The Political Side Effects of Being a Woman

I don’t know and I’ve never known Jennifer Martinez, before she married an Atzberger or since. This post is based on information gleaned from this Plain Dealer article, Jennifer’s website (I’m using Jennifer since we can all agree that that is her first name), and googling. (And, by the way, I wonder why the PD chose to call her Martinez Atzberger, as opposed to Martinez by itself.)

Jennifer is in a crowded race to become a candidate for Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court judge:

Term beginning Jan. 3: Anthony A. Gedos (D), Milton D. Jefferson (D), Lisa R. Kraemer (D), Christine T. Leneghan (D), Jennifer Martinez (D), Peter A. Murray (D), Thomas F. O’Malley (D), Mike Telep (D), Joe Young (D), Martin Keenan (R).

Mike Telep and Marty Keenan have been around for a long time, at least since I was clerking in the juvie court and of counsel at a two-person domestic relations firm. I recognize the name Leneghan but I’m not sure I know her. I don’t recognize any of the other names and I’m not sure whose seat this is that’s being given up (there are two other juvie court seats up, out of a total of six).

What about this race has made news?

The PD says that Jennifer says that attorney Henry Hilow is challenging her candidacy by saying that she’s improperly used her maiden name because he supports one of her opponents. The paper doesn’t identify which opponent that is.

The gist, from the PD and Jennifer’s website, is that Hilow and Michael Vu say that because Jennifer should have used her husband’s last name in her campaign and run for Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court judge – you know, that uber desirable job everyone fights for, after they, like Jennifer, spend years as a Juvenile Court public defender, that other equally glamorous job for which law grads clamor – and didn’t, she has been removed from the ballot.

Vu says that he believes the community knows her by Jennifer Martinez Atzberger. Jennifer says that she uses both names professionally (those being her maiden name – Jennifer Martinez and her married name, Jennifer Martinez Atzberger).

Who is in a better position to know which name the community knows best? You’d think Jennifer would be, wouldn’t you? (I mean, unless there’s more we don’t know – and there always is.) But maybe not. I don’t know what Vu knows.

I haven’t a clue as to who knows Jennifer by which name and whether or not she’s re-asserting her maiden name for political reasons. I don’t know if she’s qualified to be on the court. But the matter of being told which name she must use, based on the little information available, sounds like a case of gender discrimination in one of its most subtle forms.

I found an LA Times obit reference to her as Jennifer Martinez-Atzberger. I found a cached 2005 GAL Advisory Council list with her name as Jennifer Atzberger. Her campaign website lists her as Jennifer Martinez.

What’s campaign law on this issue?

I’m no expert but a little hunting found me the Ohio Supreme Court case of Scott Ronald Miller – a person who has lost several elections, before and after he tried to change his middle name to Russo – even though he’s unrelated to any Russos. (The Sup. Crt. confirmed the appellate court’s upholding of the lower court’s summary judgement decision against Miller.) Conclusion: you can’t change your name to get an advantage or avoid disaster.

Is that what Jennifer has done?

Based on the available information, this case looks far more like my life as a Three Name Woman than a case of changing a name to win an election (as Jennifer states in the PD article, even if all the eligible Cuyahoga County Hispanics voted for her, she still wouldn’t win).

What I see is two men dragging this woman through the ringer of society’s mixed messages about women and what it means to take, or not take, your spouse’s name, and to use, or not use , your spouse’s name.

You see what are called evergreen articles every few months about the agony of whether a woman should change her name when she gets married. It’s not life-threatening, but it’s a real pain in the neck either way because of the cache of doing it, or not doing it. There’s almost no neutral ground.

I know because I thought I was going to keep my maiden name after I got married until it became obvious that I wasn’t and that instead, I would use my maiden name and go by Jill Miller Zimon.

But the more forms I had to fill out and the more tedium I detected in people as they tried to use my three names, the more frequently I started to go by Jill Zimon.

On my Ohio bar registration materials: Jill Miller Zimon
My website: Jill Miller Zimon
My business cards: Jill Miller Zimon

But on all my kids’ school forms, medical forms, camp forms: Jill Zimon – because it takes too damn long to keep putting Miller.

Not to mention that entities then don’t know whether to file me under Miller or under Zimon.

For several years, the radiologists’ offices didn’t have my mammogram info together (big breast cancer family history and I’ve been having mammos since before I was married and really was just Jill A. Miller) because some of my records were under Miller and some were under Zimon.

Frequent Flyer miles: I lost thousands because after I got married and was flying as Jill Zimon, Continental no longer would honor Jill Miller’s miles as belonging to me. (I fought the law and the law won my miles.)

Bank records: Don’t even ask. I just went through an issue with the bank I’ve used for nearly 15 years and they still have my name three different ways on five different accounts.

Since I began to write, I’ve been diligent in using Jill Miller Zimon. But still, when I go to conferences, sometimes I’m under Miller and sometimes I’m under Zimon.

Now, the issue with Jennifer and Mr. Vu’s interpretation of the problem has another twist that is discriminatory:

Even if members of the community know her by Jennifer Martinez Atzberger, that means that only those people who’ve met Jennifer after she got married in 1996 and had a factual basis for even knowing her husband’s name would be eligible to sign her petition.

Now you’re saying, WHAT??

Do you know how many people I knew before I got married? In this community? Do you know how many people know me now? Do you know how many people have only known me as a blonde? And how many people are still shocked to see how blonde I am?

I’m not dissing the laws. I’ve blogged about the need for uniformity of laws and their application as they relate to candidate petitions before.

But when it comes to women who are known by both their maiden and their married names, something’s got to give so that society’s inability to let a woman have more than one identity does not discriminate against her ability to run for elected positions.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:41 pm March 16th, 2006 in Politics | 31 Comments

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Mar

16

Democratic Candidates for AG will Meet the Bloggers for a debate

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You can read about it here and here.

Who: Subodh Chandra and Marc Dann (in alphabetical order)
What: Debate between the two Democratic candidates for Ohio Attorney General
Where: Talkies Coffee
When: Friday, March 24, 1pm
Why: Because we asked

By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:08 pm March 16th, 2006 in Politics | Comments Off

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Mar

16

The Political Side Effects of Being a Woman

Filed Under Politics | 31 Comments