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Update: For those following this, I managed to skip the first three paragraphs when I cross-posted from myDD.
I attended the Women's Caucus meeting here at the DNC meeting in Chicago today. Here are some highlights:
Debbie Dingell noted that affirmative action is on the ballot in Michigan. It's being cast as a civil rights measure, which she noted is "neither civil, nor right."
Women were encouraged to run for office to help build our farm teams, especially in the state legislatures, city councils, and county commissions. Molly Beth Malcolm, from Texas, said that she had run for the Texarkana community college board and won, and that she was the first woman to serve on that board.
Christine Pelosi, (yes, that's Nancy Pelosi's daughter) urged everyone to log on to dccc.org and vote for candidates to receive support from the DCCC. She especially urged that we vote for women candidates, or at least male candidates that support women. (end of missing paragraphs)
DNC Vice Chair Susie Turnbull noted that she had been working on voter protection. One of the key needs is to elect Democratic secretaries of state, who won't pull the same type of vote suppression tactics that Blackwell in Ohio used in 2004.
She introduced Jennifer Brunner, who is running for Ohio Secretary of State, and, if elected, would be the first woman to serve in this position. Brunner is a great candidate for this office: she has practiced election law in private practice. Brunner said, "we have the best slate in years in Ohio, but it won't matter if the votes aren't counted correctly. She asked folks to sign on to www.jenniferbrunner.com to send signs to Ohio. For $5, you can have a sign made and planted that says that you care about clean voting in Ohio.
Lauren Wolfe introduced herself as the new chair of the College Democrats and one of the few women to serve as chair. (Wolfe noted that the College Republicans have never had a female chair!) She asked the women to remember college campuses this fall and talked about the huge impact older women and female candidates can make.
I didn't catch the name of the woman who said this...I agree wholeheartedly: "We need to stop meeting and eating and start doing." Good advice for Democrats everywhere.
Debbie Marquez, from Colorado, noted that they have several good women running. She also asked people to consider coming to Colorado the weekend of October 13 in support of Bill Winter, who is running against Tom Tancredo in Colorado's 6th District. Tancredo's views on immigrants are especially egregious. According to the flyer I received, Tacredo believes that Latino immigrants are "a scourge that threatens the very future of our nation." And, when Tancredo read a Denver Post, article about an Honors student who couldn't get financial aid to go to college, he attempted to have the student and his family deported!
Bill Winter is a Fighting Dem. I've met him: he's passionate, articulate, and driven. He'll make a great replacement for Tancredo.
You can sign up for the October event at democrats.org. For those who can't travel, they're organizing a swing state calling opportunity. Note that you are an out of town caller when responding.
One of the representatives from Democrats Abroad noted than when they organized a "South Dakota is dangerous for women" demonstration in Paris (!), hundreds of people turned out. Even in Paris, they're worried about the right wing's attempt to legislate our bodies.
And don't forget to put all campaign activities online at 100actions.com.