County will be celebrated at a free event this week sponsored by the Salida Business Incubator.
The open-air event, set for 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Wed. Aug. 26, which happens to be Women’s Equality Day, will feature not just candidates for office, but also honor all women currently holding public office at the county, city and town levels throughout Chaffee County. The free event will take place in the permitted public pedestrian space set aside on F Street at the corner of First Street, in front of the Twitchell Building.
Among the women candidates appearing will be women running for the Colorado District 60 General Assembly seat (currently occupied by term-limited Jim Wilson), Chaffee County commissioner, and District attorney. Each candidate running for office will be asked to speak for a few minutes about their run for office, and answer questions from the public about issues affecting Chaffee County, the state and the nation.
Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder Lori Mitchell plans to attend, answering voter information questions about Colorado’s all-mail ballot system.
Women’s Equality Day historic image. Image courtesy of CollinsDemocrats.org
While women have run for office in the county’s municipalities and the region in increasing numbers, the only woman Chaffee County Commissioner was Terry Barkett, elected in 1988.
Women’s Equality Day began in the 1970s. First proposed by Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”
The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the amendment in 1919, and Tennessee became the final signatory state necessary to pass the 19th Amendment in Aug. 1920.
Featured image: The historic Twitchell Building in downtown Salida. Image courtesy of Salida Business Incubator
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