by Jyotsna Sreenivasan

Arecord number of women will run for the U.S. House of Representatives this year, according to the Center for the American Woman and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers State University of New Jersey, a nonprofit group that tracks women candidates. This year over 115 women will be running for the House. The previous record was 112 women in 1994. In 1992, which was named the ‘year of the woman’ because so many women ran for public office, 106 women ran for the House.

New Hampshire state senator Jeanne Shaheen is doing well in her race for New Hampshire governor against right-wing Republican Ovide Lamontagne. In the state senate, Shaheen focused her energies on health care and education.

Democrat Charlotte Pritt, running for governor in West Virginia, has slipped in the polls recently and is now in a close race against former West Virginia governor Cecil Underwood. Former West Virginia NOW President and state senator Sondra Lucht is a key campaign strategist in the Pritt campaign.

Kansas may send one woman Senator to Washington next year, despite the fact that pro-choice Republican Sheila Frahm, who was appointed to fill Senator Bob Dole’s seat, was defeated in her primary by Rep. Sam Brownback. Democrat Jill Docking may win that seat, but the race is tight. For retiring Kansas senator Nancy Kassebaum’s seat, a right-wing Republican man, Rep. Pat Roberts, is leading over pro-choice Sally Thompson.

In Louisiana, Mary Landrieu may have a hard time winning her race for Senate unless she receives the endorsements of the two leading African-American office-holders, Reps. Cleo Fields and William Jefferson. Landrieu and Fields have been rivals since they ran against each other in 1995 for Louisiana governor.

Pro-choice Republican Susan Collins is doing well in her bid to join the other Maine Senator, Olympia Snowe (R), and become the second woman Senator from Maine.

For the House of Representatives, one of the most interesting races is being run by Californian Michela Alioto, a 28-year-old former aide to Vice President Gore. Few people thought she had a chance when she started her bid to be the Democratic representative of California’s first district. But now she has won her primary and is doing well in the polls against anti-choice Frank Riggs. If elected, Alioto would be the youngest woman to serve in Congress.

For the three African-American women representatives who had their majority-Black districts redrawn, the news is nencouraging. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) are all expected to win their races.

In Missouri, former Democratic representative Joan Kelly Horn may win her seat back from right-wing Republican James Talent, who beat her in 1994. However, the races of Representatives Elizabeth Furse (D-OR) and Jane Harman (D-CA) are still tight.

This year a few anti-feminist women representatives Andrea Seastrand (R-CA) and Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), who were elected in 1994 may lose to progressive men.

This article was prepared using information from the Center for the American Woman and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, and the Web site of Politics Now.