Issue #338
Progressive left’s latest target: EMILY’s List
Is the war on women—or on women’s groups, anyway—coming to the Democratic Party, too? With economic issues increasingly roiling the progressive left, a number of bloggers, activists, and liberal groups say EMILY’s List, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest power brokers for nearly 30 years, is increasingly on the wrong side of the political divide. Dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women, the group has helped expand their number in the U.S. Senate from zero in 1985 to 16 today, while a record 62 Democratic women serve in the House of Representatives. But progressive critics say EMILY’s list is backing female candidates regardless of conservative economic leanings; in some cases, this has meant backing women who are not even as strong on issues of reproductive rights as their male opponents. The list of races where EMILY’s List has fought liberal groups is long. In the open congressional race in Hawaii this year, EMILY’s List backed a candidate who voted against legalizing same-sex marriage and raising the minimum wage, and had courted evangelical Christian groups while in the Hawaii legislature. In the Pennsylvania governor’s race, EMILY’s List backed Allyson Schwartz, who became a target of liberal groups like Democracy for America for heading a group of centrist Democrats that wanted to cut Social Security. David Freedlander, Daily Beast, 9-4-14.