WOMEN VOTE! To Educate Women Voters in Oregon

In partnership with Planned Parenthood, Tea Party politician Cornilles' radical views on women's health are exposed

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, today announced a new WOMEN VOTE! project in Oregon’s first congressional district in partnership with Planned Parenthood. As the nationwide voter mobilization and education project of EMILY's List, WOMEN VOTE! and Planned Parenthood will reach out to key voters in Oregon to educate them about Rob Cornilles’s extreme, anti-choice record.

EMILY's List today launched a television advertisement, internet advertising, and a website, using Tea Party politician Rob Cornilles’ own words to help women voters in Oregon understand how out of step his view are. The ad may be viewed on the website, www.oregonwomenvote.org.

Planned Parenthood will follow these efforts with a mail campaign targeting pro-choice independent women voters under 55.

"Voters in Oregon’s first district are very clear: they want a pro-choice representative," said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY's List. "Tea Party politician Rob Cornilles has tried to have it both ways -- embracing the endorsement of the Oregon Right To Life and then hoping women will see him as a moderate. We’ll be on the air and online making sure women voters are very clear on where Rob Cornilles stands: against their right to make their own medical decisions. We’re confident that women voters in Oregon will get Democrats off to strong start in 2012 by electing a proud pro-choice democratic woman, Suzanne Bonamici."

"Rob Cornilles just doesn’t get it. He claims the House plays a 'very limited role' on choice, but last spring the Republicans nearly shut down the federal government while attempting to defund Planned Parenthood," said Amy Hojnowski, interim executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. "We're proud to partner with EMILY's List to alert voters that Rob Cornilles' extreme views are out of touch with the values of the first congressional district."

Launched in 1995, the historic EMILY's List WOMEN VOTE! project combines polling and research, advanced information technology, sophisticated message testing, and precinct-by-precinct field work to mobilize millions of women voters across the country. EMILY's List designed WOMEN VOTE! to build a progressive political base that will elect more Democrats, especially women, by helping to increase turnout among women voters year after year.

In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List raised more than $38.5 million to support its mission of recruiting and supporting women candidates, helping them build strong campaigns, and mobilizing women voters to turn out and vote. With a community of more than 900,000 members across the country, EMILY's List is one of the largest political action committees in the nation. Since its founding in 1985, EMILY's List has worked to elect 86 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 16 to the U.S. Senate, nine governors, and hundreds of women to the state legislatures, state constitutional offices, and other key local offices. In the 2009-2010 cycle, EMILY's List had the largest number of members and donors in our 25 year history.