About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2020)
8A Thursday, January 2, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com WASHINGTON/POLITICS As more women run for office, child care remains a hurdle BRANDON CRUZ I Associated Press This undated photo provided by the Luz Escamilla Campaign shows Utah lawmaker and Salt Lake City former mayoral candidate Luz Escamilla with her husband Juan Carlos and three of her children, Aileen, Sol and Cielo, in Salt Lake City. She was among the first candidates to use a new Utah law that allows campaign money to be used for child care. BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST AND CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — When Kimberly Dudik ran for her fourth term in the Montana House, state officials told her she could not use campaign money to pay for child care for her four young children. She is now running for attor ney general and is trying to visit a big chunk of the sprawling state, spending hours on the road. That means she needs even more help picking up her kids at school and day care when she’s away and her husband has a late night at the office. “It just seems behind the times, ” Dudik, whose family is living off her husband’s income and savings from her work as a lawyer. “When it was a man campaigning, the woman was traditionally the one to stay home and take care of the children. There is not someone home just taking care of the kids.” Experts predict a large number of women will again run for office in 2020 like they did in 2018, and child care remains a hurdle for many of them. A congressional candidate in New York successfully petitioned the Federal Election Commission in 2018 to allow campaign money to help cover child care costs. But it applies only to those running for federal office. That leaves women in many states who are running for the Legislature, statewide positions like attorney general or local offices to find another way to pay for child care as they campaign, which often requires night and weekend work. Only six states have laws spe cifically allowing campaign money to be used for child care. Five states are considering it. In most states, including Montana, the law is silent on the issue and up to interpretation by agencies or boards. Agencies in at least nine states have allowed child care to be a campaign-related expense, but those decisions are not law and could be reversed. Utah is among the states that passed a gender-neutral child care expense law, which went into effect last May. Sponsored by Republican state Rep. Craig Hall, it easily passed the GOP-domi- nated legislature. Luz Escamilla was one of the first candidates to use it as she campaigned to become the first Latina mayor of Salt Lake City. Escamilla had to take time off from her full-time banking job to knock on doors and shake hands as she made her case to voters. Without a paycheck, it was hard to cover the cost of child care for her two youngest daughters. After the law was passed, she used about $1,500 in campaign cash over two months to help pay for it. The extra time she could spend campaigning helped propel her to a spot in the general election, though she lost in November. “Full-time campaigning dur ing the summer with toddlers, it makes it really difficult,” Esca milla said, adding of the law: “It was a great tool in our toolbox.” Lawmakers in Minnesota added child care as an allowable expense in 2018, while Colorado, New York, New Hampshire and California passed laws in 2019. Before Colorado allowed cam paign cash to be used for child care, Amber McReynolds, a for mer chief elections official in Denver, was contemplating a bid for statewide office in 2017. The costs of child care were a consid erable concern as a single mother of two young children. For that and other reasons, McReynolds decided against running. “When we look at the statistics in terms of representatives in Con gress or statewide office and you don’t see single moms in that cat egory, that’s why,” said McReyn olds, who’s CEO of a nonprofit. “The circumstances are just that much more difficult when you are in politics.” The policy also can help fathers running for office in families where both parents work. Jean Sinzdak, associate direc tor of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said the record num ber of women who ran for office in 2018 has helped drive the issue. Still, lawmakers in a number of states have resisted the change. In Tennessee, the sponsor of a measure to add child care to the list of approved campaign expenses faced a skeptical audi ence during a subcommittee hear ing last spring. “If they aren’t running for office because they can’t find child care, how are they going to do the job down here?” asked state Rep. John Crawford, a Republican from Kingsport, Tennessee. The sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Jason Powell, said he intro duced the proposal after people he tried to recruit to run for City Council in Nashville declined because child care needs kept them from campaigning. “I hate that people in our state feel like they can’t run for office because they may or may not be able to use their campaign funds for a child care expense,” Powell said. The measure failed to advance after a split vote of the all-male subcommittee. In Louisiana, Democratic state House candidate Morgan Laman- dre had her request denied by the state ethics board even though it allowed a Republican man to claim campaign-related child care expenses in 2000. Members, who were not on the panel two decades ago and didn’t have to follow the previous decision, said they were concerned it could be abused. After a backlash, the board reversed itself. While she’s used campaign funds to pay for child care a few times, Lamandre said it’s not a panacea for smaller races where candidates might have to choose between paying a baby-sitter or buying basics like lawn signs. “It’s helpful, but it’s not a slam- dunk,” she said. Trump suggests some vape flavors will be pulled from market Associated Press PALM BEACH, Fla. - Presi dent Donald Trump says the federal government will soon announce a new strategy to tackle underage vaping, promising, “We’re going to protect our fami lies, we’re going to protect our children, and we’re going to pro tect the industry.” Trump was vague about what the plan would entail but sug gested “certain flavors” in car tridge-based e-cigarettes would be taken off the market “for a period of time.” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration would ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes. E-cigarette pods for mulated to taste like tobacco or menthol would still be allowed. The Journal also reported that tank-based vaping systems, which are less popular among teenagers, would still allow users to custom- mix flavors. The Journal report cited anonymous “people familiar with the matter.” In September, Trump and his top health officials said they would soon sweep virtually all flavored e-cigarettes from the market because of their appeal to young children and teens. But that effort stalled after vaping lobby ists pushed back and White House advisers told Trump the ban could cost him votes with adults who vape. Beginning in May, All e-ciga- rettes will need to undergo FDA review. Only those that can dem onstrate a benefit for U.S. public health will be permitted to stay on the market. On Tuesday, Trump suggested a ban of flavored e-cigarettes might be temporary. “Hopefully, if everything’s safe, they’re going to be going very quickly back onto the market,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was hosting a New Year’s Eve party. “People have died from this, they died from vaping,” the Republican president said. “We think we understand why. But we’re doing a very exhaustive examination and hopefully every thing will be back on the market very, very shortly.” flu treatment, from anywhere. Start your E'Visit in two easy steps, ngpg.org/evisit
