Women and Politics

WCF-endorsed former candidate for NY-23

Remember Dede? She was edged out of the race for Congress in NY-23 because she dared to be a female moderate Republican. After suspending her race, she endorsed the Democratic candidate Bill Owens, who ended up winning over the GOP-backed Conservative candidate.

In a recent interview with CNN, Dede recounted how atrocious the attacks against her truly were:

“The attacks were pretty vicious, especially since it was coming from people who identify themselves as Republicans.”

Robo calls from her Conservative opponent used terms like “homo-lover” and “child-killer” to describe her.

About the outside Republicans who swooped in to oppose her, such as Sarah Palin, Dede said:

“They had no understanding of who I was and no understanding of the issues that drove the district. So for people to come out and be endorsing a candidate in a race in a place that they knew nothing about, I thought it was pretty disingenuous.”

To top it all off, Dede has now been strong-armed out of her state Assembly seat. POLITICO says that Assembly Minority Leader Brain Kolb had been receiving complaints about Dede from his members, and decided to “have a frank discussion” with her. Aka, ask her to resign.

But even after all of this—after her party turned against her, viciously attacked her, and now dumped her—Dede says she plans to remain a Republican. She hopes the party can be unified moving forward so that they can agree on core principals.

Dede says she has no regrets about her decisions, even her support of the Democratic candidate:

“I do not regret, at all, the endorsement,” she said. “And I do not regret running.”

Dede, we don’t regret you running, either. Not even a little bit. Thank you for being brave enough to stand up and say, “I’m a female Republican who supports reproductive choices and gay rights, and that’s OK.”

Thank you for helping to put another crack in the political glass ceiling. Your story will help inspire future women candidates who dare to break the mold.

It seems that Dede Scozzafava’s party is failing her. Word came today of even more Republicans jumping ship to back Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election.

At first, I had hope. The list of people backing Hoffman wasn’t exactly current party leadership: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Former New York Gov. George Pataki, Former House majority leader Dick Armey, Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

However, now we hear that National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman (NRCC) Pete Sessions is jumping ship on Dede, too. Sessions told POLITICO he would welcome Hoffman “with open arms.”

So now, thanks to those who don’t feel that the Republican Party should embrace ideals such as women’s rights, Hoffman is rising in the polls, and the GOP is afraid of losing the Republican seat.

To those who abandoned their own candidate, I have to ask: What if you stood in defense of Dede instead of caving to outside pressure? What would the outcome be if her party actually supported her properly?

Is this how all Republican female candidates should expect to be treated—left in the dust when faced with opposition? Abandoned for standing up against sexual abuse? Cast aside to endorse a candidate who drags the party backward?

Shame on you for deserting your own candidate, and double shame on you for deserting a strong female candidate, who you so desperately need for your party’s future.

Click here to support Dede today.

Front and center, Herald tries to slander Coakley by associating her with Palin

By WCF Fellow: Trish

Usable against any woman, forever in any political war chest, there is a four-syllable bomb. Sarah Palin. After attracting sexist attention of her own while running for Vice President, her name is now used like a dirty word.

Some have compared an answer Coakley gave in an interview on WCVB’s “On the Record” to an infamous answer that Palin gave during her campaign for Vice President. Hillary Chabot of the Boston Herald writes:

“Rivals blasted the strange foreign policy credentials offered by Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday after the U.S. Senate candidate - in an answer reminiscent of former vice presidential contender Sarah Palin - counted her sister’s overseas home as part of her own international know-how.”

Watch Coakley’s interview for yourself. The interviewer asked Coakley, “What is your experience traveling, have you ever been abroad?” Coakley responded appropriately, and she responded well. She pointed out that as the Attorney General, she is not required to travel abroad, but that she’s a student of history, has a strong appreciation for other countries, and has traveled extensively on her own; her sister lives overseas.

Are some people so sexist that they can’t differentiate one woman from another? Terms like Ice Queen and Mean Girl are bad enough—but now Sarah Palin has been made a stereotype by the virtue of the fact that she is one of only two women to run for Vice President.

So when we can’t think of a derogatory, stereotypical name to call a woman, we’ll just compare her to another female candidate?

It’s a terrible irony that women writers like Cabot and Falcone are pushing a woman like Coakley, a trail-blazing, mold-breaker woman, into a cast that Coakley is trying to break on the behalf of all women. All Coakley has in common with Palin is that she, too, is running in a highly publicized race, and that she, too, has two x-chromosomes.

During the presidential campaign Chabot lauded Sarah Palin writing in one article, “Palin charged up the GOP with a heavily watched, prime-time speech.” So what is Chabot doing trying to take down Coakley by the negative Palin association she had a hand in creating after Palin’s failed election?

Sarah Palin should not be used in comparison with other female candidates without justified parallels beyond the fact of sex and running for office.

To do so is purely sexist.

Give your support to Martha Coakley; let her know you recognize her as a distinct leader.

This post was submitted by Jamie Bence, one of WCF’s Summer 2009 Fellows.

Though we may not agree with Sarah Palin’s policies, her resignation draws attention to the frighteningly low number of female governors in the United States.  Out of fifty governors mansions across the country, just seven are occupied by women.  On July 23, when Palin’s resignation becomes official, that number will drop to six.

The all-time high for female governors was nine, when Palin was inaugurated in December 2006.  However, that peak lasted just over a year, ending when Kathleen Blanco left office as governor of Louisiana  in January 2008.

More than half of all states- 27- have never had a female governor.  That explains why just thirty-one women have served as governor in the United States history.  Once they are in office, they can expect to undergo far more scrutiny than their male counterparts.

Whether or not you support Sarah Palin, its time for those numbers to change.  Do you know a woman who should be in office?  Tell her She Should Run.

Finding republican women that would speak publicly on the issues has been a surprising challenge at the Republican National Convention. Minnesota is known for a moderate to democratic political base. Many of the women I was able to get to agree to do a podcast were not Republicans. Broadening women’s perspective on politics, I ran into Kate near the MSNBC tent. Kate is here for the Ron Paul Convention. Here is what Kate had to say: