Local women get pros, cons of running for office

Thinking of running for public office?

Good idea, but do your homework first so you have some idea what you’re getting into, and then be prepared to raise money.

That was the message delivered Friday to approximately 25 members of the Inland Empire chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners during a breakfast meeting at the Holiday Inn Ontario Airport.

“Women definitely need more of a voice, not just in Sacramento but in all levels of government in California,” said Rachel Michelin, executive director and chief executive officer of California Women Lead, a non-profit agency in Sacramento that tries to get women to run for public office.

She then put the problem into raw numbers: only 286 women hold city council seats in California, only one of the state’s 10 largest cities has a woman mayor and a mere 72 women hold county supervisor seats statewide.

It would also help if more business owners got elected to public office: more than 50 percent of the California legislature have never owned a business, according to Michelin.

“They’ve never signed the front of a check,” she said.

Lou Desmond, president of Desmond & Louis Public Relations in Yucaipa and a vocal critic of California’s business regulatory environment, told the gathering that none of them should consider themselves immune to the heavy bureaucratic hand Sacramento sometimes applies to businesses.

“You might think that your business is so small you can fly under the radar, that no one is paying attention to you, but you’re wrong,” Desmond said. “I guarantee you, no matter what you do, there are five agencies looking at you.”