[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6217-S6218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMENDING BECKY CAIN
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to commend the
efforts of a fellow West Virginian, Becky Cain, for her enormous
contribution to her State and country. Since Ms. Cain's days as a high
school civics and American government teacher, she has worked to
reverse the trend of low voter turnout and the lack of citizens'
participation in politics.
In the 1970's, Ms. Cain began to volunteer for the League of Women's
Voters, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing the political
participation of American women. Constantly on the search for new
voters, she did not leave her days of manning voter registration tables
behind when she became president of the League in 1992.
Mr. President, as president of the League, a volunteer post, Ms. Cain
decided that the organization should undertake projects that would
rebuild voters' faith in the political system. She has made it her
mission to attack the apathy and distance between citizens and their
government, a recurring problem that the League hopes to cure. Becky
Cain and the League of Women Voters of the United States have made
great strides toward this goal with the passage of the National Voter
Registration Act, or the ``motor-voter'' law, in 1995. The ``motor-
voter'' law has generated the greatest increase in voter registration
since the late 19th century, registering some eleven million voters.
Ms. Cain and the League are now focusing on encouraging registered
voters to take the second step and to responsibly vote. They have
joined the Ladies' Home Journal in an effort to educate women voters by
running political features aimed at women's issues.
Ms. Cain has been active in West Virginia for more than 20 years,
working on numerous advisory boards to the government on issues such as
environmental protection and health care reform. Her experience in
grass roots movements has helped her to keep in touch with the voters
as she fulfills the responsibilities of her national position in the
League.
Mr. President, Ms. Becky Cain has ably served her fellow West
Virginians and the American people through her participation on
advisory boards, as well as her volunteer work for the League of Women
Voters for the United States. She is a West Virginian who embodies the
qualities and character of a leader, and I salute her for her
commitment to the American political process. I ask unanimous consent
that a recent article in the National Journal, entitled ``She's in a
League of Her Own,'' be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Natural Journal, May 4, 1996]
She's in a League of Her Own
(By Eliza Mewlin Carney)
When Becky Cain started staffing voter registration tables
for the League of Women Voters of the U.S. in the 1970s, she
frequently ran into people who were embarrassed to admit that
they had failed to sign up to vote.
Now that she's president of the league, one of the nation's
oldest nonprofit dedicated to citizen political
participation, Cain still goes to malls and state fairs in
search of new voters. But these days the public reaction is
different.
``We get people saying: `No. No way. I don't want to
legitimize that system with my participation.' That's a whole
different change in attitude,'' Cain said. ``They are
choosing--deliberately choosing--not to participate in a
system that they think is broken.
To Cain, a former teacher of high school civics and
American government, that change is alarming. Cain's concern
has helped prompt the league this year to pursue several
projects aimed at rebuilding voters' faith in the political
system and at closing the gulf between citizens and their
government.
Since 1992, when Cain became president, a volunteer post,
the league has scored one of its most important victories:
the passage of the National Voter Registration Act, or
``motor-voter'' law, which took effect last year. Some 11
million citizens registered to vote in 1995, and another 9
million are expected to do so by November--the largest
increase since the late 19th century, the league maintains.
Now it's time to make sure that those voters take the next
stop and actually pull the lever, Cain said. In addition to a
full roster of league get-out-the-vote and voter education
activities, Cain's group has teamed up with the Ladies' Home
Journal on a massive ``Power the Vote!'' campaign to increase
women's political participation, which poll show has recently
declined. (For more on the drop in women's voting, see NJ 4/
13/96, p. 824.)
The league and the New York City-based Journal have set up
a toll-free number to help people register and vote, as well
as a World Wide Web site that offers how-to tips on rating
debates, understanding political polls and interpreting
campaign ads. Between now and November, the Journal, which
has a circulation of 4.5 million, will also run political
features aimed at women.
It's one of dozens of ambitious league partnerships formed
under Cain, 48, who has been working her way up the group's
ranks since 1975. A citizen activist in West Virginia for
more than two decades, her eclectic background includes
grass-roots political work and a stint as West Virginia's
deputy secretary of state. She's also served on dozens of
government advisory boards set up to tackle issues ranging
from environmental protection to health care reform.
Her hands-on political savvy has helped Cain win powerful
allies and raise the league's profile. The nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization enjoys credibility on both ends of
the political spectrum, and a healthy budget adds to its
clout. The organization and its educational affiliate, the
League of Women Voters Education Fund, spent upwards of $5
million last year.
But Cain's down-to-earth, ebullient personality has never
allowed her to lose touch with voters and their day-to-day
concerns, her colleagues say. Cain still lives in West
Virginia, in a town outside the capital called St. Albans,
and commutes by plane two or three days a week to the
league's Washington headquarters. (The league reimburses her
for the propeller plane rides, which officials say are
cheaper than if Cain rented an apartment in Washington.) Much
of her time is spent on the road visiting the league's 1,200
affiliates.
``She is very much in touch with not only what league
members are doing, but with the politics of the country,
which I think is an extremely important thing to bring into
an organization,'' said Ann McBride, president of Common
Cause, which is collaborating with the league and other like-
minded groups on a grass-roots lobbying drive to promote
campaign finance reform.
The league's education fund is helping to host a series of
``citizen assemblies'' nationwide that explore the
relationship between money and politics. Dubbed ``Money +
Politics: People Change the Equation,'' the project is a team
effort with the Harwood Group, a Bethesda (Md.)-based
research firm. The idea is to improve public understanding
and to brainstorm new solutions to the campaign reform
quandary.
If the league can help fight the malaise that's driving
citizens from politics, Cain said, the 76-year-old
organization will, in a sense, have come full circle.
Originally launched by women who'd recently won the right to
vote, the league has long sought to educate voters about
citizenship and coax them to the polls. To Cain, that mandate
is timelier than ever.
``We're seeing this erosion of people's trust and faith in
the democratic process, in the health of our democracy,''
Cain said. ``Right now, Americans are opting out of the
system. That's new, and that scares us. Because
[[Page S6218]]
we believe in the common good. And you can't get the common
good if we're not all at the table.''
____________________