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.
The holiday cookies are baked and eaten, the pageantry and celebration of whatever winter rituals you and your family observe is over, the oddball gifts returned or tucked away to re-gift later...and most of all, the kids are back at school! (Or will be soon.)
And those big kids--ones we elected--are settling in to the 111th session of Congress today.
Al Franken, though officially winner of the MN senate race, won't be seated just yet. And Roland Burris, the corruption-free appointment to the Illinois U.S. senate seat by the corruption-ridden governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is fighting to be seated by his peers at the moment despite being turned away at the door. (I have nothing for or against Burris; this is all about Blago trying to stink up the joint with his fellow Dems however he can. Loser.)
Continue reading "Back to School, or, Welcome, 111th Congress!" »
The news is so fresh it's still warm: Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg announced that she's interested in being considered as a candidate for Hillary Clinton's senate seat.
This is a big turnaround for Kennedy, who has historically kept to the sidelines of politics and stayed under the media radar as much as possible. Additionally, many, such as Richard Bradley at Slate, say her avoidance of political stances and pursuit of "easy" jobs (including mother) (?!?!?!) make her a lame candidate.
But don't mistake this to mean that she is unqualified or uninvolved. Kennedy has a BA from Radcliffe and a JD from Columbia Law School. Additionally, she's held executive positions for nonprofits, raised a family (and yes, that is a qualifier, and no, it's not an easy job), and written books about constitutional law (In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action, 1991, and The Right to Privacy, 1997).
Further, she's become more involved in the last couple of years, inspired by Barack Obama as so many of us are. She campaigned for the president-elect in places such as Hartford and Washington, DC, and even wrote an op-ed endorsing Obama for the new York Times back in January ("A President Like My Father," January 27, 2008).
Her name was bandied about back in October for an Obama cabinet position (Secretary of Education) and she was on Obama's team vetting vice presidential candidates.
She's bright, well-educated, connected, involved, inspired by Obama, strong on education (she has worked for the last five years for New York public schools), knowledgeable and dedicated to charitable works, and is, I believe, at the exact point in life where experience and wisdom meet to make her an excellent candidate.
I admit that I back a woman replacing a woman in the Senate, as well.
Kennedy has her backers and her detractors, but anyone who wastes breath saying she hasn't got what it takes---in personality or in her Curriculum Vitae---is just blowing smoke. Kennedy can do the job and do it well. She's a solid candidate for the job, and ought to be considered seriously.
Yesterday I attended a lunch fund raiser for Glenn Nye, with keynote speaker Congressman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Do I need to wax on about Glenn Nye some more? Or do you all know that I've pretty much made it my goal to do anything I can to help him unseat Thelma Drake in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District? Got it? OK.
This was, however, the first time I've seen the Florida Congresswoman in person. I've idolized her from afar up until now. Hell, she's a mother of 9 year old twins and a 5 year old and still manages to make politics look easy. How does she do that?
When Glenn Nye introduced Wasserman-Schultz, he talked about how much he identifies with her. Like Glenn, the congresswoman got involved in politics at a young age. She was 26 when elected to the house in Florida and 34 when elected to the Florida Senate. She was 38 when elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she serves on both the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees.
Debbie (Can I call you, Debbie, congresswoman?) also chairs the Red to Blue program, which targets Republican seats throughout the country where the DNC believes they can win. Surprise, surprise! They're going after Drake's seat this year and giving Glenn support along the way.
I look at her and I wonder what I've been doing with my life! I think Glenn said it best when he said, "I want to be Debbie Wasserman-Schultz!" I swear he didn't say it in a kooky, gender-bending way, but in a very endearing, "I'm not afraid to hero worship a woman" kind of way. Just one more reason to adore Glenn Nye - he said exactly what I was thinking.
Nye then read us an email he'd received from a voter. The voter shared the story of how she had fought to regain good credit after a divorce and, while raising two children, bought her first house. Then, as interest rates began to rise and it started to cost her $900 to fill her oil heating tank, she lost her home. After Congress acted to relieve home owners from some of the interest rate mortgage burdens, she wrote to Congresswoman Drake to ask what Congress planned to do to help those who had already lost their homes.
Continue reading "Debbie Wasserman Schultz Appears with Glenn Nye" »
As a former social worker, public school board member and family law attorney, Missouri State Representative Margaret Donnelly has spent much of her career advocating on behalf of women, children and families. Now, as the first woman ever to run for Attorney General in the state of Missouri, Donnelly plans to bring a family-focused perspective to the office. If nominated in the August 5th Democratic Primary, where she faces State Senator Chris Koster and fellow Missouri House Member Jeff Harris, Donnelly will run against Republican candidate Michael Gibbons in November.
During our exclusive MOMocrats interview, Margaret Donnelly had this to say about her unprecedented candidacy:
"I am the first woman who has ever even filed for the office. There are only seven women attorney generals in the states, and one is in Guam. And we know from the research that it's been one of the hardest statewide offices for women to break the barrier; we've had more women Governors than we've had women Attorneys General, so it is a hard barrier for women to break. So I am just honored, in this very historic year of firsts, that I get to do this."
Continue reading "Run Mama Run: Margaret Donnelly for Missouri State Attorney General" »
Former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, a mother, grandmother, and accomplished professional with a history of activism in support of women in leadership roles, is credited by fans and critics alike with piloting an unprecedented economic and cultural revival in downtown Kansas City during her two mayoral terms. In 2007, she was awarded the National Planning Leadership Award for a Planning Advocate by the American Planning Association. Kay Barnes is now running for Congress in Missouri's 6th Congressional District against Republican incumbent Congressman Sam Graves.
Sam Graves, known locally by people under 30 as the man who is terrified of goths, has earned zero percent support ratings from the Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Children's Health Fund, the American Public Health Association, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Humane Society (but did manage to squeak by this year with a 40% rating from the Children's Defense Fund, after last year's zero percent rating).
Missouri's 6th Congressional District encompasses urban and suburban parts of the Kansas City metro area as well as a large swath of rural and small-town northwestern Missouri. Due to its diverse population, and a history of closely contested races, the 6th Congressional District is considered by Democrats and Republicans alike to be a key swing seat, and both parties are watching this year's election closely.
As part of our series, Run, Mama, Run, profiling stand-out progressive women candidates, I recently contacted Kay Barnes to ask her a few questions on behalf of MOMocrats.
Image source: Kay4Congress.com
Continue reading "Run, Mama, Run: MOMocrats Exclusive Interview with Missouri's Kay Barnes" »
We came, we saw, we liked her.
As Kathleen Sebelius walked into the San Francisco home Friday evening, she had a light, relaxed air about her. Glennia and I happened to be near the door, so we greeted her and I immediately told her I was from Kansas, blathering something about how my parents met while working in the state Capitol building in Topeka hoping to make her feel welcome. She was graceful and kind, we spoke about the MOMocrats (she liked our buttons) and I asked how we can help her out. It was an open-ended question, but I mentioned the VP nominee posibility. She seemed genuinely surprised by the question and made it clear: "those discussions haven't even started yet." And later "there's nobody picking out drapes." Then she said something about waiting until Tuesday.
Super Tuesday. It used to be about states like California. Now it's about South Dakota and Montana. Sebelius spoke as an endorser and surrogate for Barack Obama, so the point here was that she believes based on the numbers that he will have enough delegates to be the official nominee on Tuesday. Two states will make a difference. We'll see.
When I first heard Kansas had a Democratic woman governor, I thought someone was playing a joke on me. "In Kansas? No way!" I said. Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Kansas, growing up in a red state with parents active in the Republican party (my dad was an assistant Attorney General in the 60's), I had heard stories about women in the state legislature who didn't believe women should still vote, I left for college right before evolution was outlawed, and when I first had the chance to vote, my choices were Bob Dole or Bob Dole. How times have changed...
Now, Kathleen Sebelius, a woman, a Democrat, a MOM, is the Governor of Kansas. What's the Matter with Kansas? you ask? It has an interesting history that I don't proclaim to understand, but in its roots were Populism and a long standing small government, pro-farmer mantra. But over recent years, since the 80's, the legislature and state leadership was taken over gradually by more right wing individuals. Thomas Frank's book explains it much better than I ever could, but it's an interesting phenomenon. As a result of this swing to the right, many moderate Republicans were forced to decide between voting for Republicans far to the right or for Democrats. Enter Kathleen Sebelius.
Continue reading "Kathleen Sebelius: Taking the Next Step" »
The White House Project is a nonpartisan organization that "aims to advance women’s leadership in all communities and sectors, up to the U.S. presidency. By filling the leadership pipeline with a richly diverse, critical mass of women, we make American institutions, businesses and government truly representative." I've been a supporter of their mission for several years now, and I'm impressed by how they have grown and the work they do.
Their blog, "Change Everything", includes their thoughts and activities, and this week's post by their founder, Marie Wilson, cuts to the heart of the issue on why Hillary Clinton is still in the race. "An Army of Women" explains (paraphrasing Eric Boehlart of Media Matters) that "numerous [recent] precendents exist for nominees to continue to duke it out until party conventions: Reagan and Ford; Kennedy and Carter; Hart and Mondale." Wilson writes of cultural fears of "feminist fury."
Continue reading "The White House Project's Marie Wilson on Clinton Remaining in the Race" »
So maybe the fat lady isn't singing quite yet, but I know she's warming up in the wings somewhere after last night's squeaker in Indiana.
But for those of you looking for the silver lining to this cloud that hangs over Hillary Clinton's campaign, long-time women's activist Gloria Feldt, who blogs at HeartFeldt Politics, has a few words at Mothers of Intention that might make you feel a little better.
For political women, the fight doesn't end here -- it's just the beginning.
You can find Joanne crunching the superdelegate numbers over at her place, PunditMom.
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