| The second part of Biographical Conversations with…Ruth Easterling concerns her election to the state House of Representatives. Ruth first ran for representative in 1974 and was elated when she came in 3 rd in the primary,as it was rare for women to run for political positions at this time. Her main issue was ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, and she vowed to run until it was ratified or until she was 91.
She became friends with Louise Brennan, a representative who became Ruth’s mentor. Ruth learned much about the General Assembly carpooling with Louise from Charlotte to Raleigh and back. Ruth’s interests were in business and finance; Louise was concerned about childcare. But one invaluable lesson that Louise taught her was that politics is “the art of the possible.”
In the Legislature, Ruth again pressed for the Equal Rights Amendment to be passed. Although it was ratified in several other states, North Carolina never ratified the bill because there were so many objections to it. In fact, Ruth said that the Legislature didn’t ratify the suffrage amendment until 1971, even though that was already Constitutional law.
In 1981 Ruth again embraced a controversial issue by recommending a ten-cent increase in the cigarette tax. At the time, the cigarette tax was only two cents per pack, and Ruth discovered through her research that nearly every other state had cigarette taxes that were much higher. Although it created more publicity than any other bill that she had sponsored, the bill eventually failed, even after being debated on the floor at length.
During her term on the study committee on children’s issues, Ruth worked closely with Governor Jim Hunt on Smart Start. Smart Start was not popular with House Republicans who mounted a campaign, including radio messages, against the proposed program. Governor Hunt countered the spots with his own radio address, and Ruth spoke out in defense of the program for almost two hours, in the early hours of the morning, during a debate on the House floor. While she was on the study committee, she worked on several other children’s issues, including co-sponsoring a bill that required divorcing parents to seek counseling and lowering the ratio of workers to babies in child care centers.
After supporting Jim Black for the position of Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Ruth asked him to appoint her to the Appropriations Committee, a request which he honored.
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