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.

Written by WCF Fellow Kayla

What’s the answer we get from male Congressmen about the importance of health care reform to women? “I object.”

This past Saturday, members of the House Democratic Woman’s Caucus took the floor to speak out in favor of the health care bill because of its benefits for women.

They were greeted with nothing but bullying. Or, as ThinkProgress puts it, “Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics.”

Congresswoman after Congresswoman stood at the podium demanding health care for the sake of reproductive health choices for women. Again and again, Republicans interrupted every member of the women’s caucus—objecting over and over to their plea for health care for women.

Eventually it got to the point where none of the members of the women’s caucus could speak because they were interrupted so frequently and treated so unfairly.

These attacks on members of the female caucus demonstrate why we so desperately need women in office. We need women to stand up for women’s rights and stand up for women’s reproductive health choices.

We need women to be elected to Congress so they can stand up together against abusive men in the House and demand equal rights. Because apparently, it takes a woman to stand up for women’s rights.

I was saddened to hear about the recent sexist attacks against Martha Coakley, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.

As a former Congressional candidate, I know exactly how it feels to be attacked simply for being a woman. I never realized just how sexist politics is until I decided to run for office.

My local paper ran an unacceptable quote about me on the front page during my race. Now, I’ve decided to tell my story on camera to bring these kinds of misogynistic attacks to light.

Click here to hear my story and help us put a stop to sexist attacks.

Help us fight sexism in politics today: we’ve provided the emails of all four recent offending members of the media so you can contact them and speak out against their offensive sexist rhetoric.

My name is Sam, and I’m the new President/CEO of WCF. Having been a candidate myself, I hope to offer some insight and realism to the dialogue about women and politics in this country.

To start off, I’d like to tell you about my rude awakening as I was running for mayor of Allentown, PA. The first stump speech I ever delivered was interrupted by the Chair of a Men’s Democratic Club:

“Sam, I was lying in bed thinking about you and I wanted to ask you what every man in this room is wondering…just what are your measurements?”

This didn’t happen in the 1950’s - it was just nine years ago. Clearly, we have some way to go before politics is blind to gender. But more on that later.

I’ll be sharing more of my stories and blogging regularly to give you an inside look at WCF, our candidates, and the political landscape for women.

Today, I’d like to tell you about Jennifer Brunner - Ohio Secretary of State and candidate running for the U.S. Senate.

Brunner is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy 2008 Profiles in Courage award. She won the award for her successful reform of Ohio ’s troubled electoral systems, which were highly questioned in 2000 and 2004. This past election - under Brunner’s steady, intelligent hand - everything went smoothly.

Right now, lots of folks are trying to talk Brunner out of stepping down from Secretary of State. As a former party leader myself, I get it. Party leaders are nervous with reapportionment and redistricting right around the corner. They know Brunner could do a terrific job making sure that redistricting will be fair, equitable and non-partisan. But it begs the question: how often have high-performing women been kept in their place versus their male counterparts?

Brunner is exceptionally talented, and we need her in an even higher office where she can do great things for our country.

But to get there, Brunner needs money. She honestly acknowledges she needs to raise more, and we agree.

However, Brunner says that traditionally, she starts off slow, but builds revenue steadily quarter to quarter. We’ll see how she does, and support her campaign along the way. While Brunner recognizes that her opponent will likely raise more than her, both she and Roll Call point out that this won’t necessarily translate into him winning.

The Jennifer Brunner I met and have spent time with has a direct, unassuming, “just the facts ma’am” personality. We need her in U.S. Senate. We need her to rise.

Jennifer Brunner’s experience and outstanding tenure as Secretary of State will make her a better U.S. Senator - a Senator that will be good for Ohio and good for our country.

WCF PAC endorsed candidate Jeanette Rishell has already jumped on the YouTube bandwagon. In her debut video, she gives us a glimpse of why she’s running and some of her priorities.

Jeanette talks about the importance of mutual responsibility accompanied by hard work. She sees Virginia as having the opportunity to become a leader and hopes to focus on improving things like transportation and education to create job growth.

Jeanette is running for Virginia’s House of Delegates in good ol’ Northern VA’s 50th District, which includes the City of Manassas and several areas of Prince William County (I’m there quite often visiting friends - so NOVA and this district hold a special place in my heart).

She’s been a NOVA resident for over 30 years, and hopes to help strengthen her area:

“Virginia faces financial hardships and the General Assembly’s commitment to education, public safety and healthcare is wavering. Now more than ever Virginia must re-focus on core services; I will lead the fight to strengthen our families, communities and Commonwealth.”

We look forward to an exciting race with Jeanette this year - and maybe I’ll stop by and say hi when I’m visitng my peeps in Manassas. (I hope she likes chocolate labs and husky puppies).