From backroom accountant to Treasurer of the United States, her rise began with a Xerox machine in a campaign office. Last Wednesday, Nov. 11, notable Republican political analyst Angela “Bay” Buchanan came to talk about “Women in Politics,” an event hosted by the Wellesley College Republicans (WCR). Drawing on personal experiences as a Reagan campaign veteran and conservative commentator, Buchanan was armed with advice for women on how to come out on top, whether it’s in office politics or political office.
Buchanan began her talk with advice for getting ahead among male colleagues. She learned her first lesson during her early days as an accountant in the Reagan campaign: Whatever it takes, make yourself indispensable. Buchanan recalled how she had to use a Xerox machine every night to distribute important reports. It was of utmost importance for Buchanan that the copier did not break down in the middle of the night. “[I learned] to take a Xerox machine apart and put it back together again by the end,” she said. But this skill came with an important advantage—she had made herself a valuable asset. “[It] gave me enormous clout…I was essential.” Gaining recognition around the office as the woman who could fix vital office equipment, she said, “I had no sense that this was below somebody of my stature...I was willing to do anything.”
For her next piece of advice, Buchanan described the importance of keeping information as leverage to stay competitive in male-dominated office politics. “Information is what’s valuable. You hold it close. And that is what I did,” she said. When she mentioned how frustrated she was with her dismissive male colleagues in a conversation with her brother Pat Buchanan, he counseled her to hold the cards close to her chest. She recalled: “[He said,] ‘You just give them the minimum amount of information they need. If someone wants to get it, they have to come down the hall to your office before they do anything.’”
Buchanan also urged women not to be timid. “If you don’t think men do this, you’re wrong. They’re spotting out exactly where the next move is a long time before they take it,” she said. Despite being hospitalized twice during an exhausting campaign, Buchanan fended off Vice-President Elect George Bush’s choice for Treasurer and other Washington insiders, navigating the infighting for titles during the transition period of the new administration to secure herself the position. When a friend in the Washington political scene called her shortly after Reagan’s campaign victory to ask for her top three job choices, she recalled, “I said, One: Treasurer…Two: Treasurer…Three: Treasurer.” Her incredulous friend asked her not to joke, but she refused to change her claim, saying, “I know exactly how this game works. That’s it. I get this job.”
She had words for women seeking to impact the bigger picture of national politics. “We need to not be hesitant. We need to speak out,” she said. In a national political dialogue dominated by men, she added, “We are very much different from men. We are equal, but we are very much different. And that is an asset.”
According to Buchanan, leadership requires a person to have passion, courage, and to “believe in something.” She pushed people to seek out debate. “Go talk to someone who disagrees…Sit down and say, ‘Look, I just do not understand how you can believe this. How can you possibly support the taking of life from an innocent unborn?’” She added, “You’re going to be uncomfortable, because you’ve never been put on the spot. [But] I don’t care if you’re right or left. You go to both sides to decide…who are you?”
She insisted that one should not give into an opponent’s “politics of intimidation,” because the person who can quiet down her opponent wins the debate. “If you can’t stand and boldly declare what it is you believe, you can’t lead anyone,” she said.
Self-professed conservatives and liberals alike attended Buchanan’s talk. “Although she has well-established views on immigration and abortion, we wanted even the most liberal Wellesley students to come and see that Bay Buchanan had real-life advice that was applicable even to them,” co-president of WCR Caitlin Alcala ’10 said. “Many Wellesley students forget that conservative women are on the same ‘team’ and are also working towards empowering women. They assume that being conservative is incompatible with being a feminist…That is absolutely not true and we want the campus community to get to know us and what we do stand for.”
Organizers suggested that the talk was overall well-received. “All of the students that I spoke with after the event thoroughly enjoyed the talk…Such a positive response from conservative and liberal students alike means that the event was extremely successful,” co-president Jillian Cunningham ’10 said. “I sincerely hope that Wellesley women listened to what Ms. Buchanan had to say regarding intelligent debate…Friendly, intellectually stimulating debate is what makes the world go round—how boring would it be if everyone agreed with you 100 percent of the time? The only way to truly form your beliefs is to have them challenged.”
Bay Buchanan was appointed U.S. Treasurer by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. At 32, she was the youngest person to hold the position. She was also campaign chairman for all three of Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaigns and a senior advisor to Mitt Romney in 2008. Throughout her career she has appeared on and hosted various television and radio programs, and currently appears on CBS’s Morning Show, as well as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, as a political analyst. She holds a Masters Degree in Mathematics from McGill University and her first book, “The Extreme Makeover of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” was published in 2007.
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