In Louisiana, we call these "jungle primaries". The Republican State Central Committee was able to get these turned into closed primaries for a few years, until those in office decided to change it back. I saw no difference in the number of women running. IMHO, the only thing that encourages women to run is other women. I have worked with Project GOPink which has conferences to train women who are running on ways to better their candidacy. This has had some great results. Palladian View has done a great job encouraging women to find their voice. She PAC raises money to put into the campaigns of conservative women, which is desperately needed.
I believe that what deters women from running is how the media treats them. One only has to look at how they treat Sarah Palin to see exactly what I mean. For years, I have said, as conservative women, we need to immediately and loudly let the media know when they are saying things that are unacceptable. Jon Stewart and MSNBC are some of the biggest offenders.
When I was working as a Director of Nursing, quite a while back, I had a doctor (and sometimes families) that did not know how to behave. He was known for cursing at my staff and throwing things. I could not allow this to continue, so I instituted something we called "Code White." When a staff member was being treated inappropriately, we called "code white" over the intercom. Everyone stopped what they were doing and immediately came to stand behind the person being yelled/cursed at. Nothing was said, just a crowd of people gathering quickly behind the person. It was amazing how quickly the doctor or family member that was acting out would stop their verbal abuse. This is what I believe we need as women in politics. The MSNBCs of the world will only stop their bad behavior when we no longer allow them to get away with it.
