Mikulski Hits The Trail For Women

Maryland's senior senator will travel the country to help women up for re-election in 2012

WASHINGTON—

— Like other Democrats in Congress, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski is battling Republican budget cuts and working to bring home federal money for her state. But as the 2012 election nears, Maryland's senior senator is also playing a role in national politics: helping to elect more women to Congress.

As the longest-serving woman in the chamber's history, the self-styled Dean of the Senate Women is poised to become a powerful messenger and fundraiser for female Democratic senators running for re-election across the country next year. Eighteen months before voters head to the polls, Mikulski is already in high demand.

Her efforts come at a challenging time for the Democratic Party, which will be forced to defend twice as many Senate seats as the GOP next year, just two years after losing control of the House of Representatives.

The number of women in Congress, meanwhile, fell this year for the first time in more than three decades — leaving advocates for women in politics anxious to recapture lost ground.

Mikulski's reaction: No problem.

"I'm going to organize the women into a SWAT team," said Mikulski, who won her own re-election last year to a fifth term representing Maryland in the Senate with 62 percent of the vote. "We're going to be like NATO: An attack on one will be an attack on all."

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