Making a Difference in the U.S.A.

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Some of the 61 women legislators in the Maryland state assembly pose for the camera at the 2007 women’s caucus. (Mark Odell)

Politician by Choice: Three Who Faced the Voters

By Jane Morse

Editor’s Note: It takes courage and hard work to break into U.S. politics and seek elected offi ce. This section looks at three very different women who risked the odds and won. They are serving their fi rst terms in the General Assembly of the state of Maryland.

You Try to Be Part of Change

It was a rocky road to the Maryland State House, but Joseline Peña-Melnyk loves challenges.

She was just eight years old in 1974 when she left the Dominican Republic and came to the United States. Joseline, her younger sister, and her mother couldn’t speak much English, and her father had abandoned them. Her mother struggled to support the little family. Joseline’s sister succumbed to the lure of the streets, becoming a teenage mother, and the father of the fi rst two of her four children was killed in drug-related violence.

Above, Joseline Peña-Melnyk. Below, above, Joseline Peña-Melnyk with her family at their home in College Park, Maryland. (Both photos courtesy Joseline Peña-Melnyk)

But the tribulations only served to inspire Joseline to work harder. She became the fi rst member of her family to earn a college degree, and went on to fi nish law school. She later moved to the Wash- ington, D.C., area, where she married Markian Melnyk, her law school sweetheart.

Peña-Melnyk had a full life as a wife, mother of three young children, and as community activist. But she wanted greater opportunities to make a real difference in society. In 2003, she jumped into politics and was elected to the city council of College Park, where she lives.

Into her second term on the city council, she had established relations with politicians at the state level and realized she was already doing a lot of the work they do. So when the incumbent state delegate for Peña-Melnyk’s district retired, Peña-Melnyk decided to run for that seat in the Mary land General Assembly. The assembly meets each year for 90 days to act on more than 2,300 bills, including the state’s annual budget. The Maryland General Assembly has 47 senators and 141 delegates elected from 47 districts.

Peña-Melnyk was hoping that the senator and the two other incumbent delegates for her district would put her on their slate. Her qualifi cations were sterling: In addition to being an attorney and an experienced city council member, she spoke Spanish in a district that has a growing number of Hispanic immigrants. She had close ties with the community, having served on the board of directors for Casa de Maryland, a nonprofi t social services organization.

“Instead they put on (the slate) some young kid who worked at one time for the president of the Maryland Senate, and he was a well-connected Caucasian,” Peña-Melnyk recalls. “So I had to run on my own.”

That, she quickly discovered, was an expensive endeavor. “I had to put in close to $30,000 of my own money, and I’m not wealthy,” she says. “I spent over $7,000 just on signs.” Friends, family, and other supporters rallied to come up with another $40,000.

“It was a challenge because no one would write a check for me from the (Democratic) party or other elected officials because they didn’t think I was going to win,” Peña-Melnyk says. “It is very tough when you are not part of the establishment, not part of the ‘good old boy’ network.”

But “grassroots” efforts can accomplish great things. Peña-Melnyk knocked on the doors of more than 10,000 homes in her district. Senior citizen volunteers made phone calls; a printer helped out by mailing solicitations; a group of six core supporters gathered at her home every Sunday to plan her campaign.

“My three kids – my twins who are girls, seven years old, and my boy, who is eight – at 6 A.M. we were at street corners, sign waving,” Peña-Melnyk recalls. “This was a family affair; they believed in me. … My husband believed in me.”

And, finally, some important local papers recognized her efforts and endorsed her.

Peña-Melnyk won the election and began serving her four-year term in January 2007. She has been working to get an anti-cervical cancer vaccine into the schools, make health insurance accessible to the approximately 800,000 people in Maryland who currently don’t have any, and find funding for boys and girls clubs in her district, which encompasses some 110,000 people. “I think in my first session I did well for someone who is a freshman,” she says.

What advice does Peña-Melnyk have for women around the world who may not enjoy some of the freedoms of their American sisters? “I say give them hell. Go try to make a difference. … It’s worth it,” she adds. Women in politics set important examples to both girls and boys, she says.

“I think a lot of people don’t take their civic duties seriously,” says Peña-Melnyk, who became a U.S. citizen in 1983. “It is so important to stay informed, to vote to be a part of the process, to have a voice. You don’t just complain; you try to be part of change.”

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