Updated: November 15, 2008
The House and Senate are both expected to return to DC next week for a lame duck session. While Senate leaders announced their plans weeks ago to convene members on Nov. 17, the fate of a lame duck session in the House has been in question lately. According to CQ, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sent a letter to House members on Friday notifying them that the House will convene on Nov. 19. May members of Congress will already be in Washington next week to elect party leaders for the next Congress, but with a second economic stimulus package and a bailout for automakers still up in the air, it is unclear how long either chamber will stay in session before adjourning for the year.
ACTION: While AAUW prepares to release our public policy agenda for the 111th Congress, you can share your vision for the country with the Obama administration now. President-elect Obama wants to hear from you! The Obama transition team is asking for your opinion on policies you want to see carried out in the next four years. Let the president-elect and his team know that breaking through educational and economic barriers for women should be on top of his agenda, too.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 14, 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.
Women as candidates largely did well on Tuesday, picking up seats in Congress and in state houses across the country. In one extreme but noteworthy example, women won a majority of the state senate seats in New Hampshire, making it the first legislative body to be dominated by women in the history of the United States. Seventeen women (13D, 4R) will serve in the U.S. Senate, besting the record of 16 set by the current Congress. This record includes the four women (3D, 1R) who won Senate elections this year, including two incumbents and two challengers. Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) both beat well known incumbents and will join Susan Collins (R-ME), who was re-elected in a rare bright spot for Republicans. Incumbent Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) lost her race to Hagan.
A total of at least 74 women (57D, 17R) will serve in the 111th Congress, setting a new all-time high. Ten new women (8D, 2R) will join the 64 incumbents (49D, 15R) who were reelected, topping the previous record of 71 women set this Congress. The women newcomers include five challengers (4D, 1R) who defeated incumbents and five winners of open seats (4D, 1R). Two women candidates for House seats are in contests that are too close to call: Darcy Burner (D-WA), who is challenging an incumbent, and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), who is seeking an open seat.
Beverly Perdue (D-NC) was the only new woman governor elected in 2008. Perdue joins Christine Gregoire (D-WA), who was re-elected in a rematch of her close race from four years ago, as the only woman to win gubernatorial races this year. With six women governors already safely in office, the total number of women governors in 2009 is eight (5D, 3R).
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 7, 2008.
Among other highlights from the 2008 election was the outcome of state ballot initiatives dotted throughout the country, many of which featured important AAUW issues. An overwhelming majority of Milwaukee voters supported an initiative to require paid sick days to all employees, making them the third city to do so. South Dakota voters helped to stop the undermining of Roe v. Wade by defeating Initiative 11, which would have banned nearly all abortions in the state. In another reproductive rights initiative, Colorado voters defeated an initiative that would have given legal rights to a ‘person’ from the moment of fertilization, threatening access to contraceptives, abortions, stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization. Additionally, California defeated Proposition 4, which would have prohibited abortions for a minor until 48 hours after parental notification. However, in Nebraska, voters passed Initiative 424. This ballot measure would ban affirmative action provisions in the state, notably in public contracting, public employment, and public education. A similar AAUW-opposed initiative was defeated in Colorado.
AAUW members and branches in all of these states were very active getting out the vote on these important ballot measures, and AAUW supported them by mailing information on several of these initiatives to voters in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Milwaukee.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for November 7, 2008.
With Sen. Hillary Clinton's groundbreaking race for her party's presidential nomination and the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin for the GOP vice presidential spot, the 2008 elections are quickly becoming one of the most successful for women in history. While there are fewer women candidates than in 1992, the percentage of women in Congress after Election Day could reach 20 to 33 percent, reported by Women’s eNews this week. This could be the “tipping point” for providing the right environment to pass gender equity legislation in the 111th Congress. Currently, the percentage of women serving in both the House of Representatives and Senate is 16 percent, the same as the percent of women governors in the United States.
AAUW believes that all women should get involved in the political process, from simply voting to running for elected office.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for October 24, 2008.
SunLightNY.com is a site which Attorney General Cuomo's office has developed to let us see the internal results of campaign financing. You can learn the source of a candidate's funds, the legislation representatives have sponsored and the laws governing special interests. It is a wonderful source of information, useful to all of us.
A new campaign has been launched to call on all parents to take their daughters to the polls when they vote on Election Day. The “Take Our Daughters to the Polls” campaign encourages adults to speak with their daughters about the importance of voting and to show them how to participate in the electoral process. The campaign was created by the White House Project, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing women’s leadership in the United States, and supported by numerous national organizations, including AAUW. You can participate by signing the pledge to take a young girl to the polls on Nov. 4 and by spreading the word.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for October 3, 2008.
A great organization to empower watchdogs! The foundation is using the power of the Internet to "shine a light on the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington in ways never before possible." They have compiled a great list of helpful sites for those of us wanting the insider's scoop on all things government and politics.
Just a few of the sites that the Sunlight Foundation features - and in some cases, funds - include:
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.
- from AAUW's Action Alert, Sept. 2004.