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August 2009

To: Majority Council Members
From: Ellen R. Malcolm
Date: August 10, 2009

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

As expected, the Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to be associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court -- the third woman and first Hispanic ever appointed. Justice Sotomayor went through a week of very challenging hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee with grace and good humor. I’m impressed by her; proud of our two women senators on the Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar; and pleased that President Obama chose such an outstanding nominee.

To celebrate, we’ve put together a congratulatory web page on our site that drives home the historic nature of this moment: photographs of every one of the 111 justices who have served on the Supreme Court since 1790. The photos of Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor -- the only three women -- are in color. You can see it on www.emilyslist.org -- and please, forward the page to your friends so they can share in our celebration.

Special election in California

Just as EMILY’s List wrapped up one special election -- congratulations, Congresswoman Judy Chu! -- we jumped into another, endorsing state Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan in California’s 10th congressional district. Fourteen candidates are vying to replace Democrat Ellen Tauscher, now under secretary of state for arms control. Joan is the only Democratic woman in the field.

Joan is truly a remarkable woman. The daughter of a waitress and a bartender, she remembers helping her mother count her tip money at night until they had enough saved for a down payment on a house. Joan went on to become the first college graduate in her family; she had a successful career in business and raised five children as a single parent. Joan served nearly 20 years on the San Ramon Valley School Board, including four terms as president, before helping Democrats take over a Republican-held seat in the state Assembly.

This crowded field includes two very powerful men: the sitting state lieutenant governor and a state senator. Joan has the advantage of being the only Democratic woman running for a Democratic-leaning seat -- but she must work doubly hard to raise the resources she needs to run a costly race on a short timeline. The special primary is Sept. 1; if no candidate receives 50 percent (+1) of the vote, the top vote-getters from each party will advance to the Nov. 3 general election. You can find the latest news coverage and other commentary on this race on our web site, www.emilyslist.org.

And one last update on Judy Chu who, as I reported last month, won the general election in California’s 32nd district. Judy was sworn into Congress July 16. She is the first Chinese American woman elected to the U.S. House -- and the 80th woman elected with support from EMILY’s List.

Playing offense and defense

Even without special elections, we’d be plenty busy here at EMILY’s List. Things are really kicking into high gear in the political world, with opportunities to elect new pro-choice Democratic women emerging across the country. We’re working with new House candidates and potential candidates in Illinois, Alabama, Florida, Minnesota, and New Hampshire, and gubernatorial candidates or potential candidates in Florida (endorsed candidate Alex Sink), New Mexico (endorsed candidate Diane Denish), Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, Tennessee, Nevada, and Maine. One tantalizing possibility I have to mention: unseating right-wing Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who just drew a strong challenger in Democratic state Senator Tarryl Clark. Stay tuned for more information on that race!

And, as always, we are working to protect our targeted incumbents. The Republican National Campaign Committee recently released a list of Democratic seats they believe they can win in 2010 -- and it includes nine Democratic women elected with support from EMILY’s List: Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz. 1), Loretta Sanchez (Calif. 47), Betsy Markey (Colo. 4), Suzanne Kosmas (Fla. 24), Debbie Halvorson (Ill. 11), Carol Shea-Porter (N.H. 1), Dina Titus (Nev. 3), Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio 15), and Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (S.D. AL). Republicans are crowing about their prospects in all of these districts, and have succeeded in recruiting strong challengers for Markey, Kosmas, and Kilroy, whom we are recommending in our next mailing (along with Alex Sink for governor of Florida and Robin Carnahan for Senate from Missouri).

The political atmosphere our women are running in is positively poisonous, and Republicans are doing all they can to make it worse. The National Republican Congressional Committee is actually bragging about turning town hall meetings into “town-hell” meetings. Right-wing groups -- including the same folks who were behind the “tea party” and Swift Boat campaigns -- are sending in mobs to disrupt public events and prevent ordinary citizens from engaging in a dialogue with their congressional representatives. They are hanging images of congresspeople in effigy and even circulating a “best practices” memo that specifically says “Try To ‘Rattle [the member of Congress],’ Not Have An Intelligent Debate.”

And it doesn’t end there. You can’t turn on a cable news channel without running into a conservative talking head blathering some crazy line -- Pat Buchanan disparaging the accomplishments of Justice Sotomayor … Lou Dobbs encouraging conspiracy theorists who question the veracity of the president’s birth certificate … Glenn Beck calling the president a racist who hates white people. It’s bad out there, and only getting worse.

This is the world our candidates are running in -- and the election is still 15 months away! Clearly, they are going to need every bit of help to get their message out above the din of right-wing rabble-rousing. Watch your mail for a letter from me asking members to sign a note of support that we can share with our elected women, to show them that we appreciate their efforts to reform the health insurance system, address global warming, and deal with the economic crisis. I encourage you to send your note in as soon as you receive it. We can’t let the opponents of progress be the only ones whose voices are heard. It’s our place to step up and show support for the women we’ve helped elect who are on the front lines fighting for change.

Read My Lipstick: the EMILY’s List blog

There’s no better place to get a feel for what’s going on with women in politics in D.C. and across the country than www.emilyslist.org -- and especially on Read My Lipstick, the EMILY’s List blog. Read My Lipstick is full of news and commentary from our staff, who are always up on the latest announcement, poll, or outrage. The blog also features commentary from prominent guests, including the news from the campaign trail from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and, during the Sotomayor hearings, insider reports from Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of only two women on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Whether it’s happening on Capitol Hill or California, you can learn more about it on our web site. I hope you’ll stop by, and maybe even join the conversation on our blog!