Updated: November 15, 2008
Election Day brought a record number of voters to the polls, and at the end of the day, Sen. Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States. The Obama/Biden ticket received 364 electoral votes, compared to 163 won by Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin. President-Elect Obama has begun to put together his transition team and his White House staff, naming Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) his new chief of staff.
The Democrats expanded their control of both chambers of Congress. In the House, Democrats improved their majority by at least 19 seats to hold 254 seats, with 174 held by Republicans and 7 seats still undecided. In the Senate, Democrats will hold at least 55 seats, as well as 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats. The Republicans will maintain at least 40 seats, but races in four states are still in question: Alaska, Georgia, and Minnesota. Democrats picked up one governorship, with the final tally standing at 29 governors’ mansions for the Democrats, 21 for the Republicans.
Once again, women made the difference in the outcome – Obama won 56 percent of the women’s vote, versus 49 percent of the men’s vote. Youth voters (ages 18-29) also had an enormous impact on this election, making up 18 percent of the total electorate -- even outpacing the powerful senior block (age 65+), who made up 16 percent of the voting public.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 7, 2008.
WASHINGTON - Today AAUW released its Congressional Voting Record for the 110th Congress, which gives the public critical information about how members of Congress voted on AAUW priority issues.
This Congress was noticeably more supportive of AAUW's position in the areas of education, economic security, and civil rights. More than half the representatives and senators supported AAUW's issues on at least 80 percent of the votes in this voting record, a tool to both educate voters and make legislators more conscious about issues important to women and families.
"AAUW has had some critical legislative victories this Congress, but we must also protect and enforce hard-won laws already on the books," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "With the November elections just around the corner, AAUW is urging voters to hold their elected officials accountable on the issues that matter most to women and their families."
To help the electorate make an informed decision, AAUW also released voter guides for the November elections-not just for the presidential race but also for some key Senate races. Additional voter guides will be added throughout the fall.
"We don't tell women how to vote," said Lisa M. Maatz, AAUW director of public policy and government relations. "We encourage them to speak their minds and get involved in the political process, to ensure that the issues they most care about get the attention they deserve-and education and economic security are very much on the minds of women voters this year."
The AAUW Capitol Hill Lobby Corps, a group of AAUW members who lobby Congress each week it is in session, will make a special effort to thank members of Congress with a 100 percent voting record.
"After a five-year delay, the Higher Education Act was reauthorized, which takes steps to make college more affordable and creates the AAUW-inspired Patsy Mink Graduate Fellowships," said Maatz. "AAUW was also instrumental in the House passage of two equal pay bills: the Paycheck Fairness Act, which updates the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to provide better remedies for victims of pay discrimination, and the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would correct the Supreme Court's misstep in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co."
In addition to the nonpartisan voter guides and the Congressional Voting Record, AAUW's nationwide Voter Education Campaign features an online resource kit for field campaigns on issues such as affirmative action and measures requiring employers to provide a minimum number of paid sick days. The Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout manual is an in-depth guide for AAUW members and coalition partners who want to run campaigns in their communities that encourage women to turn out on Election Day. AAUW also awards public policy impact grants for projects designed to increase member advocacy on state- and federal-level issues. This year AAUW state affiliates in Alabama, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have received funding for projects ranging from student registration drives to candidate forums.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for September 15, 2008.
The first presidential debate is only two weeks away, on Friday, Sept. 26. Other presidential debates will be held on Oct. 7 and Oct. 15. The vice presidential debate is set for Oct. 2. The Commission on Presidential Debates website has detailed information.
According to the New York Times, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) chose Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) to stand in for Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as he prepares for their debate.
The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run. View presidential television commercials of the past, which remain the one area where presidential candidates have complete control over their images.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for September 12, 2008.
The Republican National Convention drew to a close yesterday after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) accepted the Republican nomination to become the party’s candidate for president. His running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), accepted the nod as the party’s first female vice-presidential candidate on Wednesday. The delegates in St. Paul also adopted the Republican National Platform, the official statement of the party’s position on a wide variety of issues. The Democratic National Platform had been adopted the week earlier in Denver.
AAUW Public Policy and Government Relations Director Lisa Maatz was on the front lines in Minneapolis/St. Paul as she had been in Denver, and she was joined by many AAUW members. AAUW again cosponsored events with the White House Project, as they did for the Democratic convention, and ensured that a mighty AAUW presence was felt by both parties.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for September 5, 2008.
The Democratic National Convention drew to a close yesterday, with the Republican National Convention just around the corner. In Denver, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) accepted the Democratic nomination to become the party’s candidate for president, and Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) accepted the nod as the party’s vice-presidential candidate. The delegates in Denver also adopted the Democratic National Platform, the official statement of the party’s position on a wide variety of issues.
On Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, announced Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as his choice for a running mate. The two are expected to receive their party’s nod in St. Paul next week at the Republican National Convention. While the Republican Party will also adopt their official platform next week, Bloomberg.com reported that a draft of it has been released.
AAUW Public Policy and Government Relations Director Lisa Maatz was on the front lines in Denver, and she was joined by many AAUW members. AAUW cosponsored events along with the White House Project, and our “The Power of One Vote” and “I am the Face of Pay Equity” stickers were worn throughout the week by convention attendees. Get an insider’s point of view of what’s going on with Lisa’s daily blog posts from the convention floor on AAUW Dialog. Subscribe to a special convention RSS feed, and get information about republishing these feeds on your branch’s website.
Among the highlights in Denver was a Tuesday night prime time speech given by tireless pay equity advocate Lilly Ledbetter, who spoke of the need for legislation to fix the misstep the Supreme Court made in May 2007 in deciding her case. Read Lilly’s speech and watch a video of her in action. Earlier that night, the Democratic women senators delivered their Checklist for Change, 10 key agenda items they are working on to improve the lives of women and their families, which includes a range of issues from pay equity to energy independence.
Lisa and several AAUW members will also be representing AAUW in Minneapolis/St. Paul for the Republican National Convention next week. AAUW will also cosponsor events there, so a mighty AAUW presence will be felt by both parties.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for August 29, 2008.
The Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions are just around the corner. AAUW Public Policy and Government Relations Director Lisa Maatz will be representing AAUW in both Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul, and several AAUW members will be attending and handing out “The Power of One Vote” and “I am the Face of Pay Equity” stickers. AAUW will also cosponsor events at both conventions, so there will be a mighty AAUW presence felt by both parties.
It was also announced this week that Lilly Ledbetter will be a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, August 26 at 9:00 pm Eastern time. She will be speaking about the broader issue of pay equity and specifically about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (H.R. 2831), which contains a narrow legislative fix to more justly allow victims of pay discrimination to seek vindication. AAUW encourages everyone to watch on Tuesday night and spread the word to your family, friends, and fellow AAUW members.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for August 22, 2008.
This week, Lifetime Networks announced the results of a national poll of likely women voters that sheds light on women’s impressions of Sens. McCain and Obama. The poll also indentifies economic worries as the dominant issue driving women to the polls, and indicates whom Sen. Hillary Clinton’s primary voters now support, as well as how they believe her candidacy will affect future presidential races. The poll was conducted by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway of the polling company ™, inc./WomanTrend and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners.
Neither McCain nor Obama have secured a clear majority of women voters; McCain has 38 percent to Obama’s 49 percent, and six percent of these women said they were only leaning toward a candidate. Ten percent of the women polled remain firmly undecided, leaving the race for the women’s vote very tight. The majority of women polled say that putting a woman on the ticket would not sway their vote either way, and while 47 percent of Hillary Clinton’s primary voters said they’d be more likely to vote for Obama if he chose a woman running mate, 59 percent would be unmoved by a woman on McCain’s ticket. More women attribute Hillary’s loss not to sexism in the presidential campaign, but because of the way she ran her campaign (34% vs. 21%). Jobs and the economy remain the most important issue to women this election (41 percent), and when asked which issues women want to hear the candidates talk more about, those polled again chose jobs/the economy by 47 percent.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for August 8, 2008.
Ten women Democratic senators came together Tuesday to reveal a 10-point checklist of issues that includes equal pay, affordable healthcare, benefits for military veterans, protection of the environment, and keeping jobs in America. The list was a visible show of unity for senators that had been vocally backing different presidential candidates in the primary.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for June 20, 2008.
A new report released this week by the Congressional Management Foundation shows that nearly half of all adult Americans contacted a member of Congress in the last five years, a rate that is much higher than a 2004 study found. Communicating with Congress: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement found that 43 percent of Americans who contacted Congress used the Internet as their means of doing so, and that among those who did send a message to Congress, 74 percent said that advocacy campaigns are good for democracy. Americans who contacted Congress tended to be more politically active in other ways as well, including volunteering and donating to political campaigns or advocacy campaigns. AAUW encourages you to use our Two-Minute Activist to contact your members of Congress to make your voice heard. Encourage your friends to sign up for Action Network so they can receive email updates and take action as well.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for June 13, 2008.