Fundraisers Discuss Political Equality

Two prominent fundraisers for women political candidates last night discussed the need for equality in campaign finance as a step toward increasing the number of women in political office.

Ellen Malcolm, founder of Emily's List, a donors' list which supports Democratic pro-choice women, and Candy Straight, the organizer of WISH list, a similar group for Republican women, appeared before a small but appreciative audience at the ARCO Forum at the Institute of Politics.

Both speakers agreed that a key obstacle for women in winning political office is a disparity between funding in men's and women's campaigns.

"By empowering individuals, [organizations such as Emily's List and WISH List] can offset all the money which is pouring into men's campaigns," said Malcolm.

Malcolm said women candidates suffer from a "credibility gap," in that potential donors are hesitant to "believe that women can actually win."

Emily's List has helped to overcome this problem, Malcolm said. "The result is that we are electing women to office in a way never done before," she said.

In 1992, for example, five Democratic women were elected to the Senate and the number of Democratic women in the House tripled.

On the Republican side, Straight agreed that donors' lists were "a brilliant idea" and that "we are seeing more and more women coming up the pipeline" as a result.

A "list" works by sending information on certain candidates to its donors, who choose the specific individuals to receive their checks. The list then "bundles" together the checks for each candidate and sends them to the candidate.

'Bundling'

Both criticized the current campaign finance law in Congress which targets "bundling" operations such as these lists.

Malcolm said that some lawmakers were saying to themselves, "I can go after Emily's List, never face a wellfunded woman candidate again, and hide behind reform while I'm doing it."

The forum was held before an unusually small audience, which moderator Liz Hager, a fellow at the Kennedy school and 1992 New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate, attributed to the end of the semester at the Business School and the Kennedy School formal being held at the same time. "I don't think it was lack of interest in the issue," she said.

Those who did attend were generally supportive. Amy S. Gwiazda '96 said that women's campaign finance was "a good issue to talk about." Radcliffe Development Officer Ellen Foley '82 agreed, adding "it was great to see the mutual support, coming from different parties. We need to see that women's issues are people's issues."