Democratic 21st Century Club Luncheon

Mary Veronica Hughes is President of Hughes & Company, a strategic communications and political consulting firm in Palo Alto. She is also the founder and director of The 2012 Project, a national, non-partisan campaign of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University to increase the number of women in Congress and state legislatures.

Mary has advised candidates for President, Congress, state and legislative offices and contributed to a number of groundbreaking "firsts": first woman in U.S. history to lead her Party in the Congress; the first woman Superintendent of Schools in California; and the first openly lesbian judge elected in the nation.

A former Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, Mary has published op-eds and book reviews related to American politics in the Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Huffington Post, among others. She was the EMERGE CA "Woman of the Year" in 2007, and in 2012 was named one of "21 leaders for the 21st Century" by Women's eNews.

Mary is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Mount Holyoke College. She lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California.

Read Mary's musings on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-hughes/

Learn more about the 2012 Project at http://www.facebook.com/The2012Project

RSVP: Send an email to events@d21stcc.com, visit us at D21stCC.com, find us on Facebook, or call Emy Thurber at (650) 948-8259. Please reserve your spot before noon on Wednesday, March 6.