Ntozake Shange, 70; playwright, poet
Ntozake Shange, a black feminist poet and playwright who brushed aside linguistic conventions, racial barriers and criticism from her male peers to compose works of bracing honesty and searing beauty – most notably her 1976 theatrical debut, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf” – died Oct. 27 at an assisted-living community in Bowie, Maryland. She was 70.
Her daughter, Savannah Shange, an anthropology professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, confirmed the death but did not give a cause.
PROVIDENCE (AP) — Inspired by how the GI Bill helped her father become the first in his family to attend college, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo unveiled a plan last year to offer free tuition at the state’s three public colleges.
The Legislature, despite being dominated by Raimondo’s fellow Democrats, was reluctant to support it, citing the cost. The governor ended up with a pilot program at just a single college.
It wasn’t the only time her agenda had been frustrated by lawmakers.
“The fact of the matter is, every governor wishes the legislature would do everything they want,” Raimondo said. “But it doesn’t happen, you know. It’s the way it works.”
Raimondo’s experience is a cautionary tale for supporters of the record number of women, most of them Democrats, who are running this year for governor.
Even if many of them end up winning, it will not necessarily translate into a sea change in state priorities. In some cases, they will have to work with a legislature dominated by the opposing party or one that is politically divided. Even lawmakers of the same party don’t always fall in line with the governor’s plans.
Natural disasters, budget deficits or crises unforeseen on Election Day can quickly swamp an agenda.
Christine Todd Whitman got a firsthand taste of that as governor of New Jersey.
Despite delivering on a campaign promise to reduce personal income taxes, she nearly had her 1997 re-election derailed by a dispute over auto insurance rates.
Her fellow Republicans in the legislature torpedoed her plan to overhaul insurance regulations, which would have given cost breaks for motorists who were willing to give up their right to sue for pain and suffering after an accident. On the campaign trail, she was hammered by her Democratic opponent for failing to lower rates.
Whitman later worked with Democrats on another proposal that ultimately passed with bipartisan support.
“You are judged on what you get done,” Whitman said. “The executive branch is different from the legislative branch in that way. You can’t just talk about it; you have to deliver.”
Just six women are serving as governor and no more than nine have ever served as governor at the same time, a mark that was set more than a decade ago. More than half the states — 28 — have never elected a woman as governor.
This year, 60 women ran for governor in the primaries, with 16 advancing to the November election.