About Cheryl Cage, LD-26 Candidate for Arizona Senate

Three cheers!  Cheryl Cage has announced her candidacy for the State Senate.  Legislative District 26 now has three well-qualified, highly motivated Democratic candidates for the Arizona Legislature:  Ms Cage for the Senate and Representative Nancy Young Wright and Don Jorgensen for the House. 

History in the making:  They can do it!  LD-26 has a definite shot at winning three Democratic seats in the 49th Legislature (2009-2010).   It’s time to ask what you can do to help.  Talk about candidates!  Have a house party!  Put signs in your yard or window!    

Campaign strategy.  Cage, Young Wright, and Jorgensen are working within LD-26 to make sure we secure all three seats.  The special strength this lends to each candidate is already apparent.  Whenever one of them makes a speech, he/she includes commentary about the other two.  Weekend “walks,” picnics and all other special events will be treated as part of their cooperative campaigning.

About the candidate.  Growing up in a military family, Cheryl was moved from school to school, including three high schools in four years.  She notes:  “I loved every minute of it.”  After earning a B.A. in psychology, she became a flight attendant for Braniff, then worked for International Athletic Clubs of America, and in 1988 started Cage Consulting, an aviation and business career consulting service.

She moved to Arizona in 1999.  Since then, besides serving as president of Cage Consulting and leading a busy family life, Cheryl has been a tutor in English as a second language and was Lena Saradnik’s campaign manager in her successful 2006 run for the AZ House.

Cheryl has been married for 27 years to Young Cage, a retired United Airlines pilot, and has two stepchildren and six grandchildren.  She and her husband have traveled widely abroad:  Ethiopia, Ecuador, the Galapagos, Peru, South Africa, Botswana, Costa Rica, Australia….

Cage Consulting.  More than 35,000 pilots have used the services of Cage Consulting in preparing for pilot interviews, and more than 70,000 copies of Cage Consulting aviation and business career books have been sold.  Cheryl has presented pilot interview preparation seminars for at least 5,000 displaced pilots from PanAm, Midway, USAirways, and TWA to name a few.  In 2001 she was retained to present job search workshops for furloughed American Airlines and United Airlines pilots.

She has spent many years providing seminars on such topics as conflict resolution, thriving during difficult times, and how to prioritize goals.  (Is this good preparation for the Legislature or what?!)

In recent years she has written several books and training aids, many articles, and a regular column for Army Times, Navy Times, and(political training Air Force Times.

Political involvement:  Cheryl has been involved in grassroots community activism for more than two decades and has worked on every presidential campaign since Michael Dukakis.  She graduated from the Emerge Program for women) and in 2006 ran Lena’s successful campaign for State Representative.

Cheryl made this statement when she announced her candidacy two weeks ago:

“Our state has so much potential to harness, and I feel the call for public service.  In my role as a business owner for the past 20 years I have had to work daily to solve problems sooner rather than later.  I’ll bring those same skills to the Legislature where I will work diligently, alongside Representative Nancy Young Wright and Candidate for the House Don Jorgensen, to be the type of representative who works with others to find real solutions.”