Sheila Kuehl
When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994 a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for the Federal Legislature. Kuehl recalled "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"
Marie Juchacz
Marie had been introduced to politics by her older brother, Otto Gohlke, who in the later 1890s had encouraged her to read popular political works of the time such as "Die Waffen nieder!" ("Throw down the weapons") by Bertha von Suttner and "Die Frau und der Sozialismus" ("Woman and socialism") by August Bebel. Around 1903 she met who was frequently in Landsberg where his family lived. Paetzel had an important job with "Vorwärts", a Berlin publishing house, and was also an activist with the SPD and the party candidate in the 1907 election.