USA Today
07-23-07
Fight is on to capture women's votes
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Carrie Tedore of Dubuque, Iowa, knows women who think "it's
pretty cool" that they may see a woman president in their lifetime. But that's not
why she's interested in New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"When it comes down to it, she's the most qualified," says Tedore, 40, public
relations director at a casino. "Her being a woman is secondary to me."
COURTING WOMEN: Clinton focuses on female bonding
Tedore's gender isn't secondary to Clinton. Women are a pillar of the former first
lady's strategy to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency. Clinton's
pollster, Mark Penn, says women probably will be close to 60% of the
Democratic primary electorate.
In the general election, women account for 54% of voters, and Democrats are
working hard to make up ground. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won 54% of the
women's vote, compared with 43% for George W. Bush. Four years later,
Democrat John Kerry had only a 3-percentage-point advantage, 51%-48%.
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Tedore, participating in her first presidential campaign, is part of what she calls
Clinton's "great grass-roots effort based on the strength of the women's vote."
She is a county coordinator for Clinton and a member of Club44, Clinton's
network for younger women.
One of Monday night's 400 house parties for Clinton will be at Tedore's house.
She expects as many as 40 people, most are women, from casino co-workers to
the nun who babysits her son.
Former congresswoman Pat Schroeder used to say "What choice do I have?"
when asked during her brief 1988 presidential bid whether she was "running as a
woman."
"There was a lot of excitement" among women when Republican Elizabeth Dole
ran for president in 2000, says Dianne Bystrom of the Catt Center for Women
and Politics at Iowa State University. But she says Dole did not try to harness
it.
Clinton's website calls her "a champion for women" and highlights the fact that
she's a mother. She's "running as a woman" but also as a tough candidate for
commander in chief, Bystrom says. "She is not shy about talking about making
history, but does not make that her only campaign theme."
On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain has "Women for McCain"
groups in several states. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's wife,
Ann, just made a "Women for Mitt" bus tour in South Carolina. Democrats are
competing more intensely as rivals try to limit the impact of Clinton's gender and
drive for women's votes.
Jennifer Donahue, senior adviser to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at
Saint Anselm College, says women who don't support Illinois Sen. Barack
Obama are getting invitations to "meet the candidate" events, and Elizabeth
Edwards attracted "an absolutely packed house" this month in Bedford, N.H.
"There's a fight for the female vote," she says.
Kate Michelman, who headed an abortion rights group and is advising John
Edwards, says he "has always led without equivocation or maneuvering on
issues that matter most to women," such as health care, education and ending
the war in Iraq. Michelman adds, "All of us fought to be free from gender bias,
and the last thing we need is to have an election that is solely about gender."
Yet gender is a proxy for experience and matters to some voters. "Women may
feel that she gets certain issues because of her gender," Debbie Walsh of the
Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University says of Clinton.
"There's the sense that other candidates may be supportive, but this candidate
maybe understands issues that affect women at a different level."
Ann Lewis, who heads Clinton's outreach to women, says Clinton has a 35-year
record as an advocate for women and families, right up to her recent pressure on
the White House to approve sales of emergency contraceptives and introduction
of an equal-pay bill.
The house parties underscore Clinton's advantage. At 202 house parties last
month for Obama, the special event was a conference call with his wife, Michelle.
The 400 women hosting tonight's Clinton parties had a conference call last week
with the candidate herself.