‘Mere’ Woman Joke Draws Laughs, Sort of

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder laughed off remarks Friday by Orange County’s Sacramento lobbyist about a new state officeholder being “a mere woman” but said later she thought the comment was “inappropriate.”

Lobbyist Dennis Carpenter told the county’s Legislative Planning Committee, which includes the entire Board of Supervisors and the heads of most county departments, of upcoming meetings with Elizabeth Hill, the state legislative analyst.

With a glance toward Wieder, who was presiding at the meeting and was the only supervisor present, Carpenter joked that Hill was “a mere woman.”

Wieder said later that Carpenter “does a lot of kidding” and “he is supportive of women. He has a woman on his staff, his partner is his wife. (But) I think it was inappropriate for him, and I’m personally going to tell him that I don’t think that’s kidding on the square.”

Carpenter said he had not heard from Wieder and that “I haven’t had any other complaints.” But he said he’d drop the phrase, “mere woman,” from his vocabulary “if she asks me to.”