A Vote for Equal Numbers of Male, Female Officeholders

Imagine the difference in world events if Lyndon Johnson could have had a Barbara Jordan, or a Barbara Boxer, or even a Barbra Streisand among his top advisors, someone to say, “You know, Mr. President, this military escalation in Vietnam just isn’t working. And it’s a bit insane.”

What if Richard Nixon had traded in Haldeman/Ehrlichman/Colson for, say, Elizabeth Dole, Nancy Kassebaum-Baker and even Kay Bailey Hutchison, all Republicans? My guess is you wouldn’t see that Watergate asterisk by his name--and Gerald Ford would never have been president.

It’s not that I think women are smarter than men (though my wife doesn’t doubt it). But can you have proper perspective on issues if all your advisors come from only half the population?

Tuesday night, I watched a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on public TV, “A Perfect Candidate,” about how Republican Oliver North lost the 1994 U.S. Senate race in Virginia to Democratic incumbent Chuck Robb. Every top advisor to North was a white male. And from this closed-door report, no one in that bunch had a clue how to win a campaign.

There’s a new campaign that I think we’re going to hear a lot more about called “50/50 by 2020.” It has been adopted by the national League of Women Voters after being created by the league’s Central Orange County chapter. I don’t see how one can argue with its goal: To see half our legislators women by the year 2020. For the record, of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives today, only 51 are women. Only nine women sit in the 100-member U.S. Senate. That totals 11.2%. A long way from 50/50.

This Saturday, the league chapter will hold a breakfast at Nordstrom in MainPlace/Santa Ana to promote the 50/50 by 2020 campaign. Special guest will be Becky Cain, national president of the League of Women Voters.

“This is Phase 2,” she told me in a telephone interview from her home in St. Albans, W.Va. “Phase 1 was getting the right to vote, and that took 73 years. We hope this one won’t take so long.”

The league rarely backs specific issues. It has no conservative or liberal agenda. Its goal is to get citizens to participate more in our democracy.

“We want women from all walks of life serving in elected office,” Cain said. “You cannot properly run a country if you aren’t using half your brain power, or your energy.”

Cain said the national office has a plan it calls Vision 2000, which incorporates a platform for more gender and ethnic diversity. Another main goal in that vision is an 85% voter turnout in national elections.

Cain said she is delighted to be coming to Orange County because it has one of the country’s most aggressive chapters: “We will never get more women in Washington if we don’t do more work at the grass-roots level.”

Afternoon Perk: There’s maybe one thing more fun than playing hooky from work for a weekday afternoon Angels game at Anaheim Stadium. That’s when you go there with your boss.

Bob Mirman, who runs National Survey Systems in Irvine, took his staff of 10 to the Angels-Milwaukee Brewers game Wednesday. They used the shade from the Big A sign in the parking lot to fight off the heat for their tailgate party.

Eve Morton from Mirman’s staff brought along a bottle of water with a push spray top to keep herself cool.

Something happened at the game that reminded me how good it is that major league baseball is a part of Orange County. Ernie Barber of Seattle had brought his family to Anaheim for a Disneyland vacation. He swung them by Anaheim Stadium just to see it from the outside, unaware an afternoon game was about to take place. Barber said he gave his 6-year-old son Jon a choice: “Disneyland or baseball. He wanted to stay for the game.”

One of the ushers, Dale Opkins, was so impressed seeing young Jon Barber tracking the game with his own score sheet that he gave him a baseball that the Angels had used in an earlier warm-up. Jon’s eyes widened with appreciation, but he wanted to know: “Who hit it?”

For your calendar: Only one Angel weekday afternoon game left--against Oakland on Sept. 18, a Thursday.

Hat Sale: The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda gets its share of strange requests. But rarely from 30,000 feet. Wednesday morning, a woman called from a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York to order an Air Force One cap--which is a Navy cap with an Eagle logo. Here’s what happened:

She admired an Air Force One cap the plane’s pilot was wearing and he took it off to show her. Inside was the Nixon library’s 800 number. She called from the air to order two, for her son and husband.

The popularity, of course, comes from the Harrison Ford movie “Air Force One.” Since the movie opened two weeks ago, the Nixon library says, the hats ($19.95 each) have become one of its hottest items.

Wrap-Up: A good example of how some things don’t change that much is the makeup of the county Board of Supervisors--five white males. Though I greatly admire some of them, it would be hard to convince me that the board didn’t lose some of its most insightful thinking when Marian Bergeson left last year to join the Wilson administration in a new education job.

The League of Women Voters must think that way too. Bergeson is one of three women who will be honored at Saturday’s breakfast. The other two are Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), who ousted right-winged Robert K. Dornan in last year’s election, and Lucy Killea, former state senator from San Diego.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com