Politicos traditionally have tried to lessen the influence of the “old boys club”  by mandating equal representation of men and women on county committees. Each district would have a male and female committee member.

No longer.

There is now a growing trend to make county committees “gender neutral” by eliminating the male-female requirement.

The Morris County Democratic Committee just did that over the weekend – voting overwhelmingly (200 to 21) to do away with the male-female standard.

Chip Robinson, the county chair, said the change also takes into account the possibility a prospective committee member may not associate with either gender.

The change takes place just about immediately – with this year’s county committee election. The filing deadline is April 5 and the election takes place in the June primary.

All this is well and good, but can the end result be a case of “unintended consequences” carrying the day? In other words, will the new committee end up 75 percent male and 25 percent female?

That’s certainly a possibility, given the fact men still seem to dominate politics.

On the other hand, Robinson says things can also go the other way. The Morris Dems can end up with a committee that is 75 percent female. To that end, Robinson notes that, generally speaking, more women than men associate with the Democratic party.

So, county committee elections in Morris and in other locales where a similar change was made will be interesting to watch.

Before we leave the world of the Morris Democrats, we must note that the committee over the weekend also adopted a resolution establishing an anti-harassment policy.

Modeled after one provided by the N.J. Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the policy bans bullying and sexual harassment of any kind. It also requires bystanders who see such activity to intervene.

It’s really not news that a political organization adopted such a policy.

But the vote was 206 in favor and 16 opposed.

That’s right, 16 “no” votes. Go figure.