Longtime Iowa City leader shares her advice on running for office

It's 2017 and Connie and Catherine Champion can't believe we are still talking about equal pay for women and access to women's health care.

Connie Champion, for one, has done her part to stand up and get involved to help make a change in her part of the world. She is believed to hold the title as the longest serving member of the City Council in Iowa City. Having finished her fourth four-year term at the end of 2013, the city estimates Connie attended 400 council meetings and voted on 800 ordinances and 7,000 resolutions over the past 16 years. She also previously served on the Iowa City school board for nine years, adding up to a quarter-century of service as an elected official.

'You have to get involved with something,' she said of community activism. 'Volunteer because you'll meet so many people and all these opportunities will open up to you. And I think women will find that very rewarding. It doesn't take that much time to get involved, even if it's just at your local school or nonprofit.'

As for running for public office, Champion said women are foolish not to. 'I think we are more accessible and levelheaded,' she said, noting that women are well suited for politics. 'Women tend to make decisions that are good for people and not because we want to get re-elected. I never made a decision based on the next election. People would call and tell me they didn't like my vote and I'd just say, 'I'm sorry.''

Known for that candor, we asked Champion to share some advice with other women who are considering running for local or state office and she had these three tips to share:

1. 'Local government involvement and business ownership lets you meet people in the community with different ideas, which hopefully will broaden your perspective,' she said. 'But we, as women, are too hard on each other. We need to encourage each other.'

2. 'The campaign will take a lot away from your family, your friends and your job,' Champion said. 'You need to have the support of the people close to you. My husband has always encouraged everything I have ever done. But you also have to decide what is going to take up your time.'

3. 'When elected, a person needs to have self-confidence about their decisions. The biggest lesson you will learn when involving yourself in local government is that you CAN do everything. My parents were always telling me I could do anything I wanted. So I was never afraid to tackle anything. I was never afraid of failure. I absolutely would not have ever cared if I won an election. People knew what they were getting with me.'

And don't forget, she added, that 'if you win, the same answers apply.'

*This article was originally published in the fall 2017 issue of The Gazette's HER: Women in Business magazine.*