Has Emily's List turned over a new leaf --

or is it just playing tag-team politics with the Democratic Party?

For a few years I have been a consistent EList critic, basically because of the few federal candidates it has supported under the cover of building a farm teach, studying women voters, etc. -- meanwhile it has invested millions of your $$$ in the Democratic Party and such tangential activities as supporting John Kerry for president and a few other male candidates. Seems like donors would expect the $$$ to go toward electing women, rather than religiously de-selecting women like the party does.

The big question is whether EList is for the promotion of the Democratic Party or equal representation. I don't mind the support of only Democrat pro-choice women, as EList is not the only game in town. But I do mind that Ellen Malcolm's missives usually include rhetoric extolling the election of Democrats rather than the election of women -- and there is a difference! Meanwhile, the Democratic Party does precious little to elect MORE women to Congress unless it is to their immediate benefit.

This year EList is supporting eighteen federal candidates already, and three for governor...more than usual. Last week EList pledged to spend $11 million dollars toward electing women to Congress to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House, which works very well for all concerned. But in 2004 EList raised a lot more than that -- so where does the rest of the money go, when reaching parity is so important on so many levels?

Meanwhile the DCCC's Blue-to-Red initiative includes five of EList's candidates, but not six others running for OPEN SEATS. It remains to be seen how those two lists dovetail in the coming months or not, and how many Democrat women candidates get help from one or the other. Already, DCCC Chair Emmanuel Rahm has lopped six candidates off his previously disclosed list, four of them women, in his zealous efforts to win the House. But this fascinating political dance is just heating up...to be continued.