A North Coast congressional seat held by liberal Democratic women for the past 30 years is up for grabs this year, with at least five men and three women in the race.
The district has changed shape over the years, but it never wavered in sending Rep. Lynn Woolsey to Congress for 20 years, and Barbara Boxer for 10 years before that.
In 1992, the "year of the woman" in California politics, Woolsey, a Petaluma city councilwoman, pulled a stunning upset to win the seat. Boxer, a former Marin County supervisor, advanced from the House to the U.S. Senate.
Woolsey's breakthrough came in the June primary, where she topped a field of nine candidates - seven of them men - with 26 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of former Sonoma Supervisor Eric Koenigshofer.
On election night, Woolsey said: "It's been an advantage to be a woman ... and it is about time women had an advantage."
She overcame financial odds, as well, running a $62,000 campaign that got twice as many votes as Bennett Johnston, a Louisiana senator's son who had $500,000 in donations.
A former welfare mother who ran a Petaluma personnel agency, Woolsey said she refinanced her Petaluma home twice to support her campaign.
Now, with Woolsey set to retire at 75, there's debate over whether a woman should succeed her.
"This is the 21st century. I don't think there's any such thing as a woman's district," Woolsey said.
She's not endorsing anyone, she said, and expressing a gender preference would be tantamount to an endorsement, or at least an exclusion of several candidates.
Running a shoestring campaign won't work now, Woolsey said, since her compact Marin-Sonoma district now runs from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.
Barbara Tomin, a Santa Rosa retiree who was a charter member of the Woolsey women's group that coalesced in 1992, said she hasn't decided how she will vote.
"Of course a woman would be very attractive to me," Tomin said. "I would love a lot more women in Congress. They think differently."
Many of the women who rallied around Woolsey in 1992, wearing buttons that said "Another woman for Woolsey," knew her as chairwoman of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women in the 1970s.
That group remained her base, but "little by little they didn't need to do it all," Woolsey said.
The group is essentially disbanded now, but members still meet socially, Tomin said.
"I think it would be very sad to lose Lynn Woolsey's seat to a man," said Susie Tompkins Buell of San Francisco, a major Democratic Party fund-raiser who is backing Stacey Lawson, a San Rafael businesswoman, in the race.
Two other Democratic women - Marin County Supervisor Susan Adams and Petaluma City Councilwoman Tiffany Renee - also are running, along with Assemblyman Jared Huffman and activist Norman Solomon, both from Marin County, Andy Caffrey of Humboldt County and William Courtney of Mendocino County.
Emily's List, a national group that raises money for women candidates, on Friday announced its endorsement of Lawson.
"Democratic women are leading the race to take back the House in 2012," the group said in a press release. Emily's list has raised $86 million for candidates since 1985.
Huffman has endorsements from more than 50 current and former elected women officials in the North Bay, as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Attorney General Kamala Harris.
Times have changed since 1992, with women now well represented on North Coast city councils, boards of supervisors and state legislative posts.
California has two women senators. And Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is the House minority leader and was the first woman elected House speaker.
But women account for just 17 percent in both the House and Senate, women's advocates point out.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: