MOMocrats™

10Questions for 2010: You Ask the Candidates, They Respond

You're probably starting to think about the November 2010 midterm elections now. Have you ever complained about how bad some moderated candidate debates were? Questions that made no sense or had nothing to do with your concerns, or responses that wandered off into set talking points? If you live in one of these 11 states--Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania--you can put questions directly to candidates who'll represent you and the people in your district.

Through a partnership with our friends over at the Personal Democracy Forum, MOMocrats.com readers can now ask questions of candidates in our local races via text or video. Here's how 10Questions.com works:

Anyone can post a question (video or text), anyone can vote those up or down (one vote per question per IP address), anyone can embed a question, a race, a state, or the entire country via a fully functional widget, on any website they want. To post or vote on a question, you just need a Google Account, as the site is powered by a souped-up version of the Google Moderator question platform (and for which we are grateful to our technology partners Google and YouTube.) No personal user information is being retained, though the site will allow anyone to view where questions and votes are coming from geographically, and to track the daily up-down voting on any question.

If you live in one of these 11 states, you can urge others to vote up your questions with a click at 10Questions.com through September 21, and then the questions with the highest number of votes will be put to the candidate. They'll issue a video response on October 14 which will be posted on YouTube.

Then, you can vote on and discuss whether or not you thought the candidate answered the question.

This puts you in charge instead of the pundits. Nice change of pace, right?

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Happy Equality Day: We've Come a Long Way. Maybe.

As you can see from the clip above, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a very capable, knowledgeable, intelligent woman. I don't live in New York, but from what I've seen and heard and read (in the news and here on MOMocrats), she is doing a terrific job of serving her constituents.

So I could not help but roll my eyes at the news that at a debate this week, one of the men vying to be her opponent in the November election characterized her as "an attractive woman." 

Happy Equality Day, Senator Gillibrand. I bet you thought it was no longer acceptable to dismiss powerful women by focusing on their physical attributes. 

You say you've never heard of Equality Day?

It's may not be an official holiday, but August 26 is an important date in our history. Today is the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which extended the right to vote to the women of the United States.

To paraphrase a catchy little advertising jingle from my youth: We've Come a Long Way. Maybe.

In 1979, only 3% of the people elected to the US Congress were women. Today, we've got 90 -- including 17 Senators.

That's still less than 17% of 535 seats in the combined chambers of Congress. After all, women make up nearly 51% of the population. We're nowhere near the point where we can claim equal representation.

We have some interesting races going on in my home state of California. We are already represented by two female Senators, with one of them in a heated re-election race against a female opponent.

And if GOP candidate Meg Whitman succeeds in her bid to become Governor, all three of our top elected offices will be filled by women.

My point is that today, women really are a political force. Imagine how much more we could do if we looked beyond what's reported on network news, learned about the issues and actually bothered to vote. It may come as a surprise to MOMocrats readers (who tend to be politically involved), but large numbers of women do not exercise their hard-fought 19th Amendment rights -- especially unmarried women. 

Page Gardner of Women's Voices, Women's Vote writes eloquently on the organization's blog today:

In 2008, of the nearly 51 million unmarried women who were eligible to register to vote, only 35 million did register. That means 16 million women who could have voted did not even register.

Until recently, that figure included Meg Whitman, who famously didn't vote for 28 years.She says she was too focused on family and career to make the time. Sadly, those are the same reasons cited by most women who choose to stay on the political sidelines.

Few of them are billionaires like Whitman, or mere millionaires like Fiorina. I think it's commendable that these two former businesswoman want to serve the people of California. But as I am diametrically opposed to their stance on nearly every issue, they won't get my vote. (Both candidates are anti-choice, pro-Prop 8 and think tax cuts are the solution for everything; Whitman claims she can fix California's $19.1 billion deficit without raising taxes by running the state like a business -- a promise similar to what we heard seven years ago from Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we all know where that has got us.)

I think both Whitman and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina would be nightmares if elected. But I also think true equality means that women have the right to be just as wrong on the issues as some men.

Happy Equality Day!

Donna Schwartz Mills can usually be found on her personal blog about life in Southern California, SoCal Mom.

Democratic Candidate for Governor of Oklahoma, Jari Askins, Wins Primary to Face a Sarah Palin-Backed GOP Candidate

By SEAN MURPHY (AP) – 6 hours ago

via www.google.com

Oklahoma now has two women vying to fill the seat of governor of the state.

After a come-from-behind victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, current Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins wins to face an anti-choice Sarah Palin-backed GOP candidate, Congresswoman Mary Fallins.

While not full-throatedly pro-choice, Lt. Governor Askins supports women's access to abortions in "hard cases," a more moderate position than avowedly anti-choice Fallin. Oklahoma is among the most anti-choice states in the country, the legislature having earlier this year voted in a "compulsory ultrasound" law for women seeking abortions and approved public posting of information on women who receive abortions. Askins' message of gender equality through pay equity resonated with women voters, so it'll be interesting to see how Fallin responds on that issue.

Askins also benefited from last-minute support from a popular football coach who had also campaigned for sitting Governor Brad Henry previously. She's demonstrated a bipartisan approach so far, emphasizing bread and butter issues like jobs and education.

It's important to note that for all of Palin's vaunted popularity among hard-right Tea Party Republicans, endorsement from the former half-term governor can just as likely be the kiss of electoral death as a boost.

Why? The quitter from Wasilla consistently turns off most moderates and an overwhelming percentage of liberals. One blogger notes that her 29% favorability rating makes her about as popular as George W Bush was--quite a feat when she hasn't yet had an opportunity to launch two costly and unsuccessful wars or tank the economy. That makes it hard for her strident persona to translate into electoral success--she's a hothouse orchid who blooms best in the overheated swamps of Faux News and the fact-free right-wingosphere. We'll see if Oklahoma's moderates outnumber its hard-right ideologues, and if Askins can get Democrats and independents out to vote.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Massachusetts Postmortem: Whose Party Is It Anyway?

Tuesday, one day before the anniversary of President Barack Obama's historic inauguration, the Democratic Party managed to lose the late, great Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat to a Republican State Senator and former Cosmopolitan centerfold who made a made his pickup truck a centerpiece of his campaign:

(Never mind that this straight-talking, truck-driving Everyman is a wealthy lawyer who owns four homes and a time share in Aruba.)

The national health insurance reform bill currently before Congress — seen by many as the legacy of Senator Ted Kennedy, a long-time champion of health care reform — is remarkably similar to state-level health insurance reform legislation that passed with majority support in Massachusetts in 2006 and has since successfully made Massachusetts the state with the least number of residents who lack health insurance.

Scott Brown opposes national health insurance reform. The Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who lost Tuesday's race to Brown, supports it.

Dodd, Dorgan retiring -- so let them go (without whimpering)

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced that they will both retire. News media is already frothing at the mouth because this offers them the opportunity to rampantly speculate and, also, play what Mean Girl expert Rosalind Wiseman calls The Banker, a role that enables them to gossip and drop divisive and corrosive information seemingly innocently (we're just informing, we're just talking) all while stirring up frenzy and fights.

Consider this bit of fear and hysteria mongering from MSNBC's First Read's Domenico Montanaro, Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Ali Weinberg:

"The biggest story with these retirements? The effect on President Obama. He’s the head of the party, and to see so many Democrats in one day decide they don't want to run while he's the leader can create the perception of political weakness -- at the very time when he's trying to strong-arm Dems to give him health care and other major domestic achievements[.]"

and

"** Reading the tea leaves: Collectively, these retirements are a sign that many Democrats are reading the tea leaves and determining that this year is going to be difficult for their party. It's what happened to Democrats in the year preceding the GOP’s sweep in 1994."

Ooohhhh color me trembling in my boots. 1994. 

Look I remember 1994 well and what happened then. I bet you there's not a major Democrat who doesn't.

Don't fall for it. Don't fall for the fear, the hysteria, or the mud-slinging and impugning of President Obama's strength.

The alternative interpretation, Domenico, Chuck, Mark and Ali, (et al) and (in my humble opinion) the better interpretation, is that, like Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Souter, these Democrats now feel safe in the current political environment to take the action to retire. Like Souter, they trust in the strength of the party and feel confident that they can be replaced by strong, progressive Democrats.

So Dodd and Dorgan are retiring, so what. Let them. In fact, let them go without one whimper and see it for the opportunity it is.

No, not for Republicans to take the seat (although, of course they'll try, as we should expect them to and must respect that they will) but rather as an opportunity to let two middle-aged white men step aside and open up an opportunity for diversity in the Senate.

This gives strong female and other minority contenders in North Dakota and Connecticut the opportunity to step up on the national stage, and if the Democrats have any wits about them, this is what they'll support.

Connecticut offers a good opportunity. Clearly voters there are happy to elect women to top positions. Consider Governor Jodi Rell. She is a Republican, and has announced she will not seek re-election in 2010, so...she may be a potential opponent.

North Dakota's Republican Governer Hoeven has been murmuring about considering running for Senate. However, supporters have already begun a call for former Democratic attorney general Heidi Heitkamp, including starting a Facebook page promoting her for the race. 

In Connecticut, attorney general Richard Blumenthal has announced intent to enter the race for U.S. Senate as the Democrat candidate, meanwhile First Selectman Mary Glassman has announced interest in running as the Democrat for Governor.

It means change, it means transition, but it also means opportunity. Let's hear from some Democrats in these states -- the party now has a huge chance to support a candidate that represents the modern US in this new century and decade. Let's see some women step up -- with full party backing!

Who can YOU recommend?

A '10 Senate Race to Watch: Democrats Gillibrand and Maloney Vie in NY

                   

Left, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY                 Right, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-NY

For liberal New Yorkers mulling the fall 2010 special election race to fill the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by  Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the declaration of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's (D-NY) campaign for it represents an interesting wrinkle. Under state rules governing a vacated Senate position, Governor Paterson chose Gillibrand to fill what had been former Senator Hillary Clinton's seat for a portion of the time remaining in her term when Clinton joined Obama's cabinet. In 2010, the U.S. Senate seat goes wide open to both major political parties, and there's tremendous interest among Democrats in retaining the seat with, naturally, the strongest possible challenger to whoever the Republicans put up.* In this case, it's generally accepted that the Democratic aspirant will likely be a woman. What's unusual is that in addition to the question of who's more "electable" (and why), there's the additional question, who has the better feminist record?

May 19, Special Elections Day in California & a Few Last Words on Judy Chu for Congress

[Previous entries in the Run, Mama, Run series on Judy Chu for Congress here.]

Today's Special Election will elect a replacement for the House seat once occupied by Hilda Solis representing California Congressional District 32, and determine whether ballot initiatives addressing our state's enormous budget deficit will go forward or be rejected.

So please do vote today--it's a low voter-turnout election. According to @lacrrcc, (Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's twitter handle), as of May 18, 2009, "With 273,418 by mail ballots returned, we are just over 6% overall voter turnout for tomorrow's election and 36% returned of ballots issued."

If you'll indulge me in some meta-commentary about the Chu-Cedillo race--some of the punditry has framed the 63% Latino/22% Asian/15% white/other 32d Congressional district as Latino candidate State Assembly person Gil Cedillo's race to lose. It's both a recognition that Cedillo's been active in local and state politics since 1970, but also predicated on the notion that Latinos vote for Latinos in a sort of simple identity politics paradigm. This also assumes that a near-complete turnout of Latino voters will largely go to the best-known Latino frontrunner, Cedillo, and make a runoff election unnecessary. (Whoever takes the majority on May 19 will be named the winner; if no one takes the majority, top finishers from both parties participate in the runoff in July.)

Run, Mama, Run*: Candidate for Congress Judy Chu Answers More Questions, Part 2

 (Intro to the series here. Part 1, here.)

Less than two weeks to vote for a congressional representative for CA CD-32! It's anticipated to be a low voter-turnout election, so it's vitally important for all registered voters to get out to the polls on May 19, 2009, for the special election.

(Hilda Solis and Judy Chu both wearing lucky red for Chinese New Year.)

Here's the promised Q&A between MOMocrats' Cynematic and Dr. Chu. It delves a little deeper into Dr. Chu's background, her first entry into politics, and concrete plans for representing her district and serving Americans in Congress. (*I should note that "Run, Mama, Run" is a MOMocrats series that features progressive pro-choice women of note as they compete for local, state, and federal offices. We use 'mama' in the literal sense--many of the women we feature are mothers of either very young or grown children--and in the more colloquial, friendly and intimate sense--of acknowledging metaphorical kinship with women in a greater struggle for justice that benefits all. In each case, we leave it to the candidate to reveal and discuss the particulars of her family life as she wishes.)

Run, Mama, Run: Congressional Candidate Judy Chu Answers Political Bloggers' Questions, Part 1

Recently Dr. Judy Chu made herself available to numerous political bloggers to answer questions about her background and her positions on several local initiatives that are up for a vote during the May 19 special election. I was pleased to be on the conference call, as throughout the 1990s, I'd heard a great deal about her time as mayor of Monterey Park, and how the demographics of the San Gabriel Valley were changing now that many immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China were settling there. Now, much of the San Gabriel Valley is Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants, ethnic grocery stores, small ethnic businesses, Latino eateries, and tutoring academies for children.

Dr. Chu, a community college professor and former Garvey school board member, city council member, then mayor, has had a lengthy career based in the San Gabriel Valley. After several years as mayor of Monterey Park, she ran for California State Assembly and served there for three terms. From there, she successfully ran for the State Board of Equalization, the nation's only tax policy-making entity staffed with elected officials. She now serves as Vice Chair of the State Board of Equalization. Just a few days ago, she received the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Viillraigosa.

Run, Mama, Run: Dr. Judy Chu Sweeps California Democratic Party Delegates, CA Congressional District 32

Left: former Congresswoman Hilda Solis, then-State Assemblywoman Judy Chu

Part of the pleasure of seeing former Congresswoman Hilda Solis appointed as Labor Secretary in the Obama administration is anticipating which worthy Democrat will then fill her seat in the 32d district.