MOMocrats™

Come On Over to Our New Pad, MOMocrats.com

Hi! If you've come to us from the Washington Post article that mentions PunditMom (yay! also a MOMocrat and running the 2012 election coverage at iVillage) and the MOMocrats, you need to read us at our new site! Go to MOMocrats.com and you'll see microblogs of important stories as well as longer pieces featured in the the image slider front and center. Or, come listen to our weekly podcasts, 9 am PT/ noon ET every Wednesday morning.

Check out our action campaigns and participate in our Q&A Ask a MOMocrat series!

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Cheers!

Run, Mama Run!: Bock the Women's Vote

It may not be 2012 yet, but important elections are already being held -- and one mission of MOMocrats is to shine a light on the races of progressive women running for office on all levels: Federal, state and local. This piece was written by EMILY's List Executive Director, Amy Dacey, who spent the weekend in San Francisco doing what the organization does best: training women in the art of politics and supporting their choice for District Attorney, candidate Sharmin Bock.

Last week, I touched down in sunny California ready to spend a weekend helping candidates and speak at an EMILY’s List training. 

I was able to attend an event for Sharmin Bock’s campaign for San Francisco District Attorney, and when I arrived on Chestnut Street on Saturday afternoon she welcomed me with open arms.  We talked briefly about how things are progressing and how close the race is.  She’s up on television with an ad about her experience as a prosecutor and her success rate putting criminals behind bars.  

The more we can tell San Francisco about Sharmin, the more people see she’s the best choice. While we met, Sharmin was jumping up every few minutes to talk to voters about her experience and what she hopes to do to keep up the good work in the District Attorney’s office.  Supporters arrived and they talked about the importance of this race, not just locally but across the country, because strong women in office help create better public policy and ensure our values are represented.

Sharmin talked about what it means for her to run for office.  She said women running help set an example for her 13 year old daughter Fiona who told her that more women need to be serving in government.   I couldn’t agree more!

Elections like these are won and lost by the little things.  We've got one week until the Election Day on November 8th.  Whether you can canvass neighborhoods, support financially, or spread the word about the campaign on Twitter, your help makes a difference.  

Everyone had a great trip, but we were most excited about Sharmin Bock.  She’s the most experienced and, by far, the best person for the job.

This year, we've seen the EMILY’s List pipeline in action over and over again.  With our Political Opportunity Program (POP), we have recruited and trained local and state leaders who are well-prepared to move up to the next level:

• EMILY’s List alum Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin moved from local office to Congress, and now we’re excited to endorse her for the U. S. Senate.  
• Right behind her, we’ve got “On the List” candidate State Rep. Kelda Roys moving up to run for the open Congressional seat, and that’s just one state.  
• In California, we’re so happy to have Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was previously the San Francisco District Attorney.  

Now Sharmin Bock is moving up from the role of prosecutor to run for that District Attorney seat, and we’ve got to help her win!

If you want to get involved in the EMILY’s List Political Opportunity Program you can learn more here, and help us change the face of politics at the local, state, and national level. 

MOMocrats MOMochat: The Battle in Seattle -- Which Way "Ed Reform"?

The morning of Wednesday, September 28, 2011, join Cynematic, Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills for a lively Blog Talk Radio podcast with four women running for school board in Bill Gates' backyard up in Seattle. Sharon Peaslee, Michelle Buetow, Kate Martin and Marty McLaren have a vision for education in their district, and we'll hear why it doesn't completely mesh with that of Gates and the Broad Foundation's plans for education reform in America. What's the difference between what these candidates have to offer and "ed reform" (or as some say, "ed Rheeform")?

How did the Seattle Public Schools end up with a School Superintendent, Dr. Marie Goodloe-Johnson, who badly mismanaged school district finances? (Read more about graduates of the Broad Superintendent School in the Parents' Guide to the Broad Foundation. They're awfully high-flying but seem to run into trouble no matter where they're posted around the country.)

What needs to be done to get SPS finances on the right track going forward? And what, if any shadow, does the Gates Foundation cast on public schools in its own back yard?

These issues may seem local to Seattle but they're national in impact. Schools across the country are grappling with the same problems -- and it's no wonder. Gates Foundation money is everywhere, as are Broad Foundation school superintendents.

All four candidates will also appear at The Stranger's School Board Candidates' Debate the same evening, Wednesday, September 28, 2011, at the Town Hall in downtown Seattle starting at 7:30 pm PT.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k and education news at K12NewsNetwork.com.

This Week on MOMochat: Want More Women in Office? She Should Run, with The Women's Campaign Forum

When women sit at the table, the conversation includes topics that are near and dear to us: Education. Healthcare. Eldercare. Living Wages. Work-Life Balance. Reproductive Rights.

So it's a shame that so few women have seats in our nation's legislatures: According to the Women's Campaign Forum, we're ranked 87th in the world for the number of women in our national legislature. Even Cuba and Afghanistan have more female representation than us!

Next Wednesday, the WCF is holding its the She Should Run Inaugural National Conversation, a conference designed to address the "urgent need for women to advance in leadership across all sectors." We'll be hearing more about that on tomorrow's edition of MOMocrats MOMochat, when our special guest is Women's Campaign Forum President Siobhan "Sam" Bennett.

Bennett has served as the President and CEO of the Women’s Campaign Fund (WCF) and its affiliated programs The She Should Run Foundation and WCF PAC since March 2009.

Sam has lent her unique perspective as a candidate at the local and federal levels to broaden WCF’s impact on women leaders at all levels of government who support reproductive choices and options, and women who may run for office in the future.

Join Cynematic, Julie Pippert and Donna Schwartz Mills live tomorrow at 12:00 noon Eastern/11:00 Central/9:00 a.m. Pacific, or catch us on the podcast here.

Brought to you by Bubble Genius.

New Time This Week, MOMocrats Weekly Blog Talk Radio Show: MOMochat at **2 pm ** PT/5 pm ET

Special time for just this week!

Come join us 2 pm PT/5 pm ET on Wednesday, January 26, on Blog Talk Radio as we talk with the author and former head of Planned Parenthood, Gloria Feldt! She's written a new book called NO EXCUSES: 9 WAYS WOMEN CAN CHANGE HOW WE THINK ABOUT POWER.

She was also head of Planned Parenthood for several years, and has been an activist on behalf of women's electoral empowerment her whole life. Take a look at a preview of her book:

 

 

Leave questions in the comments or in the Blog Talk Radio chat that runs concurrent to the live-streamed show!

 

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

Dear Women Who Shop at Wal-Mart: We Need More Advocates in Congress, Wouldn't You Agree?

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post wrote a post called "Tough Love for Obama." It's a quick read.

Marcus writes:

I spent a fascinating evening last week listening via video hookup to focus groups, 30 women in all, in three battleground states: Pennsylvania, Missouri and Colorado. These were, literally, Wal-Mart shoppers -- the retail giant sponsored the discussions -- screened to exclude committed partisans of the left or right and split evenly between 2008 supporters of Obama and John McCain.

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.

Want Change? Vote for a Mom!

For many, it's primary election season. It's hard to imagine that we're heading out to the polls again, but there you have it. If you have a chance, I'd like to ask you to vote for one of my favorite Mothers of Intention. I'm not going to call them "mama grizzlies" because, well, I'm not a fan of the term and I don't appreciate how Sarah Palin and her crowd are trying to usurp the idea of political motherhood from those of us who were in on the ground floor.

Anyway, here are three moms who deserve your vote. If you live anywhere in the shadow of the nation's capital, you should keep your eye on these women who were motivated by issues that impact their children and their families to take the bold step of running for political office to help make things better for everyone's children, even if that means taking a little less time for their own kids:

Top 10 Reasons Why New Hampshire's 2nd District House Race & Annie Kuster Are Worth Watching

Upfront, I openly admit my bias for New Hampshire as a state. It's gorgeous and with a charm and spirit in both the landscape and culture that are near impossible to beat. New Hampshire was the leading state this past summer in support of our Blue Star Families Blue Star Museums program, for which I was program manager. Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter personally sent support to an event I hosted at the Currier. And one of my favorite things about New Hampshire? She's not the token female elected representative. New Hampshire is a major leader in political opportunities for women. In fact, two female Democrats are vying for the slot on the ticket in the primary. (tomorrow, September 14).

Jake Tapper (and hopefully other political reporters) want to know which House race to watch this election season. 

I know which one: this one -- New Hampshire's 2nd District House race, in which Ann Kuster will likely face Charlie Bass (R).

If Kuster wins and Shea-Porter maintains her incumbency, New Hampshire will offer two of the strongest elected leaders for women to count on.

So...in case this hasn't persuaded you that this is a key race to watch, let me sell you on the top ten reasons you need to care and keep an eye out:

10) NH-02 is one of a small handful of truly toss-up open seat races.

9) Annie Kuster is an adoption attorney and  pro-choice champion endorsed by every pro-choice group, even in her primary.

8) Obama won this seat by 13 points in 2008 but a former GOP congressman, Charlie Bass, wants his old seat back.

7) Kuster is running a true grassroots campaign, breaking NH fundraising records for in-state financial support.

6)  Congressman Bass voted to intervene in the Terry Schiavo case and restrict stem cell research.

5) NH has two other key competitive races too – NH-01 (a Dem incumbent, Carol Shea-Porter) and Sen (an open seat with Dem Paul Hodes running)

4) Kuster is the nation’s first second-generation woman congressional candidate – her mom narrowly lost this race as a moderate Republican in 1980.

3) NH elected the nation’s first woman to serve as both Governor & Senator (Jeanne Shaheen) and the first female-majority legislative body (the state senate in 2008)

2) Kuster’s campaign manager is taking the primary day off because he and his wife are having their first child…what Momocrat wouldn’t love that??

1) Classic race offering voters either a new approach (Annie Kuster) vs. going back to the problems that got us here (ex-Congressman Charles Bass)

So help us get the word out, lend your support and influence, and let's get this race at the top of our and mainstream media's attention.

I'll make it easy -- here's Tweets and short link:

Top 10 Reasons Why New Hampshire's 2nd District House Race & Annie Kuster Are Worth Watching http://bit.ly/8YGI2s @jaketapper #p2

Meet Two Democratic Women Candidates for Texas State Board of Education: Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Judy Jennings

There are ideologues front and center in the classroom where instead there should be teachers and students.

Two highly qualified women in Texas have stepped up as State Board of Eduction (SBOE) candidates so they can roll back some of the more outrageous changes to the curriculum that non-educators with a fringe agenda have imposed on Texas schoolbooks.

Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau both believe teachers and educational experts should determine what's taught in classroom.