Early Money is Like Yeast

The following first appeared in Capitol Weekly In an unusual move, EMILY's List, a political organization dedicated to helping elect Democratic pro-choice women to office, has endorsed Sen. Debra Bowen in next year's primary for secretary of state, despite another pro-choice woman, Sen. Deborah Ortiz, entering the race. "We think she would make a great secretary of state," Cristina Uribe, the regional director of EMILY's List, said of Bowen. According to Uribe, the decision was made before Ortiz jumped into the race. EMILY's List - which stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast," because it makes the "dough" rise--is an organization committed to financially supporting Democratic pro-choice women, a qualification that both Ortiz and Bowen fit. "The last time I talked to Ortiz was early August and she was running for insurance commissioner," says Uribe. "If she wasn't running for insurance commissioner, she wasn't running for anything." Ortiz had been slated to run for insurance commissioner, but that race would have pitted her against Cruz Bustamante. Both are clients of Democratic political consultant Richie Ross. Though Ortiz was recently quoted in the Sacramento Bee as saying she would have been prepared to leave Ross, she noted that declaring for secretary of state was a "win-win" situation. In a letter dated Oct. 4, Ortiz wrote to supporters that on Sept. 15 she "took the first step to becoming California's next Secretary of State." Six days after that "first step," but two weeks before Ortiz's letter was sent, EMILY's List officially endorsed Bowen, though Uribe says the organization had already made an in-kind donation of a staffer to Bowen's campaign in August. "We support Senator Bowen because she will restore confidence in the electoral process," Uribe said in a statement. "As a leading advocate for a woman's right to choose, she will be an important voice in statewide office." The move is not unprecedented--Uribe says EMILY's List made a similar endorsement of one pro-choice woman over another in Minnesota this year--but it does highlight a peculiarity of next year's primaries: There are four women senators running for statewide office--and they are all running against one another. Besides the Debra-Deborah showdown for secretary of state, Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, and Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, will face off in the battle to be lieutenant governor. They are running against fellow Democrat, and current insurance commissioner, John Garamendi. All four female senators running statewide are termed out of office in 2006. In fact, 16 of the Legislature's 37 elected women will lose their seats to term limits next year, with another 11 having terms that expire in 2008. If women fail to run for and win all those seats, the number of women in the Assembly and Senate would sink to 10--a mere 8 percent of the 120-member Legislature. Many of the women termed-out in 2006 have already announced their intent to run for further political office, either at the state or local level. Bowen, by announcing her candidacy early has already sown up the endorsements of 15 of the 25 Democratic members of the Senate, including the majority of women senators. Steve Barkan, Bowen's campaign consultant, said that he "wouldn't anticipate [EMILY's List] changing their endorsement" with the official announcement of Ortiz's candidacy. As of the latest filing deadline, Sen. Bowen had just short of $250,000 cash-on-hand, spread across three campaign accounts. Sen. Ortiz has about $415,000 in her campaign account. The endorsement of EMILY's List, which has a grass-roots network of more than 100,000 activists, may come with financial benefits for Bowen. The group raised more than $10 million in the 2004 election cycle, though almost all of it was spent outside California. The group has yet to endorse in the race for lieutenant governor. "We have met with those candidates," said Uribe. "And we don't have a position in that race."