Is Primary Season Good for Feminism?

For liberals and progressives, the presidential primary season of 2008 is a breathtaking moment. Historic "firsts" are represented by the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; add in John Edwards and you have a race contested by three figures, each of whom depicts in an iconic way one of three core ideals that define the traditional liberal coalition in the Democratic Party: women's rights, civil rights and economic populism. Each of these candidates, of course, represents a far wider range of policy positions than that suggested by her or his iconographic status. Consequently, in a moment of great opportunity and challenge for the women's movement, all have drawn high-visibility feminists to their campaigns.

If feminism is a group activity, in Washington, D.C., it is doubly so. Despite competing egos and occasional differences in approach, Washington feminists are used to collaborating on causes ranging from access to birth control to the plight of women in Afghanistan. But many of the same women now find themselves on opposing fronts in the Democratic primary wars. It's a situation fraught with both promise and tension, particularly as one of the main contenders embodies in her very person women's highest political aspirations. As the competition grows in intensity, loyalties, not to mention civilities, are sure to be tested.

Last month, a handful of feminist advisers to the presidential campaigns participated in a panel discussion at the Democratic National Committee Leadership meeting that included Ann Lewis of the Clinton campaign, Karen Mulhauser of Obama's campaign, Kate Michelman backing Edwards, and Martha Burk, then adviser to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has since dropped out of the race. There the group agreed to unite behind a single candidate after a nominee emerges from the primary season. Asked if panel members seemed friendly, Michelman first said yes, but then added, "I think there's always a little tension when you're obviously competing." And indeed, since then they've been fielding something a little harder than beanballs.

In the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses, the Clinton and Obama campaigns entered into a tussle over Obama's reproductive-rights voting record in the Illinois State Legislature. Discovering that Obama had cast seven votes on reproductive rights issues that were neither "aye" nor "nay" but simply "present," Clinton advisers found an issue to flog. Pam Sutherland of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council told the New York Times that in casting those votes, Obama was simply following a strategy advanced by the state's pro-choice groups. Rather than let go of the issue, however, the Clinton campaign carried the attack to New Hampshire, first, as reported by TAPPED's Dana Goldstein, with a mailed flyer, and then with a day-before-the-primary email to supporters criticizing Obama's "present" votes. Obama's campaign rebutted the charges in automated recorded phone messages -- known as robo-calls -- saying Clinton was using smear tactics. To this, the Clinton side cried foul, citing a campaign law about such calls. (Turns out the rule invoked, on how and when such calls must identify the caller, doesn't apply to primaries.)

"I do not care what strategy you think you're employing," Clinton volunteer Melody Drnach told me in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the day of the primary. "When it comes time to make a vote for women's reproductive rights, 'present' is not change," insisted Drnach, who is action vice president for the National Organization for Women, whose political action committee endorsed Clinton last spring. "'Present' just means I'm sitting here today, but I have no opinion." Talking to me also that day, from outside a polling station in Nashua, Karen Mulhauser said, "I actually find it shocking that they're using this as a campaign issue" after having heard from Illinois pro-choice movement leaders that her candidate "got it right." Susan Turnbull, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, was remaining neutral in the choice skirmish: "I think there is no question that our candidates [Obama and Clinton] are fully pro-choice and will both appoint judges who are pro-choice and both will lead on that issue."