I do hate to put such a fine point on it, but it seems unavoidable at this point: we need more vagina-Americans in Congress. Oh yes we do. Maybe -- just maybe -- that would get Washington (and the various State houses) to ignore unpleasantries like birth control and all those god-forsaken lady parts to actually, you know, do something useful.
To that end, MsRepresentation, the Outreach part of the Women's Campaign Fund, has come out with their endorsements:
New Recruits
It’s offish, WCF has announced a new round of 2012 endorsements, including Congressional headliners Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), Kim Gillan (MT-At Large), Sue Thorn (WV-01), and Shelli Yoder (IN-09), as well as Elizabeth Crowley and Grace Meng, who are both running in New York’s 6th Congressional District. You read that right. In a historic move, WCF is endorsing BOTH women in the NY-06 race. Why? Because the stakes are just too damn high, y’all.
Statewide and local candidates Kathleen Drew (Washington), Tracy McCreery (Missouri), Erin Molchany (Pennsylvania), Stacey Newman (Missouri), and Jill Ryan (Colorado) round out the impressive roster. You know the drill, vote with your purse!
That's just the list they put out with their email update; if you go to WCF's website, you can view a much larger list of endorsees. They even have them organized by open race candidates, challengers, and incumbents. A lot of times, open races can have a fantastic ROI on a little time spent phonebanking or some donations; $200 goes a lot further in a local race than, say, a presidential campaign.
Granted, their incumbents list includes the likes of DiFi, but such is part and parcel of the more and better dems thing. The more part must come first, as it buys us the breathing room to hold the line while working on the better. In the absence of more, we net very little, no matter how great, or "better," our candidates are.
So, if your state is bluer than blue and your candidates have no worries, please consider doing GOTV and otherwise supporting these women running for office. And if you know of any races and candidates WCF has overlooked, please tell us about it here! We can only act where we have info, which is why I really hope the community can come together for election projects like adopting Senators and helping us identify races that need us the most/present the best opportunity, etc.
This is critically important at the state level also, as the (vagina!) Lisa Brown imbroglio (vagina!) amply demonstrates. As fond as I am of "If you can't say it, don't legislate it," I'm afraid nothing short of booting them out of office will get the He-Man Women Hater's Club out of our collective lady parts. Oh, and did I mention, vagina!
In other War on Women news, Planned Parenthood is in the midst of a donation drive, with up to $250,000 in matching funds from an anonymous donor. All donations received before June 30 will be matched dollar for dollar up to that amount. Let's see how the H-MWHC likes them apples!
Better still, let's get these women elected to office so that Planned Parenthood can spend less time lobbying Congress and more time providing health care and services to women, their vaginas, and the men who aren't afraid of them.