Sayreville museum pays tribute to 1967’s ‘Distaff Slate’

By ADAM C. UZIALKO
Staff Writer

 Peggy Kerr and the Distaff Slate are sworn in after sweeping borough elections in 1967. The women would later run for re-election without the blessing of the local Democratic Party.  PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOROUGH HISTORIAN JASON SLESINSKI/SAYREVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Peggy Kerr and the Distaff Slate are sworn in after sweeping borough elections in 1967. The women would later run for re-election without the blessing of the local Democratic Party. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOROUGH HISTORIAN JASON SLESINSKI/SAYREVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Former Sayreville Mayor Mary “Peggy” Kerr and her all-female “Distaff Slate” stunned the local patriarchy when they swept the 1967 municipal elections.

Dubbed “the girls” by local media and “the troublemakers” by their opponents, Kerr, Dorothy Carter, Florence Koval and Dolores Zaccardi handily won the Democratic primary, defeating sitting Mayor Ed Fielek in the process, then steamrolled their Republican opponents in a general election landslide that is celebrated in a new exhibit at the Sayreville History Museum.

“Sayreville had never elected a woman to any public office before,” Borough Historian Jason Slesinski said.“[Their campaign] was about the fact that they were four residents of a community that they felt was controlled by politicians who were working hand in hand with local industry and were more concerned with the interests of big business than the interests of the community.”

Before they formed the Distaff Slate, the women were active volunteers within the borough, working together in the Sayreville Committee on Public Education, according to Slesinski.

The future Distaff Slate was first galvanized by local politics when the women took exception to a proposed apartment complex that would have been constructed near their homes. Driven by the belief that the borough’s rapid growth was already stressing municipal services beyond their capabilities, Kerr and her future running mates began a community outreach campaign and made their objections to the proposed development known at public meetings.

In the end, they succeeded in halting the creation of the apartment complex. With their feet now wet in the world of municipal governance, the women decided to stay engaged.

In response to Kerr’s complaints about the pace of local bureaucracy, her husband, Daniel, suggested she run for office and get things done on her own. Kerr took that suggestion and ran with it — and the Distaff Slate was born.

Kerr, Koval, Carter and Zaccardi each filed for election to form an unprecedented all-female ticket, at a time when politics was very much an old boys’ club. They encountered sexism and prejudice throughout the race, but went on to defeat Fielek’s ticket in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, with Kerr beating the incumbent mayor by more than 800 votes. The Distaff Slate didn’t stop there. The general election in November 1967 was a complete rout, with “the girls” easily turning away their Republican challengers in blue Sayreville. Kerr received 3,000 votes more than John Linson — her closest challenger — for a two-year mayoral term, and the rest of the Distaff Slate broke 4,000 votes each while their opponents couldn’t even muster 3,000.

“I’m glad that you showed so much confidence and trust in us,” Koval, who had been elected to a three-year term on the Borough Council, proclaimed to the Sayreville public after the election.

“I’m the happiest woman in the world right now,” said Zaccardi, who won election to a two-year council term.

Ruth Mandel, director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics and founder of the Center for American Women and Politics, said the Distaff Slate’s triumph came before organized efforts to promote women in public office were truly underway.

“The women’s liberation movement at that time was already active … but the push for women in politics didn’t really begin until the early 1970s,” Mandel said.

While the Distaff Slate wasn’t looking to make an explicit statement about women in the political sphere with their campaign, Mandel speculated that they were certainly aware of the significance of their victory.

“These women in Sayreville … were really pre-pioneers in a way,” Mandel said.

Slesinski said the women would use their time in office to rail against a municipal government that they believed worked in the interest of big business, rather than the average resident.

“Their biggest priority was to form an open government … that worked for the people and communicated with the people,” Slesinski said.

Mandel said the focus on community issues and local impact have long been common themes addressed by women who run for public office.

“There is a long and very familiar history for women in politics to run on … community issues close to home,” Mandel said.

Unfortunately for the Distaff Slate, their uprising would be short-lived and their laudable goal of accountable local government not fully attained. When Kerr’s term of office was up in 1969, the local Democrats chose not to endorse her candidacy and moved instead to back sitting Democratic Councilman Thomas Kubenski. Zaccardi chose not to seek re-election.

Kerr, who ran as a write-in candidate, lambasted both Kubenski and Republican mayoral candidate Henry Billemeyer, stating, “I cannot stand by and see the borough move backwards instead of forward. Kubenski wants to be mayor because he feels it is time he moved up another step on the political ladder. Billemeyer’s desire to become mayor goes back many years, and he feels it is now or never to realize his ambition. These are not valid reasons for seeking public office.”

With the Democratic vote split between Kerr and Kubenski, Billemeyer won the race, becoming Sayreville’s third Republican mayor and the first since 1942.

The following year, when Koval and Carter’s terms were up, the local Democrats again chose to shun the Distaff Slate. The two women chose not to seek re-election, exiting office after one term on Jan. 1, 1971.

“It’s just a cliché, in politics and everywhere else, that people in power don’t simply step aside and say, ‘Well, now it’s your turn,’ ” Mandel said. “People in power seek ways to retain their power. So, those in power in our political system were men — and still are — and they didn’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘I think it’s time for me to turn over my power and influence to women.’ ”

Just months after the remainder of the Distaff Slate left office, the concerted feminist effort to elect women to public positions would begin in earnest, according to Mandel. “Women were below 5 percent of all elected offices in the United States [in the early 1970s],” Mandel said. “They’ve moved up incrementally since then, but there are very few places where there is parity.”

Today, women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, but only 30 percent of the New Jersey Legislature and 19.4 percent of the U.S. Congress, according to statistics compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics. Mandel noted one district in the New Jersey Legislature entirely represented by women — District 11 is home to state Sen. Jennifer Beck and Assemblywomen Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande, all Monmouth County Republicans.

Despite such a brief stint in office, the Distaff Slate represented a profound shift in the way Americans engaged the political system. While men are still disproportionately represented in public office, the Distaff Slate helped to dispel the notion that women are not capable of public service and should be relegated to the home.

The “Peggy Kerr and the Distaff Slate” exhibit, which features artifacts from the women’s historic election, is on display at the Sayreville History Museum, 425 Main St. The museum is open 1:30-4 p.m. Sundays.