| Chapter 1: | An Introduction to Emily's List |
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follow an election-oriented strategy, dictated by its status as a women's PAC? Furthermore, has it remained true to its mission of providing “early” money, or as it's evolved, has it become more conservative about risking money? Finally, what impact does an EMILY's List endorsement have on election outcomes? Just how successful is it?
EMILY's List and Its “Mojo”
The focus of chapter 6 is the 2008 election, specifically EMILY's List's entrée into presidential politics and what that meant for the organization, its mission, its leadership, its members, and its future. After its early endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary and the battle that followed, some perceived that the fate of EMILY's List was inextricably tied to Clinton's candidacy. Did Clinton's concession also mark the decline of EMILY's List? Or did the organization's unique structure insulate it from damage?
Summary
There can be little doubt that EMILY's List has undergone a series of organizational transformations over the past twenty years. Understanding how it evolved from a donor network of twenty-five women to a multipronged women's influence organization with over 100,000 members and millions of dollars in annual receipts is an important endeavor.
The organization's success is intimately linked to the political success of women and their power in the U.S. Congress, and its evolution allows us to test and expand several important theories about interest groups. The conventional wisdom concerning interest-group formation has at its core an elite group of politically