More notes from RootsCampDC...

 

You can win as a pro-choice Dem

 

(Viewed: times)

 

presenting:

 

  • stephenie foster (planned parenthood fed of america):
  • terry o'neill (natl council of women's orgs):

 

 

mission is to dispel the myth that you can't win as a pro-choice dem.

 

sf: we won 3 ballot measures (SD, OR, CA) and saw a rejection of extremists around the country. SD Ban was the biggest thing. Lots of antis voted against the ban.

we went with the message "the ban is too extreme". the coalition ran candidates against the peeps who voted for/sponsored ban. We beat 3 ban proponents and sent the

message that there is a price to pay for supporting the ban.

 

in CA and OR, we ran against bans on the toughest issues for us (parental notification) which tells us that the more we explain the etremism of the bans, we could

convince people that the gov't shouldn't be involved in that. Field mattered in SD in a big way - and being able to "suck it in" on the message led to victory.

 

candidate-wise, we have 4 PC sens and 12 new PC house votes. Granholm used PC in the end and Doyle vetoed 7 anti-choice measures while gov.

 

in KS, sibelius was elected and Phil Kline was beaten by 16 points - he has a history of

 

talking about choice was a good thing. sure, iraq was the biggest issue, but choice really did move peeps to vote. choice is not something we need to run from...

 

to:

 

sorry don't have poll numbers, but Ms. and Women's donor network did exit poll on women and found that 1) iraq 2) corruption 3) health 4) ed (esp. college) where top issues.

this tracked with the pre-election research. so the election wasn't EXACTLY the main issue, but when they were given a choice between a less and more progressive candidate, they went progressive.

our feeling is that if they had been given a REAL progressive, they would have gone for them.

 

in PA, the DC boys pushed barbara hafer in the PA sen race for Casey - and they didn't have the data to back them up? Women voters prefer progressive stances - and peeps don't give them enough credit for that.

 

women of color put Webb over the top. Women in general put McCaskill over the top. 1- the dems owe womens vote for the majorities 2- women prefer the more progressive candidate

 

SF: what do you think

 

Fred H: we do a lot of work with women's orgs... in OR, we thought we would lose (internal was +5-+8 against, public polls were against). So there was a big swing that wasn't caught in the polls. We haven't done the

numbers yet, but we really think the numbers will show the women put OR gov over the top. Same in MD and VA. the gender gap continues to exist and 2004 was probably a result of JFK not talking to women

 

madeline (murphy for congress): our race was very split on choice and our whole message was iraq and it worked. We would talk choice to the right people. We really didn't need to do the talking, since the endorsements and

work by the allied groups covered that turf for us. training the candidate on the appropriate choice message was challenging.

 

karen mulhauser (Mulhauser & Associates): the definition of women's issues is changing. This year Iraq was a womens issue. Another thing that is going on is the expected answer in the polling obscures the actual opinion

on choice.

 

TO: in the womens community, a lot of the objection came from their awareness of the danger to women in war and the community disruption that goes on. They are also very aware that it has diverted resources

from things women would prefer it to be spent on.

 

Fred: what about womens reaction to the Webb/Bush incident... in OR we saw a huge battle over framing on the measure - antis were talking about parenting and we moved it away.

 

SF: b/c the war is the overriding issue, the voters think we should be worrying about that - not meddling in social issues. How did that go in PA?

 

David Rosenblatt (SEIU): the pro-woman anti-choice movement is interesting... there was a group of dem/gop wealthy donors (run, baby, run) sponsored anti women who ran against pro-choice men in some cases...

 

TO: they are funded by men and the catholic church. There may be a sense around the country that the gay bashing anti-choice movement is insincere - and voters are getting that.

 

s: i think we connected debates in ways we hadn't previously. as a result women are in a place where they can actually deal with larger issues, not just the standard trump-card issues.

 

SF: the antis are now messaging more on "abortion hurts women" as a result of our success in building the women's health message.

 

David: what was frightening was that it wasn't honest about being anti - it claimed non-partisanship, but was only supporting antis

 

madeline: it is interesting to see the inter-factional fighting in the Christian Coalition - and that the people who do care about social justice and god may break off.

 

TO: if we are kept barefoot and in the kitchen by left-wing religious people that isn't better than being put there by the right-wing christians.

this is why the Unitarian Universalists are so on top of the left. they feel that in-fact, if you subjugate women at the same time as supporting family values.

 

s: my concern is that now is the time for the dems to push women to the front now, since the co-option is such a danger...


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