When I heard Terri Lynn Land had accepted an offer to be gubernatorial candidate Michael Bouchard’s running mate, my first thought was, “Hooray! A woman on the ticket!”. With John Cherry picking up endorsements and backing from so many corners, it seems clear he’ll be the Democratic nominee in 2010, and – well, what can I say? – I’m a big fan of Alma Wheeler Smith. So I was just glad to see a woman in the top race.

My second thought was, “Wait a minute. Wasn’t she running for GOVERNOR?”.

Apparently, Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson had the same reaction. He called Land and talked with her about her decision. More on that in a minute.

Back in May, I pored over every article I could find about Republican women, because of a Politico.com article that pointed out woman make up just 10 percent of the GOP’s representation in Congress. That’s both houses. Now, Democrats aren’t exactly demonstrating gender equity. But they’ve at least cracked the 20 percent mark. There are just four Republican women in the U.S. Senate.

Of the 43 Republicans in the Michigan House, only six are women. Among the 67 Democrats are 22 women. On the Senate side, three of 27 Republicans are women; six of 16 Democrats are women. It’s tough to argue with the idea that, whatever the reason, Republican women are incredibly under-represented in our government.

Land is one of the exceptions to that rule. As Dickerson points out, she easily won re-election to her second term as Secretary of State in 2008, she picked up more votes than Bouchard did in his ill-fated run at U.S. Senate, and she has “seven years of solid, executive-branch experience.” Not to mention the whole “Bouchard-Land” nightmare for whoever ends up marketing that ticket.

Well, when I got to that part, I decided Republicans just weren’t thinking clearly. Land-Bouchard… landslide. Bouchard-Land… Disney-land. Marketing is, after all, about word association. So why, oh why, would our distinguished Secretary of State give up her shot at Governor to play second fiddle to Bouchard?

Turns out, Dickerson learned, it’s because she’s pretty smart about Michigan politics. Land saw she didn’t have the votes and formed an alliance with someone she thinks may be a stronger candidate in the places where the party needs to be strong. It’s a good answer, a smart answer. But it doesn’t address the underlying reason that Teri Lynn Land won’t be governor this time around.

The candidates whose entrance into the race made her rethink were both male and from the west side of the state, where traditional conservatism plays very well. Would Land have stayed to fight if even one of those candidates was female? And where are those candidates, the women of both parties, who should be in the pipeline now – at local, county and state levels, to ensure equal representation in government?

As Politico.com writer Erika Lovley learned, Democrats have been better at actively recruiting and supporting women than Republicans have. Shannon Garrett, director of The White House Project in Michigan, explained in a presentation I attended a few months ago that women have to be asked to run, encouraged and supported, as well as educated about a process that can be challenging, no matter how popular the candidate.

Read Dickerson’s interview with Terri Lynn Land, and let me know what you think. And then cruise on over to The White House Project, where they’re training women of all political persuasions and aspirations to run, to manage campaigns, to debate and to make their voices heard.