New chapter of National Women’s Political Caucus aims for more representation.

Pollsters have already started gathering intel for 2016 campaigns to unseat County Supervisor Jane Parker, and they’ve been calling prospective voters in District 4 asking questions including this one: “Are you more or less likely to support a candidate who will collaborate with fellow supervisors?”

Parker’s is often the lone dissenting vote on the Board of Supervisors; her politics lean the furthest left. But Parker thinks her minority vote is partly due to her minority role: She’s the only woman on the board.

“Research shows when you get to 30-percent women, there’s a positive echo chamber going on,” Parker said. “Part of my personal goal is to make sure we have more than one woman out of five [seats] on the Board of Supervisors.”

Parker spoke May 7 to about 40 women and two men over wine and hors d’oeuvres at Seaside’s Bayonet Grill. The event aimed to draw enough members to start a local chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

The room was stacked with elected officials – Marina Councilwomen Nancy Amadeo and Gail Morton, Carmel Councilwoman Victoria Beach and Marina Coast Water District board member Jan Shriner among them – and at least four aspiring electeds. One of them is United Way CEO Mary Adams, who is expected to announce her campaign for county supervisor after retiring June 30.

Watsonville City Councilwoman Karina Cervantez, who is running for state Assembly, spoke to the group. “There’s that nagging feeling: Are we qualified to run?” she said. “Women run offices, organizations, households. You are absolutely qualified.”

The caucus is a nonpartisan group that recruits and trains women seeking office. The idea for a local chapter came from a group that met in Parker’s home to talk about how to jump-start political careers.

“We decided the National Women’s Political Caucus is the best way to go so we wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” says Taina Vargas-Edmond.

In Monterey County, only one of 12 mayors, Gonzales Mayor Maria Orozco, is a woman. Seaside hasn’t had a woman on its City Council since the late 1990s. Only the King City council has a female majority, with three out of five. Of 74 officials elected to county – and city-level positions, 22 (or 30 percent) are women.

Vargas-Edmond works in the Monterey office of Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, and is starting to think about running for office herself:

“[The caucus] would be a good opportunity for me to get the training and experience I need when I am ready.”