One of the most intriguing little developments early in the Tennessee governor's race is the announcement this week by former state Rep. Kim McMillan that she has received the endorsement of the Women's Campaign Forum.
The Women's Campaign Forum, which bills itself as a non-partisan organization, is based in Washington.
The first little item of note about the endorsement is just that. It was little, barely a blip on the screen of public attention. Endorsements of any kind have lost their luster in politics. After all, the most ballyhooed endorsement in a political campaign in the last decade was Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean, and look where that got him.
The second item of interest was that the announcement wasn't exactly new. McMillan revealed the WCF endorsement last month to Georgiana Vines, retired Knoxville News-Sentinel associate editor whose column appears regularly in the News-Sentinel. Vines reported in the same column on Dec. 19 that the National Women's Political Caucus has endorsed McMillan.
A two-fold assumption can be made about support from the Women's Campaign Forum. One is that the candidate will be pro-choice on abortion, the other that there will be a little something in the form of a check as a campaign contribution involved. The Women's Campaign Forum, established in 1974, openly says its mission is to help women who support reproductive health choices and to provide candidates it supports with campaign contributions through its Women's Campaign Forum PAC. The group describes itself as "political venture capitalists."
McMillan is a pro-choice candidate, although she has supported restrictions such as parental notification and consent. She has opposed partial-birth abortions. She has also opposed a state constitutional amendment on abortion, SJR 127, with McMillan saying the measure has been a waste of time and energy. Proponents of SJR 127, currently on course to go before voters in 2014, say it is necessary in order to put Tennessee back to square one on the abortion issue after a privacy ruling by the state Supreme Court. Given the current political landscape in Tennessee, McMillan might not want to put her pro-choice stand front and center, but the issue is bound to come up, especially since it will have been an issue in the formation of the health-care reform bill currently being debated in Congress.
McMillan is among 19 candidates the Women's Campaign Forum is supporting in 2010 races. The organization says it is interested in candidates from top to bottom on the political ladder. The group's poster candidate at the moment is Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley, who is running for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat.
But the Women's Campaign Forum's Web site presents a blog that is especially food for thought. The same day McMillan's campaign announced the endorsement, Monday, the WCF posted an item about the double standard women face when running for office. The entry by Lauren Martin, communications and new media manager for the group, doesn't mention McMillan, but it focuses on the almost inevitable labels women face in general. A woman is either a prude or promiscuous, Martin says. Too pretty or too masculine. And Martin notes that in a couple of races in 2010 women are considered to have either too much money, from personal wealth, or not enough to be taken seriously.
The latter might apply to McMillan. While certainly a serious candidate, McMillan has lagged in fundraising early in the campaign. It is a widespread assumption that McMillan won't win because "she doesn't have enough money." Another reporting deadline comes soon, and her campaign reported some recent success in a fundraising reminder to supporters today.
Yet in the Republican primary, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp is practically shouting from the top of Lookout Mountain that he doesn't have as much money as Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam. He's proud of it. People, not dollars, will determine the election, Wamp insists. Haslam hasn't helped himself by refusing to reveal his income from Pilot Corp. Wamp, from Chattanooga, reported more than $1 million in last year's mid-year reporting. Democrat McMillan reported in the low hundreds of thousands. Wamp has lagged millions of dollars behind Haslam, yet Wamp is considered competitive, as is Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who also topped $1 million last year. No Democrat reached those figures in early contribution reports.
Another factor, geography, seems to apply in the Republican primary, but not so in the Democratic field. In the Republican race, the most elementary analysis is that Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons has a shot by being the only Republican candidate from the western part of the state, with East Tennesseans Wamp, Ramsey and Haslam theoretically dividing the vote on the other end. McMillan is from Clarksville, generally considered to be part of Middle Tennessee. The perceived Democratic frontrunners, Mike McWherter of Jackson and Jim Kyle of Memphis, are West Tennesseans. The field was even more heavily tilted west before state Sen. Roy Herron of Dresden decided to run for Congress instead. Ward Cammack of Nashville also dropped out. McMillan lives a tad closer to Bristol than McWherter and Kyle. No one thus far seems to have suggested McMillan therefore can appeal more to East Tennesseans than her opponents.
The Women's Campaign Forum endorsement of McMillan is an obvious call, since McMillan is the only woman in the race. But the double standard arguments about women are enough to make one think. Why does McMillan not rate the same assumptions applied to Wamp or Gibbons? The viability of money cannot be overstated. Wamp may learn that the hard way. But his message is clear enough, and his supporters seem to believe it. But no one seems to be saying the same for McMillan.
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