Former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge got a boost this morning, with a poll showing her only seven points behind U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. Yesterday her campaign received good news on the fundraising front: an endorsement from EMILY’s List, a political action committee focused on electing pro-choice Democratic women. Since endorsing Monica Vernon last year in Iowa’s first Congressional district, EMILY’s List has helped raise more than $60,000 for Vernon’s campaign. In addition, Women Vote!, a super-PAC affiliated with EMILY’s List, spent $149,000 on advertising promoting Vernon before the Democratic primary.
Though Judge is pro-choice, I didn’t see any mention of her reproductive rights record in the EMILY’s List press release announcing yesterday’s endorsement (enclosed below) or on the page promoting Judge on the PAC’s website. Instead, the group described other aspects of Judge’s political career, touting her as “a champion for Iowa women and working families” in a “high-stakes race against an out-of-touch GOP incumbent.”
The omission made me wonder whether Judge was a consistent pro-choice vote in the Iowa Senate.
Since I wasn’t living here from 1993 through 1998, I’m not well-versed on Iowa legislative happenings during that time. After some digging around, I learned that Judge supported two significant bills restricting abortion access. She voted for all three versions of a parental consent bill that came before the Iowa Senate in 1996: original version, House-amended version, and the conference report. Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa later filed suit in federal court to block that law, forcing the Iowa legislature to pass a different parental consent law in 1997. Like most of the Senate Democrats, Judge voted for both versions of that bill, which Governor Terry Branstad later signed.
For what it’s worth, the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion rights, considers Iowa’s parental notification law “ineffective based on statutory language that may allow notification to be given to another adult family member instead of a parent, or provides that the abortionist himself may consent to the abortion on the minor’s behalf, or contains some other language that undermines real parental involvement.”
A so-called “partial birth abortion” bill came before the Iowa Senate during the 1998 legislative session. Judge also voted for that bill, which passed the upper chamber by 42 votes to 5 and made an exception only to spare the life of the pregnant woman, not her general health. Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa sued again, and a federal court permanently enjoined that abortion ban in a 1998 ruling that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the following year.
Many otherwise pro-choice Democrats, including Tom Vilsack, voted the same for misguided parental notification and “partial birth abortion” legislation. So I bring up this history not to bash Judge, who would be a huge improvement over Grassley’s rock-bottom voting record on reproductive rights. In fact, I’m glad EMILY’s List decided to let bygones be bygones in Judge’s case. While promoting Vernon over her Democratic primary rival Pat Murphy, the PAC repeatedly bashed Murphy over anti-abortion votes he cast in the Iowa legislature, dating back to the mid-1990s–even though Murphy never supported abortion restrictions during his four years as Iowa House speaker.
How much EMILY’s List and the Women Vote! super-PAC plan to invest in the IA-Sen race is not clear. If independent expenditures are in the works, I hope the commercials will be more creative than the cookie-cutter spot that ran on Vernon’s behalf this spring. Grassley’s campaign ads have generally been high-quality and sometimes just goofy enough to capture the viewer’s attention.
Any comments about the U.S. Senate race are welcome in this thread.
June 15 press release from EMILY’s List:
EMILY’s List Endorses Patty Judge for U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Patty Judge to represent Iowa in the United States Senate.
“A lifelong Iowan, Patty Judge has dedicated her career to advocating for hardworking women and families in Iowa,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List. “Patty is a champion for giving working families a fair shot to get ahead, promoting renewable fuels, and raising the minimum wage. Whether serving as assistant minority or majority leader in the Iowa State Senate, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, or lieutenant governor, Patty has always protected jobs and the middle class. As the first woman to serve as Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, Patty is used to being a first. It’s time for a change in Iowa and Patty Judge is the person who will roll up her sleeves and do her job every day. The Senate needs a woman like Patty, she believes in the novel idea that those elected to the Senate should actually do their jobs, unlike her opponent Chuck Grassley.”
Patty Judge is a lifelong Iowan and an experienced public servant who puts Hawkeye State working families first. Patty began her career as a registered nurse before becoming a partner with her husband John, a Vietnam veteran, in their farming operation. After her third child was born, Patty set out on a new career path as a farm manager and a rural appraiser. As she purchased and built her real estate business in the early 1980s, Patty became aware of the looming farm crisis. She got involved in a project to mediate between struggling farmers and their creditors, helping hundreds of farm families keep their land when possible and helping them get the resources they needed to start over when it wasn’t. An unwavering advocate for Iowa’s rural families, Patty was elected to the Iowa Senate in 1992 and reelected in 1996. Before Patty won, “a woman was never elected from that part of the state,” she has said. “But I never thought I was going to lose.” When she took office, the few women in the Iowa legislature “were looked on with skeptical eyes about our abilities,” Patty recalls, but she didn’t let that stop her from fighting to give Iowa women and families a fair shot. In 1998, she became the first woman elected Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and was reelected in 2002. Under Patty’s leadership, renewable energy became an integral part of Iowa’s economy and Hawkeye State agricultural products reached new markets around the world. In 2006, Patty was elected Iowa’s lieutenant governor and assumed the role of Homeland Security Advisor. She was instrumental in coordinating critical response operations during the devastating floods of 2008, and she served as the executive director of “Rebuild Iowa.” Since leaving office, Patty has worked to help elect candidates who will move Iowa forward. Patty is a champion for women and families who will make sure all Iowans’ voices are heard in the U.S. Senate.
Patty believes that “we have to get real” about the issues that impact working families. She is an experienced and effective advocate for policies that increase economic opportunity and security for women and families. “As the heads of households and workplaces across the country,” women have “felt the pain not only of discrimination, but of the decades-long erosion of middle-class security,” Patty has said. When elected, she will fight to end gender discrimination in pay, increase the minimum wage, and for paid family and medical leave for all Americans. Patty has worked tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of all Iowans. As lieutenant governor, she championed the expansion of the state’s children’s health insurance program as well as a program that helped nearly 80,000 Iowans quit smoking. When elected, she will work to increase all Iowans’ access to quality health care. As a legislator and as lieutenant governor, Patty fought to increase educational opportunities for all Iowa students – starting with early childhood education. When elected, she will fight to strengthen public schools and to help prepare all students for good-paying jobs. Patty recently served as co-chair of America’s Renewable Future, an organization that advocates for raising standards for renewable fuels. “It’s something that’s really important to our economy and to our future,” she has said. When elected, Patty will fight for policies that create jobs while creating a more sustainable future for us all.
EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $400 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making it one of the most successful political organizations ever. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research women’s issues, and turn out women voters. We’ve trained over 9,000 women to run and helped elect over 100 women to the House, 19 to the Senate, 11 governors, and over 700 to state and local office. Since its founding in 1985, almost one-third of the candidates EMILY’s List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color – including every single Latina, African American, and Asian American Democratic congresswoman currently serving.
Statement released by Patty Judge, June 15:
“I’m grateful to have the support of EMILY’s List in this campaign. We have a tremendous opportunity to unseat Chuck Grassley this year and get the Senate focused again on the important work that needs to be done to give women and working families a fair shot. Whether it’s ensuring that women have access to the health care they need or fighting to end gender discrimination in pay, I will continue to be an advocate for the needs of Iowans.”
From a June 15 fundraising e-mail blast by Judge’s campaign manager Sam Roecker:
This is a big deal, and a signal that all of your support is paying off. EMILY’s List doesn’t endorse just anyone. You have to prove that you have what it takes to win. They know what we’ve known here in Iowa all along, the senate race is heating up and Patty is building the campaign she needs to defeat Chuck Grassley in November.
From a fundraising e-mail by Judge later the same day:
I know Sam wrote to you earlier today but I wanted to reach out as well. The EMILY’s List endorsement is a proud moment for me and this campaign, and I want to share that joy with you.
What we’ve accomplished together in these few short months is incredible. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make this possible. This endorsement is a big vote of confidence, and I intend to make the most of it.
From the EMILY’s List page on Patty Judge:
An unwavering advocate for Iowa’s rural families, Patty was elected to the Iowa Senate in 1992 and reelected in 1996. Before Patty won, “a woman was never elected from that part of the state,” she has said. “But I never thought I was going to lose.” When she took office, the few women in the Iowa legislature “were looked on with skeptical eyes about our abilities,” Patty recalls, but she didn’t let that stop her from fighting to give Iowa women and families a fair shot. […]
When elected, she will fight to end gender discrimination in pay, increase the minimum wage, and for paid family and medical leave for all Americans. Patty has worked tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of all Iowans. As lieutenant governor, she championed the expansion of the state’s children’s health insurance program as well as a program that helped nearly 80,000 Iowans quit smoking. When elected, she will work to increase all Iowans’ access to quality health care. As a legislator and as lieutenant governor, Patty fought to increase educational opportunities for all Iowa students — starting with early childhood education. When elected, she will fight to strengthen public schools and to help prepare all students for good-paying jobs. Patty recently served as co-chair of America’s Renewable Future, an organization that advocates for raising standards for renewable fuels. “It’s something that’s really important to our economy and to our future,” she has said. When elected, Patty will fight for policies that create jobs while creating a more sustainable future for us all. […]
Patty has never backed down from a tough fight, and in 2016 she is mounting a formidable challenge to a Republican incumbent who wasn’t prepared to be held accountable for his out-of-touch failed leadership in Washington. Senator Chuck Grassley is running for a seventh term, and he hasn’t faced a serious challenge in several decades. But when he abused his position as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to obstruct the nomination process for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, Grassley angered hardworking Iowans who do their jobs every day — and who expect their elected leaders to do the same. Patty seized the opportunity to unseat the suddenly-vulnerable longtime incumbent, and she put together a strong campaign that has stunned Grassley and his extreme GOP allies. “If you are elected to do a job, you are supposed to do it to the best of your ability,” Patty has said. “And if he is not going to do what he was hired to do, then I’ll go do it.” Patty has the experience and the Hawkeye State values to get the job done for Iowa working families, and she can help Democrats take back the Senate with the full support of the EMILY’s List community behind her. Iowa has never before elected a Democratic woman to the U.S. Senate, and Patty is poised to be the first. Let’s all chip in to send this champion for Iowa working families to the U.S. Senate.