ABSTRACT
Patty Murray's political roots can be traced to her early activities in the Shoreline area, a largely suburban, white, middle-class region characterized by political pros as "swing to Democratic" that comprised most of the State Senate's First District. Murray's most memorable experience in the State Senate, which some believe apocryphal but which for her was politically apocalyptic, occurred upon her arrival, when an unnamed legislator dismissed her as "just a mom in tennis shoes." Perhaps because gender roles condition society to view women as nurturing care-givers, the image of an ambitious-as opposed to "feisty"-mom in tennis shoes is difficult to assimilate. The root cause of women's lower political ambition has not been well explored or documented. Women literally put their money where their votes were, contributing to Murray's campaign in disproportionately high numbers and amounts. Contributions lower, in part, because campaign ended with September 15 loss in primary.
