This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu. THE GETTING IT GAZETTE October 1, 1992 Breasts, Boobs and Pit Bulls Or, Who Are Those People and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things About Me? by Ronni Sandroff It's pretty to think that women candidates should avoid negative campaign tactics and raise political dialogue to a new level. Political consultants believe that the public perceives the candidate as more honest, caring, thoughtful, responsive, "not just another politician." To keep this advantage, her campaign ads must fit her image and not be perceived as belligerent. But the trouble is, soft voices are not always heard. "The public is constantly saying that they don't like negative ads, but those are the ones they remember," says Ethel Klein of EDK Associates, a New York research firm. Attack Dog Tactics The man with the jack-hammer voice who called Anita Hill a liar, again and again, on national TV, is now using similar tactics against the woman who's trying to wrest away his Senate seat. Arlen Specter's (R-Pa) campaign is accusing Lynn Hardy Yeakel of anti-Semitic and anti-black views, despite her strong record of support of both groups. The charges are based on actions by her father (as Democrat Congressman from Virginia, he voted against Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s), her pastor(he made a remark critical of Israel at a church forum on the Mideast), and her husband (he belongs to a country club that has never had a black member). "One morning I woke up and it was as if the light dawned. What [Arlen Specter] is doing to me is what people have done to women through history, and that is to define them in terms of other people in their lives, particularly men--my father, my husband, my pastor. And when I realized this, it gave me a new way to respond," Yeakel told the Washington Post, "The point is that he can't run against my father, my husband or my pastor. He has to run against me." Although Specter's smear campaign has been by far the sleaziest, American politics may becoming "Specter-ized," according to Ellen Malcolm of EMILY'S List. Male candidates hesitate to use direct negative attacks against female contenders for fear they'll be perceived as a bully ("don't hit girls"). So they level their ammunition against the men in the candidates lives. Consider Olympia Snowe (R-ME) who two years ago married John McKernan, Governor of Maine. McKernan's popularity is in decline as recession pounds the state. And Snowe's opponent is encouraging voters to register a protest against the Governor by voting against Snowe, a 14-year veteran with a snow-white record on voting for women. Even before the latest onslaught on Illinois Senate candidate Carol Moseley Braun -- accusations based on her ailing 78-year-old mother's receiving an inheritance while dependent on medicaid--Braun was attacked on the records of two men she's worked for: Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson. And in the 1988 election both Josie Heath, running for the U.S. Senate in Colorado, and Dianne Feinstein, running for Governor of California, were attacked on the bases of their husband's occupations. Until recently, women candidates were more vulnerable to such guilt-by-association tactics, since most male candidates had uncontroversial, stay-at-home wives. This year, of course, Hillary Clinton's professional stance on children's rights has been used against Bill, although attacks on Hillary seem to have backfired and are one reason why Republican women are crossing over. A few women candidates display the Gary Hart syndrome; they fall for their own personal mythology and consider themselves invulnerable. How else could Texas Railroad commissioner Lena Guerrero, the highest ranking Hispanic woman in the country, have had the nerve to run with a fudged resume? The opposition did some simple checking and discovered that Guerrero, who has since resigned from the post, was not a Phi Beta Kappa, nor even a graduate of the University of Texas, as she claimed. Most scary: Guerrero gave a commencement speech at Texas A & M a few years back in which she actually reminisced about her graduation from the University of Texas! Most negative campaigns have a grain of truth in them, and what separates tough campaigning from sheer smear is how big that grain is. Some voters blame Lynn Yeakel for not insisting her husband, a stock broker, drop his country club membership before she ran for office. He did change his political parties for his wife, but her campaign is still pressed to explain that the country club does not have exclusionary by-laws, has female, Jewish and Asian members, and is trying to attract black members. This holds more water if you remember that the blue-blooded Yeakel is credited with converting the Philadelphia Junior League into a group with social conscience. Disturbingly, Specter's attack on Yeakel seem to be working as well as his pit-bull defense of Clarence Thomas. His campaign efforts include a slimy fund-raising letter that implies that Yeakel is the tool of the "anti-Israel network" running a "well financed campaign" against Specter. This despite the fact that the two-term Senator is outspending Yeakel three to one. Yeakel is slipping in the polls and the local press feels her response to the smear campaign has not yet "registered" with the voters. The spectre of a Specter win is too much for the We Believe Anita Hill crowd to bear. It's time for Yeakel to fight back with two fists, even if it shocks some of her devotees. And it is time for her supporters to shout "Whatever terrible things you hear about Lynn Yeakel, remember who you heard it from." Time to print up and put on some We Believe Lynn Yeakel buttons. After all, Yeakel won her primary with a negative TV ad using the Hill Hearings as a metaphor for Washington. It opened with Specter grilling Hill, then switched to Yeakel, who asked: Did this make you as angry as it made me? I'm Lynn Yeakel and its time we did something about the mess in Washington." Breasts and Boobs In the instant response game, it also helps to have a sense of humor. A Specter supporter, former Democratic committee man Larry Yatch, complained that the Year of the Woman translated into "I have breast vote for me." All the way across the country, in Arizona, Claire Sargent--surprise winner of the Democratic gubernatorial primary-got the last laugh. "Why not?" she said, "We've been voting for boobs for years." DISPATCHES FROM THE COUNTRY Who is "That Latina"? The Best in the West In California's Ventura County, Anita Perez Ferguson is battling to unseat the Congressional incumbent. He doesn't refer to Ms. Ferguson by name: he speaks of 'that Latina." The incumbent, Elton Gallegly, is the former mayor of Simi Valley--home of the Rodney King acquittal jury--and has introduced a bill in Congress denying citizenhip to babies born in the US whose parents are not fully documented. If Ferguson wins, she'll be the first Mexican American woman to sit in the House. Perez Ferguson represents the Latina leaders rising through the trenches of electoral politics. Their roots are in the second largest--and fastest growing--minority population in the country. More than 60% of Hispanic people are Mexican American and live in the southwest, where California and Texas dominate the political landscape. From there come such Latina political pathfinders as LA County Supervisor and former California assemblywoman Gloria Molina and Texas Railroad Commissioner Lena Guerrero (who monitors the state's $57 billion oil, gas and transportation). Seasoned by tough confrontation with Latino old-boys as well as the garden-variety white, these women all bring a special perspective to their advocacy for education, health and access to opportunity. In the future we shall all come to understand that the appropriate response to the query, "Who is that Latina?" is likely to be: "She is one of our leaders." --Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte California: A Hell of a Candidate. Make that Two. "I can tell you she's one hell of a candidate for the U.S. Senate," said Mel Levine at a recent up-scale LA fundraiser. He should know. He was talking about Barbara Boxer, and she beat him in the primary. "She's a fighter for choice," Levine said. Boxer is also a ten-year veteran of Congress, the woman first up the Capitol steps on that famous charge during the Anita Hill hearings. Her opponent, former TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn, is a Jesse Helms clone. Easy pick. Dianne Feinstein, running flat out to win the sister slot in the historic race that could put two (count 'em, two!) women in the Senate from the same state, greets a crowd with: "I am Dianne. I am woman." Hear them roar. Feinstein is running to fill the remaining two years of Pete Wilson's term, the man who beat her in 1990 gubernatorial race. Wilson's appointee John Seymour, although pro-choice, faces an up-hill battle against popular Feinstein. He voted to confirm Clarence Thomas. The California economy is floundering and the popularity of the Republican party, Governor and President, is sinking slowly into the western sunset. Why stop at two? Reapportionment and retirement have opened the way for at least six women to represent the Golden State in Congress. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Maxine Waters of Los Angeles are incumbents. Lynn Woolsey will probably succeed Boxer in Marin County and become the first former welfare mother in Congress. "I understand what needing child care means!" she says. Lucille Roybal-Allard, champion of women's issues of the LA Assembly can win and two Republicans are favored in heavily Republican Southern California districts: former nurse Judy Jarvis and anti-choice Joan-Milke Flores. Maybe women really will take over the nation's most populous state. -Kathy Mills New Hampshire: It would be real nice to have a woman. Inside the cluttered Mobil gas station cum general store cum motel office in Randolph, New Hampshire, 84-year-old Gordon Lowe stated firmly that he would be supporting the straight Republican ticket come November: " As Always. The whole household too." But his daughter-in-law, Lucille, pumping gas for a tourist traveling north of the notches for leaf season, mused: "It would be real nice to have a woman in the Governor's chair. And," she pointed out, "no one knows who you really vote for when you actually cast your ballot at Town Hall." Coversations like that have been taking place all over New Hampsire, ever since September when a thirty-eight-year-old State Representative named Arnie Arnesen won the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Arnie(Deborah) Arneson. The Brooklyn born lawyer refused to honor the Granite State's most sacred vow: "the pledge" not to support a state income or sales tax. Arneson said she ran because she believes the state's property tax--the nation's highest--is harming New Hampshire residents, especially the elderly and public school children. She supports a state income tax and choice, two positions her opponent, former Republican State Attorney General Steven Merrill strongly opposes. Merrill defeated pro-choice, pro-income tax candidate Elizabeth Hager (endorsed by the WISH List) in a lively, issue-oriented primary contest (moderate Republican women are the losers everywhere this election.) Only Alaska and New Hampshire have never elected a woman to either a statewide office or to Congress. If outsider Arneson's grassroots campaign defeats in-sider Merrill, Alaska could be left out in the cold. -Edith Tucker The Black Congressional Caucus With the four incumbents--Reps. Barbara-Rose Collins, Cardiss Collins, Eleanor Holmes-Norton and Maxine Waters--strongly favored to win, and four new women making a good fight for it, the number of black women in Congress could double this January. One Caveat: Historically, all black candidates favored to win either end up losing or are successful by smaller margins than predicted. They're also often subject to last minute, incendiary advertising that weakens or destroys their effort (Witness Harvey Grant of North Carolina, favored to win until the last minute "white hands" commercial for Jesse Helms). Early money may be like yeast, but October dollars could keep this candidates from falling flat. * Eddie Bernice Johnson has been a leader in the Texas House of Representatives on civil rights, women, and the economy. She is favored to win over her Republican opponent in the newly-created 30th Congressional District in Dallas. 214-948-4800. * Cynthia McKinney defeated five candidates in Atlanta's 11th Congressional District and won her August run-off, but she faces active opposition in the election. A member of the Ga House for four years, she's known for her advocacy of women's rights. 404-243-5574. * Eva Clayton of North Carolina, Warren County Commissioner for eight years, is credited with creating some 900 jobs and bringing $55 million to a county that relied on agriculture for its economic base. She faces a Republican challenger but there is a chance she may be appointed to fill out the late incumbent's term. P.O. Box 341125; Decatur, GA 30037. *Carrie Meek faces no opposition at all. With her Sept. 1 primary victory she became the first African-American elected to Congress in Florida since reconstruction, but she is fundraising to pay off a campaign deficit. 305-381-6216. --Julianne Malveaux All over: Energizer Bunnies...still running Lynn Taborsak, the plumber from Connecticut, decided her 1000 vote loss in the primary was not impressively discouraging, so now she is running as an independent on the Weicker line. Imagine Lois Frankel's race in Florida: first huricane Andrew and then a suddenly unimpeached Judge Alcee Hastings as opposition. Give Sheila Smith in Illinois credit for taking on Phil Crane - like running against a Republican brick wall. Same to Gloria O'Dell, who has advanced to "long shot" status in her run against Bob Dole in Kansas. Dorothy Bradley is hanging in and looking good for Montana Governor. Welcome Jocelyn Burdick, widow of Sen. Quentin, as the third female United States Senator, appointed but nevertheless there. Deborah Pryce, Republican Municipal Court Judge in Ohio is said to be waffling on choice in her Congressional race. Pass the word. Elizabeth Furse won her primary in Oregon and if she wins the race, Congress will find out what "peace" and "environment" mean when the candidate means it. Ada Deer, who exulted "Me, Nominee!" when she won the primary, is a Menominee Indian and says the best way to celebrate the Columbus 500th anniversary is to send an Native American woman to Congress. And finally, in New York City, the suprise woman winner was Nydia Velazquez, who drove off incumbent Stephan Solarz in the redistricted seat and said "I want to dedicate my victory to my mother and to all the women of Puerto Rico." Go Team Go 28 Women filed for U.S. Senate races this election year. As of Sept. 21, 11 were still running! One more than the 1984 record number of ten. 203 women filed for U.S. House races. As of Sept. 21, 113 were still running! Way ahead of the 1990 record of 70. THE MEASURE OF MAN The Woman Candidate's Getting It Guide to Who's Wooing by Lynn Phillips Real Men don't wait until you've whipped your opponenet's cream before they put a little sugar in your campaign bowl. Here are some of the Sweethearts and Scrooges the 'Dates are Thankin' & Spankin' in '92. [graphics for each person deleted] With pro-life mentor Mitch McConnell (Sen. R-KY) stoking Susan Stokes' (*Rep. R-KY) pro-choice fire in the primaries, she torched three (count 'em) pro-life R-men with 63% of the vote. Also: Party animal (Sen D-MT) Max Baucus let Dorothy Bradley (*Gov. D-MT) use his sturdy staff. Plus, he recruited hearty party support and helped raise fun, fun, funds. Woof! Menominee tribal leader Ada Deer (*Rep. D-WI) had no party stags in her herd as she out-ran son-of-a-NOW-founder David Clarenbach by 60%. Herb Kohl (Sen. D-WI) is working up the steam to fundraise for her - NOW. Dianne Feinstein's second mate Richard Blum's honey-plum on the hustings. Strong, solid and in her corner. Besides, every 'date needs a big lender... ...as Pete Wilson's tool, Fair Political Practices Commission chief Ben Davidian, knew when he battered Feinstein but only slapped Wilson's wrist for alleged campaign irregs. Low blower Arlen Specter gets a newspaper across the nose for running against Lynn Yeakel's husband, father and pastor. What a chihuahua! Gubernatorial impeachee Evan "Hot 'n Bothered" Meecham's all out Indy party jihad vs. incumbent John "Short Fuse" McCain (Sen. R-AZ) will rend the right in two for Dem. 'date Claire Sargeant. Thanks for being so mad 'n meanly, Meech. To the Dem. County Committee and New York District of Old Boys who, in replacing the late Ted Weiss (Rep. D-NY) jilted Sonya Weiss, Ronnie Eldrige and Bella Abzug (hot on the heels of Ferraro and Holtzman's primary defeat by Abrams): the teeny-weeny weenie award of the year. Many femme contenders report: support from Democratic Senatorial Committee has been iffy and skimpy. Year of the Wuss? Where's the beef, boys? A big hand for EMILY's List support giants Richard Gephardt (Rep. D-MO) and Bill Bradley (Sen. D-NJ), for Wish List colossus Jerry Lewis (Rep. R-CA) and for tall Tom Foley (Rep. D-WA). If you build it, they will come! (*) indicates a candidate who is not yet an office-holder. Rumors, Footnotes & Coming Attractions Clinton Crossovers among the Rolls & Rovers: Viginia Women's Center Exec Direc Judy Mueller noted so many snazzy cars the day of Pam Harriman's thousand-bucks-a-punch lunch for Clinton that "Middleburg look like a Republican parking lot."...Debate or no: The Guv and the Prez will get report cards next week, these from the Economists' Policy Group on Women's Issues. Call 202-347-2666 to get the scores...No Dopes, WISH Folks' Buck Stoke & Stroke Sue Stokes' Hopes. Number on in the dollar contributions from the GOP donor network's members, as of last Monday, KY's Susan Stokes won her primary for the House with 63% of the vote and leads in polls over the anti-choice incumbent of 22 years, Romano Mazzoli...Next biggest bucks-getter was Liz Hager, who hoped to become the first Republican woman governor of NH, but lost in her Sept. primary... Third place went to Delores Porcher-Da Costa, who was running for Congress from SC's newly created and predominately minority 6th district, and hoping to be the first African-American elected from her area since Reconstruction. She, too, lost the primary. So give this group an E-mail rating of :):(:( Speaking of campaign coffers, Claire Sargent, nationally unknown before her now-famous voting-for- boobs comeback, used to call herself the stealth candidate. Turns out she won in all 15 AZ counties--on just $80,000!!! Give that woman the Amazing Small Chest Award...Hillary Clinton will be in the Bay area for a luch Chez Panissssse 10/5. Deirdre English will be a speaker...Back on the Bus, Gus--no, make that Ron, Son, for the DNC chair is roadrunning with Tipper Gore, Lucinda Florio, Letty Pogrebin, Carol Bellamy. Six stops in NJ Oct. 13 (fo' mo' info 201-376-7300)...Pack up the books, Smooks: American political historian Mark Ciabattari reminds Us: "Abigail Adams was acknowledge by her husband as his intellectual equal, yet when John was President, the First Lady had to be careful not to read in public. Most women of her day were not educated, and such display of learning was not appropiate for her." We consider this an early instance of The Hillary Factor...From Clinic Defense Training: Facing the Lambs of God pro-life (-rators), the brave defenders line up and, making PAC-MAN snaps with their fingers, chant this sound-bite: "Lamb chops for breakfast, Lamb chops for lunch, Cross this line and--Munch, munch, munch!"... And, in a related development, how civil of California's Sweet Pete to make it a misdemeanor to block the entrance or exit to any abortion or other health-care clinic, church, school. For this, the state's pro-choice delegates became pro-silence crash-test dummies during the Republican platform nonfight. --Mollie Ann Smith & Company Uh-Oh: Sidelash Are the priorities of the women's movement peripheral to the priorities of most women? The answer, according to "Women's Voices," a joint study of the Ms. Foundation and the Center for Policy Alternatives is "Gee, well, totally." Despite its Modess-y excuse-me-for-menstruating, lavender-and-pink cover, this little report ought to rock our dinghy. Headline feminist issues like abortion, porn and rape, according to the recently released study, while far from irrelevant to most women, are neither points of unity among us nor our main priorities. The issues that grab our numbers and pull us together with the most force--without regard for race and class lines--are bottom-line anxieties and daily concerns: *Pay issues (pay equity, discrimination in hiring and promotion, minimum wages etc.), *Health Care (for the whole family) *Flextime (Flexible working hours). These are the things that give us the sweats, haunt us around the clock. By contrast, the study found, abortion and domestic violence are passionate concerns only at times of crisis. Based on in-depth focus group interviews and polls of diverse groups of women, "Women's Voices" is both an open invitation to activists to form a more democratic movement and an indespensible reality check for political pros. Ms Foundation, 141 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010. -Lynn Phillips DA TALK OF DA TOWN Overhoid In the next pay phone on 8th Avenue, a few short blocks from the Algonquin. "Hey boss! How'd you like how my plan woiked out, huh? It's like, killin' two boids wid one stone--you know what I'm sayin'? I mean it was like I planned it, I counten of done it better but we diten hafta do nothin'. Da ladies did it demselves, god blessem. (Well I gotta admit the front runner's husband helped, too.) "Year of the Woman, Ha? Not in Noo Yawk. More like year of the cat fight, me and the boys was sayin. Sure, I knew you was worried about dat Gerry. Like she ran for veep, she usta be in Congress, she has all dis dough from dis Emily dame. And it was like she could meet you on your own ground wasin it? Like she was for the chair so you couten really call her one a dose bleedin heart liberals. Da woist ting da way I saw it? She was from the old country-I mean sheet was eyetalian too. So bad as you could attack you couten really trash her couldju? "Liz baby you coulda taken easy. But no way was she gonna beat the A.G., the almost-veep and the Sharp. I gotta admit I was gettin' worried dere myself. I heard dames everywhere (even da little woman!) and hey! guys, too, sayin' 'I don't care we just gotta get a woman, and Liz is too mean.' But look what happened. We won. Uh, da men I mean. Like whoever wins da election (like I'm sure it'll be you boss but just in case) it'll sure be a man anyway. I don't mind tellin' you that don't make me sorry." CW