PORTLAND, Maine - The U.S. Treasury is considering candidates for the woman's face that will appear on the $10 bill in 2020 - in time to celebrate the 100th annivesary of women's right to vote.
To qualify, the candidate must be no longer living and considered to be "a champion for our inclusive democracy." A decision is expected later this year.
While abolitionist Harriet Tubman seems to be front runner, the list does include two pioneering female politicians with close Maine ties: Margaret Chase Smith and Frances Perkins.
Here at the Frances Perkins Homestead, set on 57 acres in the Midcoast town of Newcastle, a relative fo the former U.S. labor secretary offers a tour. "I'm Tomlin Coggeshall - Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, grandson of Frances Perkins. Her daughter was my mother."
Coggeshall - who was 11 when his grandmother died in 1965 - now lives here at this national historic landmark, dedicated to the memory of America's first female cabinet member. Serving as labor secretary under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Perkins is best remembered for the New Deal programs she set in motion, such as Social Security, the 40-hour work week, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation, and the minimum wage.
Coggeshall says his grandmother might actually have been uncomfortable with the idea of being placed on a $10 bill. "She kind of eschewed publicity in her role," he says. "She tried to maintain a private life separate from her public role."
But in this recording at an event marking the 20th anniversary of Social Security, an 80-year-old Perkins exudes the passion that Coggeshall says she brought to Washington.
"We will go forward into the future a stronger nation because of the fact that we have this basic rock of security under all of our people," Perkins said.
"Her reason for existence, really, was to ensure that all Americans had an equal chance at economic security and social justice," says Michael Chaney, the executive director of the Frances Perkins Center in nearby Damariscotta. "It would be very poignant, in our eyes, that a person who made sure that more people had more money throughout their lives was actually on the currency."
Perkins has a number of high-profile supporters, including U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree - all of them, like Perkins, Democrats.
The other members of Maine's congressional delegation, however, are pushing a notable Republican from Maine - Skowhegan native Margaret Chase Smith, who became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress during her long political career.
In a 1972 debate on MPBN, Smith attributed her popularity to hard work. "It's often said if you want anything done in Washington, write Margaret Smith, and this is the reputation that I have built up." In 1964 she sought the GOP presidential nomination, the first woman to do so from a major political party. She came in second behind Barry Goldwater.
David Richards is director of the Margaret Chase Smith library. He says Smith - who was born in 1898 - was one of the first women to turn her newly-given right to vote into a political career.
"When she graduates in 1916 from Skowhegan High School, women still don't have the right to vote in this country," Richards says. "And yet she was able to go on and make politics a career, and along the way she opened up the doors for women in lots of different areas, not just in politics, but she was also at the forefront of making sure women could have opportunities in the military as well."
Margaret Chase Smith is also admired today by many for the way she stood up fellow GOP Sen. Joseph McCarthy in her so-called "Declaration of Conscience" speech in 1950, criticizing McCarthy's communist "witch hunts."
Smith, who died in 1995, certainly has no shortage of support in Maine. In a recent poll conducted by the Bangor Daily News, 62 percent of readers chose her as their favorite to go the $10.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine recalls meeting Margaret Chase Smith during a trip to Washington D.C. in 1971 as a high school senior. "And she spent nearly two hours talking with me," Collins recalls. "I remember leaving her office convinced that women can do anything."
Such is Collins' admiration for the woman that she recently wrote to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, urging him to put Smith's portrait on the $20 bill, rather than the $10.
"I'm reminded of a comment that Margaret Chase Smith once made: When she was asked, 'What is a woman's proper place?' She replied, 'Everywhere.' And I would add to that, 'And on a $20 bill,' " Collins says.
Collins made the request, in part, she says, so as not to strip Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the Treasury, of what she calls his rightful place on the $10 bill. But she also likes the idea of putting a woman's image on a currency note that's used more frequently, and comes out of every ATM in the country.
Maine's congressional delegation weighs in on the issue:
Sen. Susan Collins: Read Sen. Collins' letter to Jack Lew.
Sen. Angus King: "Women have played a central and too often unrecognized and underappreciated role in shaping our nation, and it’s far past time that we recognize and honor their monumental contributions to our history by featuring a woman on our nation’s currency. Maine’s own Margaret Chase Smith - from trailblazing the path for women legislators across the country to standing up Joseph McCarthy’s radical ideology when no one else dared - is a profile in political courage and a model public servant. Her extraordinary leadership, strength of character, and commitment to doing what was right have made her one of my personal heroes, and it’s those same qualities that I think would make her a perfect choice for a prominent place on either the $10 or the $20."
Rep. Bruce Poliquin, of Maine's 2nd District: "I join Senator Collins in suggesting to put Former Senator Margaret Chase Smith on the $20 bill. I believe Margaret Chase Smith would be a great addition as she is a well-known leader from Maine."
Rep. Chellie Pingree, of Maine's 1st District: "It’s a tough choice between Margaret Chase Smith and Francis Perkins but I think I have to go with Perkins. Not only was she the first woman to serve in the cabinet, but she also helped make Social Security a reality. And I'm excited to see a woman on either the $10 or $20 or both."