HR's most unlikely politician

Workforce, Dec, 2002 by Todd Raphael

Sonoma and Marin Counties of California have seen it all. They've been home to the Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo Indian tribes. European explorers arrived there. So did Russian fur traders and gold rushers.

California was declared a republic there, independent of Mexico. There's a world-famous wine industry there, high-tech research, and an entertainment company founded by Star Wars' George Lucas.

This district is also home to Lynn Woolsey, the only welfare mother to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Much of what she believes in, I do not. Still, next month she celebrates the 10th anniversary of her first election by being sworn in once again, and there is no better time to tell the story of this politician you may not have heard of.

In 1966, Woolsey was a single mother on welfare. Her odds of someday joining Congress were as slim as those of America landing on the moon.

She got a job as an HR manager for a high-tech manufacturer called Digital Telephone Systems, in Novato, California. That year--1969--Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and Woolsey's company had 13 employees. The subscription she bought to Personnel Journal, now called Workforce, set her back $9 in 1970 (Web site not included). By the time she left Digital, she was heading up an HR department that served 800 employees. She also raised four kids.

In 1980, armed with a bachelor's degree in HR, she started Woolsey Personnel Service, and for a dozen years acted as the HR department for numerous California companies.

She served on the Petaluma City Council and then, in 1992, made the jump to the U.S. Congress, representing one of the wealthier districts in America. She did not arrive with Washington experience, just workforce-management experience. "HR made all the difference in the world to me as a new member of the House," she says. "We started out running because I knew how to hire."

Woolsey is super liberal. She wants every state to have a paid-leave program like California's. She believes that time spent educating yourself should count as work hours under the welfare laws, allowing you to continue receiving assistance while getting an AA degree. Woolsey favors national ergonomic rules.

Some businesspeople are appalled that the government should tell them what to pay their employees, especially when this ends up putting people out of work. Woolsey wants a minimum-wage increase.

Woolsey has watched Republicans on her committee--which covers workforce issues--bring in HR pros as witnesses during hearings. She doesn't like what she sees. "The HR witnesses sometimes forget they work for the employees of their companies. Forgetting that is a huge mistake. I never forgot that as an HR manager."

The business lobbyists in Washington don't care much for Woolsey. She's opposed to most of what they favor. They find that her policies run counter to the idea that business, not government, is the better problem-solver.

Woolsey's life story, however, defines the American dream. What's more, Woolsey represents a liberal district. Even among some businesspeople there, she's very popular. "The kinds of businesses that are doing business here tend to embrace much of her politics," says Brian Sobel, a California political analyst and a Republican.

What separates Woolsey from many other politicians is not that she ran a successful business and had to meet a payroll. It's not that she has been on welfare. It's that she has experienced both.

John Kramer is a professor of political science at Sonoma State. He says, "Woolsey is a liberal, no question about it." Still, he adds, Woolsey does her homework and takes her job seriously. When she held a hearing recently on breaking the glass ceiling in Telcom Valley--the area's telecommunications sector--businesspeople with clout turned out.

When Michael Troy started an HR software business called KnowledgePoint in this district, it was Lynn Woolsey he called for advice.

Sobel says it is fair to say that Woolsey doesn't come across as an eloquent genius during debates on the House floor. But she is immensely popular at home. What she lacks in pizzazz she makes up for in interpersonal skills. Every third person who sees her hugs her, and she wins by 2-to-1 margins. Amy Walter, who analyzes politics for the Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C., says Woolsey has her seat until she opts for a new career.

A lot has changed over the years on the beautiful land over the Golden Gate Bridge. Lynn Woolsey will not. "If Lynn says she will do something, I can take it to the bank and cash it," Sobel, the Republican, says. "You cannot trade for that in politics."