Long Shot? I Could Be Surprised

Long Shot? I Could Be Surprised

This Associated Press article makes this transgendered candidate for mayor of Nampa, Idaho, sound like an utter impossibility:

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) - About a block from a street concert in downtown Nampa, Melissa Sue Robinson strolls with purpose into a trendy coffee shop - the unofficial liberal embassy of this sprawling Republican stronghold in southwest Idaho.

Dressed in a cream-colored pantsuit, a political flier clutched in one hand, a soft brown leather purse in the other, she orders a mocha and takes a seat as a group of teenagers stare at her from near the door.

The 58-year-old was born male and still carries the slightly larger-than-an-average-woman build of Charles Staelens Jr., who legally changed his name and underwent surgery in 1998 to become a woman.

She also kept his voice.

He was married for 17 years, owned a construction company, and was a Republican when he ran for city council in Lansing, Mich., where he was raised with his identical twin brother until their parents divorced in the 1960s.

Now she says she is celibate, a telecommunications worker who is "just another cog in the machine," and a Democrat who in 2004 became the first transgender to run for the state legislature in Michigan.

This farming and manufacturing town of about 83,000 residents, where a sugar factory and a local hospital are among the biggest employers, doesn't seem to be all that concerned that Robinson previously lived as a man.

But they are scratching their heads that a newcomer, a non-Republican, would run for mayor.

...

"It doesn't seem like her chances are high - or there at all," said Joseph Shafer, a boutique owners in Nampa. "We're one of the most conservative counties in the state. I think we're one of the most conservative in the country."

Shafer also works as a barista at the Flying M coffee shop, where Robinson met on a recent evening with her campaign manager, Leah McManus, a coworker and 32-year-old mother of two. Robinson's ex-wife, Linda, serves as campaign treasurer.

The two were married for 17 years and still live together.

"People are going to say I haven't been here long enough, but if you get me behind the mayor's desk I'm going to run this city," said Robinson, a self-described activist. "Right now, it's a good ol' boys club."

Idaho has this reputation for being very conservative, but I think it is really not a deserved reputation. Many of the "conservatives" here are inconsistent libertarians with only a very limited support for traditional moral values--they take a "wide stance" with respect to what people do in the privacy of airport restrooms. I discovered in the my election campaign last year for state senate that being an outsider (someone who hasn't lived here for several generations) is an enormous disadvantage. But Idaho Republicans are so intent on proving that they aren't homophobes that they might turn out to vote for him/her just to prove it.