Week of June 17, 2005
POP on a winning streak
Pro-choice Democratic women candidates continue to rack up victories in state races
Pro-choice Democratic women supported by the EMILY's List Political Opportunity Program (POP) are celebrating hard-won victories after primary elections in New Jersey on June 7 and in Virginia on June 14.
In New Jersey, Linda Stender emerged from a crowded primary with 36 percent of the vote, winning the Democratic nomination for Assembly District 22, which she has represented for two terms.
In Virginia, community activist and first-time candidate Jennifer McClellan defeated her opponent to win the Democratic nomination in the Virginia House of Delegates, District 71, an open seat. Both Stender and McClellan are heavily favored to win in November in these strongly Democratic districts.
These victories in New Jersey and Virginia follow on the heels of LeAnna Washington's May victory in Pennsylvania. Washington won a special election to replace Cong. Allyson Schwartz, also an EMILY's List candidate, in the Pennsylvania state Senate.
Judge dismisses Republican effort to oust Gregoire
Washington governor's 2004 election victory upheld
Six months after losing the Washington state governor's race, Republican Dino Rossi finally conceded victory to Democrat Christine Gregoire. The race last year was so close, they had to recount the votes by machine and then by hand. Gregoire won by 129 votes out of three million cast, but her victory was immediately challenged by bitter Republicans who sought to throw Gregoire out of the governor's seat and hold a second election.
Rossi dropped his challenge on June 6 after state Superior Court Judge John Bridges upheld Gregoire's victory. Bridges, known as a fair judge, even expanded Gregoire's official margin of victory to 133 votes.
Since Gregoire's narrow victory was certified last December, Rossi and state Republicans had been waging a costly legal challenge against her and the state Democratic Party, costing the Democrats an estimated $3 million. EMILY's List members helped defray the lawsuit's costs by supporting the EMILY's List Fair Elections Fund.
In spite of all the legal wrangling, Gregoire has been governing aggressively and effectively since taking office in January. She had signed a record 516 bills after her first legislative session as governor. Even the state's Republican Senate Leader, Bill Finkbeiner, praised Gregoire's leadership skills.
Gregoire's victory is not cause to be complacent, however. Democrats have won this battle, but the GOP's war against fair elections will continue.
Pro-choice Democratic women Senators push for Violence Against Women Act renewal
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) cosponsored a bill to reauthorize and update the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 (VAWA) in the Senate last week. The Act is slated to expire Sept. 30, 2005, unless reauthorized by Congress.
The women senators' updates would strengthen domestic violence laws currently on the books - heightening penalties for repeat domestic abusers, providing additional resources for victims, and allocating funding for law enforcement training.
VAWA is largely credited with the 49 percent decrease in violent crimes against women since 1992. Reports of rape have dropped 60 percent and more women are reporting abuse.
Unimpressed by the law's bipartisan support, conservative activist Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America claims that VAWA "has become a huge funneling scheme to radical feminist activists who use the funding to basically set up anti-men programs."
In his budget, Bush proposed cutting funding for VAWA's programs to $363 million -- a five percent decrease from 2005 spending levels.
Pro-choice Democratic women work to guarantee access to contraception
Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), among others, introduced legislation June 7 to require pharmacists to fill all legally prescribed contraception.
At the state level, women legislators supported by the EMILY's List Political Opportunity Program (POP) are also fighting the disturbing surge in "pharmacists' rights" legislation, a new tactic of the far right to limit women's health care choices. In Wisconsin, POP-supported Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) introduced the Birth Control Protection Act. In Virginia, Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) founded the Reproductive Rights Caucus to ensure Virginia women have access to birth control.
Recent polling indicates that 88 percent of Americans support women's access to contraception. When asked specifically whether pharmacists who object to filling birth control prescriptions on religious grounds should be allowed to refuse, 74 percent of respondents who said they were opposed to abortion also said they are against giving pharmacists the power to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions.
This debate is taking place right around the 40th anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark Supreme Court decision granting American women widespread access to contraceptive care, which was handed down June 7, 1965.
Kalyn Free's INDN's List to host first training session
For more than 12 years, attorney Kalyn Free dreamed of creating an organization dedicated to electing American Indians to public office. The Oklahoma native and former EMILY's List congressional candidate recently made her dream a reality -- Free launched the Indigenous Democratic Network List (INDN's List).
Modeled after EMILY's List, INDN's List aims to help elect Democratic American Indian women and men to all levels of government. The group will host its first Campaign Camp in October, which is open to American Indian candidates for political office, as well as staff who are working on American Indian campaigns. Free will draw on her experiences as a successful candidate for district attorney (the first woman elected to that post from her counties), and her work on dozens of tribal, state, and national campaigns.