Day Two: Celebrating Women's Rights, Hillary's Night

I took my laptop with me and tried to blog during events, but public wifi access was unavailable at most locations today, so it looks like I am still limited to evening summaries.


Today is the anniversary of Women's Suffrage, throughout the day the party's women leaders reminded the Democratic women that women voters will probably determine who becomes president in the tightening race for the White House.

This week is also the anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington and his "I Have A Dream" speech. Running into legendary members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the halls -- John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Kweisi Mifune and of course, our own Barbara Lee--I kept thinking of Dr. King and whether he would agree that we may just be getting in sight of the mountain top.


Over the years I have heard both Barbara Lee and Assembly Member Sandre Swanson talk about thier experiences as young Dellums staffers, going to the Florida convention in 1972 to help the first African American candidate for the Democratic nomination, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm. She received 400,000 votes and 152 first ballot votes. Her campaign helped launch a serious look at how delegates were selected especially in the South. What a difference today with a commitment to 50 percent women delegates and that state delegations reflect the population of their party members.

The theme of a new generation of leaders continued as Governor Pat Brown's grandchildren opened the California breakfast meeting. They are Kathleen Brown's daughters or Jerry's nieces and have finished a documentary, "California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown."

The main speakers today both at the California breakfast meeting and the convention are a series of Governors from critical swing states: One new development since 2004 is that many of these states now have Democratic governors-- New York Governor Paterson, Ohio's Governor Strickland, Kansas's Kathleen Sebelius, and others. They all talked about their budget deficits and the Bush role in taking from the Clinton surplus and bringing us into the worst economy in recent history.

Today I attended the Women's Caucus. Official caucus meetings are open to all rank and file party members. A sea of women were addressed by a who's who of women's issues. One after one they reminded us that although the candidate for the party will not be a woman, that Hillary Clinton changed the dynamics for women politicians forever. More importantly that almost every issue we care about is at risk -- continuing cuts to Headstart, health care for children and education. The recent Supreme Court decisions.http://www.now.org/press/07-07/07-31.html


Lilly Ledbetter's story was for me the most clear example of what is at stake for women. The issue of equal pay is on the mind of most woman delegates. Today a woman still makes about 77 percent of what men make for comparable work. The other economic news for women is largely tied to this:

• Incomes for female heads of household are down 3 percent between 2000 and 2006.
  
• Half of women are in jobs without retirement plans.
  
• Risk of poverty increases with age for women. Retired women are more likely to be poor than elderly men.
  
• Women are one-third more likely than men to hold subprime mortgages.


• A third of women are in poverty, and women are losing jobs at a faster rate than men

Lilly Ledbetter was one of the few women supervisors in an Alabama Goodyear plant. After 19 years she learned that she was paid significantly less than every single one of her male counterparts doing the same work. She filed a claim under the 1963 Equal Pay Act. She saw her reward of over $3 million overturned by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision. The majority said that even though she did not know she was getting less money, she failed to file a claim within 180 days of the first check! No wonder Justice Bader said the ruling made no sense. Last year Congress tried to correct this by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, HR 2831, 97% of Democrats supported the bill, 99% of Republicans voted no. Then President Bush vetoed the bill.If we cannot get a veto proof super majority in Congress or a Democratic President, a woman's right to equal pay goes back50 years to our struggles of the sixties.

Hillary's Night: This morning I ran into Doug Sovern, CBS Radio Reporter and great neighborhood volunteer in District 4. He told me that I looked as tired as he felt; then asked me the question that all the media are probing. "How did I feel as a Clinton delegate and how was I going to vote?" I don't know if it got run on air at home, but I told him I was going to vote for Hillary as I was elected to do on the first round and then I planned to vote for Obama and work as hard as I could to get him elected.

The media is looking for a story of a fight (not Doug), a few of the women reporters that I've heard snippets of have it right. Most Clinton delegates, both women and men, are proud to hold the line to vote for Hillary and for the progress that women have made in politics. But we know that Obama's nomination tonight will be historic and we want to win in November.

There's no doubt that this is a bittersweet moment for many women here. Each night as we walk to the buses and go back to my hotel, I've talked to delegates who were slowly overcoming their disappointment. There were rumors that the roll call vote would be skipped and that we would go straight into a vote by acclamation, that's not what I've heard. Clinton will meet with her delegates Wednesday afternoon. Meeting of Clinton delegates discussing the petition to guarantee that her name is placed into nomination.

I don't know if television really captured the love in the Pepsi Center last night. The sea of Hillary and Unity Signs exploded with cheering that did not want to stop. I could hear individual shouts of "we love you" from echoing throughout the hall. Even the youngest Obama delegates seemed to be waiving the Hillary signs with enthusiasm. Turning around I could see the tears of pride of Bill Clinton in the gallery above us.

I won't say much about the speech, it is available in streaming video from the DNC website. Talking to several other elected women, from both sides of the primary campaigns, we agreed it set a standard of leadership, grace, and vision which we'll all be studying for some time to come. Her 18 million votes have changed the future of politics for American women.

Tomorrow we vote.