By Colleen O’Connor
A February 5th column discussed, “Cherchez La Femme,” the old French maxim: “Look for the woman, by God! Look for the woman.”
That original column predicted:
“Women will determine the outcome [of the coming election]. About that, there is little doubt. A seismic shift has occurred since the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and remove a woman’s right to control her own body.”
That was then: February 5th. This is now: February 25th. Less than three weeks after the column appeared, that Cherchez La Femme imperative has exploded, thanks to the recent Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that in-vitro fertilization is illegal.
A unanimous decision from the all-Republican bench.
While the logical outcome of a decades-long GOP effort to ban abortion and declare that “Life begins at conception,” the immediate consequences of overturning Roe v. Wade have barely taken hold, i.e., the fight over who controls a woman’s body. The current GOP nightmare.
Thus, the questions of when, where, and how “personhood” and conception occur, and who decides have exploded again.
Women across the country and party lines are not happy. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth declared that IVF will be “on the ballot’ in 2024.” California Governor, Gavin Newsom, called the Alabama IVF ruling “a war on women.”
Add “Kellyanne Conway, the former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump, who went to Capitol Hill in December who shared the results of a poll her firm KA Consulting conducted that found overwhelming support for IVF — including among people who identify as pro-life and Evangelical.
The survey found that 86 percent of all respondents supported access to IVF, with 78 percent support among self-identified “pro-life advocates” and 83 percent among Evangelical Christians.” (https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/21/alabama-ivf-abortion-00142536)
Yet, the GOP didn’t see this coming? More than a week after the Alabama judgment, Trump grasped the political danger ahead, and rushed to the defense of IVF treatment. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder.”
Speaker Mike Johnson joined the chorus and flipped from his earlier denunciation of IVF treatment where he cosponsored the “Life at Conception Act,” which states that the term “human being” includes “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
Anyone trust either of these men to keep to their latest promise?
Remember, as president, Trump nominated three of the justices who overturned Roe and paved the way for state lawmakers across the country to impose dramatic restrictions on access to abortion, including those resulting from rape, incest, and even the life of the mother.
How does this affect the California Senate race? Advantage Democrat.
Yes, but which one? Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, or Barbara Lee? All three liberal members of Congress. Only two capable of winning statewide. Porter and Schiff. Former Dodger, Steve Garvey, propped up by Schiff’s super PAC of anonymous donors, is a spoiler designed to foil Porter’s chances to reach the general.
Polls have the race almost tied between Porter and Garvey, but 17% remain undecided. Advantage Porter.
Schiff has the most money. Porter, the fiercest supporters. Especially among the college educated women of Orange County, her home district.
“This is a really discerning, sophisticated, informed voter that knows exactly what they are voting for. They’re voting really strategically. They are voting against extremes. They are not voting ideologically.”
“No one can be like Katie Porter,” as a contestant for her seat opined, “I’m not going to try to be like Katie Porter. She’s uniquely charismatic, uniquely funny, uniquely famous.”
Most women voters understand, intuitively, who will fight fiercely for their right to control their own medical decisions. California women also probably prefer at least one woman to represent them in the U.S. Senate where, for decades, they claimed three powerhouse female leaders. Senators Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Look for lots of political ads this week emphasizing the Alabama ruling vs. IVF and other egregious acts against women.
Advantage Porter.
That is just one calamity. Next up financial chaos. Needed, someone who can count! Harvard-trained Porter opposes anonymous, a.k.a. “dark money” PACs and advocates cryptocurrency regulations.
Result, “Porter is the target of more than $5 million to date from billionaires in the cryptocurrency industry over concerns that she’d overregulate their business.” Some Schiff dark money there?
To generate enough funds to combat the last months’ sleazy ad blitzes against her and to guarantee a strong finish, Porter has put her donor list on sale. A prized possession.
So, who shows up?
Sure bet, it will be women wanting at least one California woman in the Senate who show up. And Poll shows Porter, and Garvey in a dead heat with significant undecided.
As concluded in the Cherchez column, “California without a woman in the Senate for the first time in multiple decades?” How has this happened? Maybe it won’t.
In any case, Cherchez Katie Porter. “Look for the woman, by God! Look for the woman.”
Now, thanks to Alabama’s IVF ruling, Katie Porter is on a roll.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
IVF story dominating the news today….
Congresswoman Porter doesn’t take the corporate cash.
That, plus her voting record, seal the deal for me.
DNCC & DNC PAC money is spread through campaign to campaign donations to specifically establish this kind of plausible deniability and it reality exemplifies how disingenuous these statements are.
So while Ms Porter may not “personally” take corporate donations there are hundreds of soulless Democrats that do and then in turn donate that money to the Porter campaign in return for towing the Democratic party line build-to-rent of hyper gentrification policies to keep the money rolling into “the Party.”
Barbara Lee earned this opportunity to become a California State Senator, no one else in this race has.
I’m disappointed to see Adam Schiff’s “Standing Strong” PAC sliming Katie Porter on television. I’d call it what it is, misogynistic.
But Schiff can always claim that his PAC operates independently, but somehow I gotta believe that the PAC people talk to Schiff’s people every day.
Run on your record Schiff, don’t belittle Katie Porter for hers.
“Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Patty Murray (D-WA) will hold a press conference Tuesday morning demanding a vote on their bill to federally protect in-vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments — arguing that it’s newly urgent in light of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be protected as people,” Politico reports.
I’m Team Porter all the way, even tho, no longer a resident, I can’t vote in this! From Washington (lord, we can’t escape it here!) , I have watched closely the performance of Porter and Schiff over the past 4 years, and I can tell you, having listened to hours of both in testimonies, questionings, etc, that this woman nails it every time, vs. Schiff’s, more platitudinous waffling. She is an expert on finance watchdogging, she doesn’t waste time on self-aggrandizing, and is always about getting to the heart of the problem. Please! Vote Porter!
Schiff is one of many who puts his finger to the wind and only then takes a position on the often contentious issues that come before Congress.
Porter operates from a firm sense of beliefs as her base. This permits her to go after the point in a sharp and probing way.
I agree and hope to see her sworn in to a seat in the Senate.