How Do Women Win Elections? With a new fundraising recipe using Emily's List and Act Blue

Well over a month after Election day it was finally decided that Mary Jo Kilroy won her race, making her the 11th new woman to win a seat in the House. In the Senate, two new women will join their sister incumbents.

What can we say about the women who won a seat for the first time--and the money it took to get them there? Is politics like women's magazines--that is funded by cosmetic companies?

It turns out there’s a powerful new financial recipe for first-time women winners: mix a dash of Emily’s list dollars with a dollop from Act Blue. The proportion varies depending on the candidate.

A quick analysis shows that of the 11 new democratic women who will serve in the Senate or House, eight of them listed both Emily’s list and Act Blue among their top two or three donors, according to data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Of course, Emily’s list was created nearly 25 years ago to get female candidates “early money”. It’s worked pretty well, the group claims to have helped elect 71 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House and 13 to the Senate in its 23 years of existence.

And now Act Blue—an organization to promote Democrats, if not necessarily women, is helping women make it over previously higher barriers. With its mandate to democratize campaigning and campaign finance, Act Blue seems to be opening up political participation.

Act Blue extends a tech leg-up to all democratic candidates who can raise little bits of money on line as Dean and Obama did so successfully. It’s a continuation of the $100 revolution—so that small donors can matter as much as large donors. (Signing up with Act Blue for fundraising is analogous to doing a page on facebook, instead of setting up your own webpage with hassle and expense.) It also helps creates a grassroots organization of fundraisers and event organizers.

Of course, Act Blue also helped male freshmen legislators win--but not to the same extent. Just 57% could count Act Blue's fundraising mechanism in their top two contributors as opposed to 72% of women. Furthermore, their other top contributors--certainly aren't Emily's list or but a mixture of businesses or some ideological based funding.

When listing the top five industries that supported them, these winning women all listed as number 1: women's issues, followed by the usual mix of lawyers and various industries.

Besides pantsuits, what women need to win is money, since according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, the candidates with the most dough won 93-94% of the time in 2008. Sister can you spare 50 bucks?

WHO GOT WHAT

In some of the most visible races for women in 2008, here’s where the bigger money came from (all figures are rounded and are from opensecrets.org except those Act Blue which are provided directly by that organization).

Among these winning women, Emily's List and Act Blue were among the top two or three donors.

Kay Hagan (NC) raised $8.5 million for her senatorial race

$2.3 million Act Blue

$360,000 Emily’s list

Jeanne Shaheen (NH) raised $8.3 million to get a Senate seat

$367,000 Emily’s List

$346,600 Act Blue

Betsy Markey (CO) raised $2.8 million

$105,000 Emily’s List

$214,300 Act Blue

Mary Jo Kilroy (OH) whose win was confirmed in early December raised $2.6 million

$170,000 Emily’s list