Campaign '96 Created Golden Moments

Shed Light on Perennial Tactics

by Diane Minor

Photo: NOW/PAC staff and activists helped elect Jeanne Shaheen as New Hampshire's first woman governor. Photo by Deb Cram, courtesy of The Portsmouth Herald.

NOW/PAC field organizers and student interns fanned out across the country to work with local activists on campaigns that elected at least a dozen new feminists to top posts and put hundreds of others into the pipeline. Among their golden moments are some savvy tactics for other chapters to consider adapting:

• In Louisiana, activists working on behalf of Mary Landrieu, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from that state, handed out a "woman's flyer" at Walmart stores, a breast cancer walk/run and a Clinton/Gore speech. The flyers compared Landrieu's record to that of her Republican opponent, Woody Jenkins, who was billed as "Duke Light," a reference to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. NOW/PAC staff Beth Meyers, Barbara Hays-Hamilton and intern Joan Cecil worked to defeat Jenkins. And when the Catholic archbishop suggested that to vote for Landrieu would be a sin, activists zinged back with "Sinners for Mary" bumper stickers. Landrieu won by about 6,000 votes, and NOW activists figured they phoned that many people in the three weeks prior to the election.
• In New Hampshire, activists distributed nearly 10,000 palm cards election day alone on behalf of Jeanne Shaheen, the first woman governor of the state; Arnie Arnesen, a longtime NOW member who narrowly lost a bid for the U.S. House; and state senate candidates. When the Secretary of State sent a letter to voter registrar offices in 10 campus towns warning that students from out of state who tried to vote there could lose their financial aid, NOW worked with allies to develop a one-page response and to organize monitors at the polls. "We have people in my generation being called slackers, but then when we do want to get involved, we're told by officials that we can't," said NOW/PAC intern Liz Christian, who worked in New Hampshire with Action Center staff member Beth Corbin.
• In the San Francisco Bay area, intern Sally Gould ran volunteer nights four nights a week, and Action Center staff member Mira Weinstein fine-tuned organizing efforts. Thanks to a combination of phone banks, leafletting, palm cards and postering, four of the five candidates with challenging races won, and one state assembly candidate claimed victory by a mere 20 votes.
• In southern California, organizers made no apologies when asking people to volunteer their time. In fact, volunteers thanked them for the opportunity to get involved. "I think our people need to hear that it's not burdensome for people to do this kind of work," one organizer said. Activists also built strong, new coalitions with civil rights groups, according to Action Center staff member Kimberlee Ward. San Diego NOW activist Jennifer Coburn won several press club awards for her opinion pieces on the anti-affirmative action allot measure.
• In North Carolina, teams of NOW interns went into trailer parks and housing projects with the daughter and son of Rep. Eva Clayton to deliver her a decisive victory. In the course of one two-hour period election night, they got more than 300 people to the polls. "The energy that every one of us felt running from door to door in the twilight of North Carolina is something that will not leave our memories soon," said intern Jennifer Corrigan.