Gender Downplayed in Campaigns

They say it's the "year of the woman," but you won't hear that from many female candidates who triumphed in their primary elections on Tuesday. In at least five races, from California to Arkansas, women won by straying from traditional women's issues and only infrequently discussing their gender. Especially noteworthy, according to The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut, is that four of the women who won this week were Republicans. "The Republican women who emerged seem to have finally unlocked the key to their primaries," Democratic pollster Celinda Lake says. "It used to be that Democratic women would emerge from their primaries and Republican women would not." Sarah Palin has played a key role in the emergence of these "mama grizzlies," as she calls them.