Dorothy Eisenberg - Excerpt 2 Transcript
(Las Vegas, Nevada; August 22, 2001)

JG: What were some of those issues?

DE: The issues were, number one, I - I think environment was one of the things, and - and the parks, and - she was very, very active in parks and environment. Certainly race relations was a - very high up on - on her schedule. I - I think that she was very interested in planning and zoning. Even then, it - it - it slipped over, it - you would get zone variances, things would always be loose about it: "Well, it's not in the master plan, but that's okay if it's not in the master plan." It continued, I think, and some people didn't know the difference between planning and zoning, to tell you the truth, and these were elected officials. So I - I think that these - some of these were local issues, but a lot of them were state issues, too. And she went up there caring about women, about children, about schools, and a different emphasis on - on what she felt was the most important kinds of things, and - and this had been distilled from the years of working with women in the League and in other organizations. She had been in a lot of other organizations, too. So it - it all came together, because I don't think there were many issues that Jean and I ever disagreed about. I really can't think of any that there was any disagreement between us, and - and most people, because if we studied them and we came to a conclusion, I think we thought that was the right conclusion. But Jean started me in a different line of work, if you would say, when she ran for office. When the League was getting started, the League had to raise some money. If we wanted to publish our information, if we wanted to get things out, we did need some money to - to make it go. You - You think, "Oh, you can't - how much do you need?" But it turned out we needed quite a bit, so that when we had this voter's guide about voting, we would take it out and show people in business, or doctors, or lawyers, or our husbands, or our own doctors, or our own friends, and say, "Look at the kind of things that the League does, and your money would help to do - publish this and other kinds of things that we do," and we went along very nicely with a minimal amount of money. At that point, we would - had a men's committee who was our finance advisory committee, and we started with saying to them, "Well, how would you do this and where would you go?" and asking them for advice, because we didn't feel we could do it ourselves, because when we signed letters at that point she signed "Mrs. Samuel Ford" and I signed "Mrs. Paul Eisenberg," so it was a very different time in the late sixties. And then we found out we really didn't need that men's committee, we could just go out to these people ourselves, and if we found the people that we did business with or we knew, we could just go to them for - for this financial help. (DEisenberg2)So when Jean's campaign started, she said to me, "Well, you're the best fundraiser we had for the League, so you're going to be my fundraiser," and I said, "I don't know if I can do this, Jean," and she said, "We'll work together," and we did, and we did this several times. And she did this with other people. She said, "You're going to be my bookkeeper. You'll be able to keep the books," and - and - and they said, "Well, I don't know how to do this," and Jean said, "We'll show you how. You can do it," and - and we did, and I think she had an all-woman campaign, that there was so many women that were willing to help and did do the job for her.(DEisenberg2) I - I don't think she lost an election, did she?