EMILY's List

ESTABLISHED: 1985
EMPLOYEES: 50
MEMBERS: 45,000
PAC: EMILY's List

Contact Information:
ADDRESS: 805 Fifteenth St. NW, Ste. 400 Washington, DC 20005
PHONE: (202) 326-1400
FAX: (202) 326-1415
E-MAIL: emilyslist@emilyslist.org
URL: http://www.emilyslist.org
PRESIDENT: Ellen R. Malcolm

WHAT IS ITS MISSION?

According to its 1998 statement of purpose, "EMILY's List identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and state political offices and supports them in three ways; raising campaign contributions, building strong campaigns, and mobilizing women voters." EMILY is an acronym for "Early Money is Like Yeast"—yeast being the ingredient that makes dough rise. Concerned by the small number of women in the U.S. Congress, and discouraged by the growing political power of the pro-life movement, political activist Ellen Malcolm founded this political action committee (PAC) to provide campaign money to pro-choice Democratic female candidates. Group initiatives have brought EMILY's List into the forefront as a political force behind the Democratic Party.

HOW IS IT STRUCTURED?

EMILY's List is a political action committee based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm, who still serves as president. Malcolm helps recruit and select EMILY's List candidates, assists in development efforts, and remains the public face of the organization. Although EMILY's List has been called an autocracy and Malcolm has been accused of running EMILY's List too rigidly, under her guidance EMILY's List has grown from a tiny coalition of concerned individuals to a political network with more than 45,000 members.

Perhaps because of this growth, Malcolm has delegated some of her administrative duties. Executive Director Mary Beth Cahill directs EMILY's List' political strategies and programs, manages day-to-day operations, and conducts long-term strategic planning. An advisory board composed of a small number of pro-choice activists contributes time and resources to the management of EMILY's List. The advisory board assists in development efforts as well as the recruitment and selection of the organization's candidates.

Together, Malcolm, Cahill, and the advisory board design group policies, programs, and strategies. This highly centralized organization has no local chapters or delegates. Regional offices of EMILY's List are essentially local fund-raising centers. "Members" are donors who meet EMILY's List contribution requirements by donating at least $100 annually to the organization and $100 to two of its candidates during a two-year election cycle. Members of the Majority Council are individuals whose contributions to EMILY's List political programs exceed __BODY__,000 per year. Members of the Majority Council and EMILY's List rank-and-file have the opportunity to effect change or steer policy at the organization's annual national convention in Washington, D.C.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS

EMILY's List strives to help pro-choice Democratic women win state and federal elections primarily through three methods: raising campaign contributions, building effective campaigns, and mobilizing female voters.

The members of EMILY's List firmly believe that it takes money to win elections, therefore the group's main function is to raise money for its candidates. Campaign finance laws, however, prohibit groups or individuals from donating more than $5,000 to any candidate in any campaign. To circumvent the restrictions of this law, EMILY's List uses a technique called "bundling." When a person becomes a member of EMILY's List, he or she is required to make donations of $100 or more—although not exceeding $5000—to two or more candidates sponsored by EMILY's List. The donations are then "bundled" together and sent to the candidates. Bundling is a common practice for PACs and grassroots networks. Using this method 50,000 individuals raised more than $7.5 million for EMILY's List candidates in 1998. EMILY's List is so successful at providing funds for its office seekers it has become one of the largest sources of contributions for federal candidates.

The second priority of EMILY's List is to provide support resources for its candidates. It conducts training workshops for campaign managers, press secretaries, and fund-raisers. Through The Women's Monitor , it provides candidates with insight into voters' opinions on current issues. With a staff of political campaign veterans, the organization gives candidates practical support in the field, including refocusing candidates' messages, counteracting negative attacks by opponents, and designing media strategies. EMILY's List also helps to staff campaigns through its job bank program.

EMILY's List focuses on mobilizing female voters because, according to President Emily Malcolm, "when women vote, women win." With the assistance of local Democratic organizations, EMILY's List coordinated a massive 34-state voter-encouragement campaign directed at 3.4 million women prior to the 1998 general election.

PROGRAMS

EMILY's List seeks to increase campaign effectiveness through its training department and job bank. Between 1995 and 1996, the training program educated more than 450 campaign workers. Participants are selected based on political experience and willingness to relocate.

Four seminars form the core of the training program. The Campaign Management Seminar educates participants in all aspects of a political campaign from budget to media and field skills. The Fundraising Seminar familiarizes participants with the tools of fund-raising such as direct mail and telemarketing, as well as the methods of financing a major campaign. The Press Seminar teaches students how to write press releases, how to generate press coverage, and how to prepare a candidate for debate and interview. Research Seminar participants learn the value of proper compilation and analysis of research.

The job bank is a service that places capable campaign workers into the campaigns of EMILY's List candidates in need of qualified staff. It maintains a database of 800 campaign professionals.

In 1994, EMILY's List launched WOMEN VOTE!, a get-out-the-vote project meant to target, contact, and mobilize female voters through phone calls and direct mail. Aside from getting women to go to the polls, WOMEN VOTE! assists state parties in upgrading and building their voter files. In 1996 WOMEN VOTE! reached 3 million voters in 31 states. WOMEN VOTE! is an ongoing initiative that is expected to spend $10 million before 2000.

BUDGET INFORMATION

EMILY's List began fiscal year 1995-96 with a budget surplus of $500,000. It raised an additional $21,498,168 to increase its total by 37.8 percent from 1994-95. Contributions came entirely from EMILY's List members.

Of that $22 million, 30 percent ($6,717,970) went directly into the campaigns of EMILY's List candidates; 26.3 percent ($5,794,105) was spent on development efforts, the bulk of that figure going toward fund-raising for candidates and EMILY's List; and 13 percent ($2,896,993) went toward the WOMEN VOTE! initiative. Another 9.4 percent ($2,077,759) of the budget went toward the group's "Building Effective Campaigns" division, which included research and training seminars. Administrative costs, including an 11-person payroll, consumed 10 percent ($2,219,925) of the EMILY's List budget, and 4.6 percent (__BODY__,000,000) was spent in soliciting new members. Communications, including the publishing of The Women's Monitor and the creation of a new Web site, consumed 4 percent (876,869) of the budget.

HISTORY

EMILY's List was founded in 1985 by Ellen Malcolm and 25 friends as a grassroots coalition of prochoice activists. Discouraged by a lack of women congressional representatives and the growing political power of the pro-life movement, the group formed a political action committee to provide campaign money for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. At the time of EMILY's List's establishment, there were no women U.S. senators; EMILY's List began donating funds to this cause immediately.

Within a year of its founding, the EMILY's List membership rolls topped 1,100 and the group celebrated its first success as a contributor to a successful campaign. In 1986 Barbara Mikulski of Maryland became the first Democratic woman senator elected in her own right. By 1988 EMILY's List had become the nation's largest financial resource for Democratic women, and in 1990 donations to EMILY's List exceeded __BODY__ million for the first time. In the same year EMILY's List contributed to the successful gubernatorial races of Ann Richards of Texas and Barbara Roberts of Oregon.

In the early 1990s, one of the most important events in the history of EMILY's List occurred—Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearings. During the hearings, lawyer Anita Hill accused the Supreme Court nominee of having sexually harassed her while she worked under him at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Despite Hill's charges, Thomas was confirmed by Congress, and many angry women joined EMILY's List in order to express their dismay politically. These voters believed they could send a message to Congress through the polls. To understand the effect of the Hill-Thomas hearings on EMILY's List, one needs only to look at the organization's membership rolls, which grew 600 percent from 3,500 members before the hearings in 1991, to 24,000 members in 1992, after the hearings.

These freshly mobilized female voters, combined with EMILY's List contributions, helped 1992 become "The Year Of The Woman." A record four Democratic women were elected to the U.S. Senate and 21 to the U.S. House of Representatives. It was the biggest one-time electoral gain for women in U.S. history. In 1996 the 45,000 EMILY's List members donated more than $6.7 million to candidates, making EMILY's List the largest source of contributions to Democratic female federal candidates.

CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES

Although EMILY's List is primarily concerned with one political issue, reproductive rights, the group has invariably found itself in the midst of others. Most notably, EMILY's List has been at the center of a battle over the practice of bundling, an effective method of avoiding campaign contribution restrictions. Although no measures have yet been passed regarding this type of campaign funding, Congress has considered legislation prohibiting bundling three times since 1992. EMILY's List believes it should be exempt from any such legislation because it is a non-lobbying PAC, meaning it theoretically expects nothing in exchange for contributions. To combat restrictive legislation, EMILY's List hired lobbyists to oppose bundling reform initiatives.

As a decidedly pro-choice organization, EMILY's List is under constant criticism by conservative pro-life writers and politicians. The group's liberal endorsement policy also sometimes brings EMILY's List into affiliation with candidates whose views are not always mainstream. This further attracts attention from critics who label EMILY's List a "radical" group. Such negative attention has, at times, colored the way the organization is viewed by the public and may harm its political effectiveness.

Case Study: Garamendi vs. Pombo

In 1992 EMILY's List donors gave Democratic candidate Patti Garamendi $60,000 toward her campaign to represent California's 11th Congressional District. As a viable, pro-choice Democratic female candidate, Garamendi met EMILY's List criteria for endorsement and campaign support.

Garamendi was running against Republican Richard Pombo in a conservative district. As part of her campaign platform, however, she actively supported rap musician Ice-T in his First Amendment battles with conservative commentators and politicians over his song "Cop Killer." Garamendi attacked her opponent for not supporting Ice-T's First Amendment rights. She ran advertisements that showed burning crosses and accused Pombo of racism. This support of Ice-T's First Amendment rights, although not radical in theory, was poorly executed during Garamendi's campaign. The attacks and advertising did more to stigmatize Garamendi than her opponent, and Garamendi ultimately lost the election.

This type of situation has the potential to harm EMILY's List in its mission. If the group is branded too radical because of associations with candidates, prospective donors may be reluctant to give money to the organization. Candidates might also believe involvement with EMILY's List may hurt their candidacy. And potential workers may be reluctant to work for an organization whose beliefs are inconsistent with their own.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

When EMILY's List was founded in 1985, no Democratic woman had ever been elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the number of elected women had been declining for 11 years. But by 1988, those trends were reversed when EMILY's List supported campaigns of pro-choice Democratic women candidates. By 1998 EMILY's List had contributed to the successful campaigns of 42 prochoice female U.S. Representatives, 6 U.S. Senators, and three state governors.

Perhaps a better measure of the success of EMILY's List is the phenomenal reaction by other interest groups. Several have since copied the fund-raising methods and unique organizational structure of EMILY's List. There has also been an explosion of similar PACs. PAM's List (an acronym for Power and Money) and W.I.N. (Women in the Nineties) are two state-level imitators. In 1992 the Labor Party in England formed EMILY's List, United Kingdom, with ambitions similar to those of the U.S. organization. Most strikingly, a group of moderate Republican women have started WISH List (Women in the Senate and House)—an organization designed to provide financial and tactical support to the candidacies of pro-choice Republican women.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

EMILY's List seeks to do more than build campaign war chests. Through its training programs and its WOMEN VOTE! initiative, EMILY's List wants to become a full service political organization that provides candidates with interpretations of voter trends, demographic analysis, and funding patterns. In the words of Ellen Malcolm, "We expect to be one of the major political centers. Our slogan could be, 'if you want to understand women as political force, come to EMILY's List.'" A current goal is to nurture more candidates at the local and school board level by dedicating more money to those races. This will help ensure candidate loyalty as a candidate moves up the political ladder.

GROUP RESOURCES

EMILY's List maintains an extensive Web site at http://www.emilyslist.org. The Web site, which is open to non-members, offers campaign updates, budget information, and The Women's Monitor, the organization's poll of female voters. Parties interested in EMILY's List's annual convention (The Majority Council Conference), EMILY's List Training Department programs, or EMILY's List may telephone (202) 326-1400 or write to Early Money is Like Yeast's List, 805 Fifteenth St., Ste. 500, Washington, DC 20005 for more information.

GROUP PUBLICATIONS

EMILY's List distributes The Women's Monitor, the organization's poll of female voters, to its candidates. In 1996 EMILY's List research staff published nine issue-briefing books for its candidates and two issue-briefing books for Democratic nominees and progressive organizations. These briefing books were information updates on legislation concerning abortion, agriculture, the federal budget, civil rights, congressional reform, crime, defense, education, the environment, foreign affairs, health care, labor, and welfare reform.

EMILY's List keeps its members updated on its candidates with News from EMILY, an E-mail newsletter. Notes from EMILY is also available via the World Wide Web at http://www.emilyslist.org/el-join/notes.html.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brotman, Barbara. "GOP Version of EMILY's List." Chicago Tribune, 16 June 1992.

Corn, David. "EMILY's Pissed: EMILY's List Versus Campaign Finance Reform." The Nation, 3 May 1993.

Ferguson, Andrew. "The Year of the Female Impersonator." Washingtonian, November 1994.

Freidman, Jon. "The Founding Mother." New York Times Magazine, 2 May 1993.

Hirschmann, Susan. "EMILY's List: Chicks with Checks: The Year of the Woman Produces the PAC of the Year." American Spectator, April 1993.

Kemper, Vicki. "The Year of the Woman's Wallet: Election Fundraising in 1992." Common Cause Magazine, Winter 1992.

Kretchmar, Laurie. "IBM Heir: Cash for Democratic Women." Fortune, 6 April 1992.

McCarthy, Abigail. "Women and Money and Politics." Commonweal, 15 August 1997.

Madigan, Charles. "Angry Women Voters Turning to Dems." Chicago Tribune, 12 May 1996.

Pilger, John. "EMILY Wouldn't Like It: EMILY's List OK on the Labor Party's Social Justice Agenda." New Statesman, 7 July 1995.

Rudy, Kathy. Beyond Pro-Life and Pro Choice: Moral Diversity in the Abortion Debate. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Staggenborg, Susan. The Pro-Choice Movement Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.