Those Great Folks at Illinois NOW
Grabenhofer shows up at…Taylor Marsh’s
I thought I’d take a moment to try to add some clarity to the anti-choice Present votes in IL.
Lorna Brett was president of CNOW from 1996-1998. She was not president at the time we were lobbying on these bills. Five of those votes occurred in the 92nd General Assembly session in 2001. NOW records indicate that she hasn’t been a member since 1999. She was not there when we were lobbying against these bills. She is using her very old affiliation with NOW to try to validate her criticism of Hillary Clinton.
Voting Present on those bills was a strategy that Illinois NOW did not support. We made it clear at the time that we disagreed with the strategy. We wanted legislators to take a stand against the awful anti-choice bills being put forth. Voting Present doesn’t provide a platform from which to show leadership and say with conviction that we support a woman’s right to choose and these bills are unacceptable.
The Present strategy was devised to give political cover to legislators in conservative districts. Barack Obama did not represent a conservative district; he could have voted No with very little negative consequence in his district.
- Bonnie Grabenhofer
IL NOW State President
So we have Bonnie Grabenhofer of Illinois NOW against
Illinois Planned Parenthood
NARAL
Chicago NOW
Personal PACPerhaps someone could ask why Illinois NOW endorsed Lisa Madigan when she had also voted present on some of the bills. To further make the point NARAL hasn’t endorsed and Chicago NOW has endorsed Clinton.
Illinois NOW backed Blair Hull over Obama in 2004 even after the domestic violence accusation. Given it wasn’t clear that Hull had a pattern I’m not sure that was so ridiculous, but it’s hard to understand how forgiving Illinois NOW is to Lisa Madigan and Blair Hull, but not Obama.
Then again, the site where the letter is posted seems to think they have the Zapruder film of the snub.
February 1st, 2008 at
Illinois NOW and NY NOW are rendering themselves irrelevant. It is just that simple. It’s petty. It stinks of the worst kind of identity politics. And worst of all, it is wholly lacking in even the slightest strain of credibility.
Don’t even get me started on NY NOW. They would probably be hurting the campaign as Bill Clinton was leading up to and immediately after SC, if anyone of substance was actually paying attention to them.
“She is using her very old affiliation with NOW to try to validate her criticism of Hillary Clinton.”
And IL NOW is using their new affiliations with Mar$on Blair Hull and Hillary Rodham Clinton to validate their criticism of Barack Obama.
February 1st, 2008 at
A response to Bonnie Grabenhofer, Illinois NOW President, from Lorna Brett Howard:
Bonnie is correct. I was not the president of Chicago NOW when Senator Obama made the “present” votes. I never said I was. Somehow it was reported that way, but you can review the video blog for yourself at http://www.youtube.com., type in Lorna Brett Howard. Here are the facts: I was president from 1995 – 1999. Barack Obama was elected to the state senate in 1996. He had a 100 percent voting record on choice all the time he was in office and Chicago Now and Illinois NOW endorsed Barack in all his state senate races, as did Planned Parenthood and NARAL. NOW relied on Pam Sutherland, Illinois Planned Parenthood’s lobbyist, to do all our work in the state legislature. She did a great job and it was because of her strategy we defeated many measure designed to restrict a woman’s right to choose. It was with heavy heart that I first went on the record to defend Obama’s record on choice, being a firm Hillary supporter. When the line of attack did not stop but was escalated in a direct mailer in New Hampshire to pro-choice voters from Hillary’s campaign I stopped being sad and got mad. This is bad for the pro-choice movement. It hurts our reputation and credibility. I stand for choice and truth.
In addition, does it not mean something that National NARAL president Nancy Keenan released a statement saying both Hillary and Barack are both 100 percent pro-choice?
Illinois and New York NOW have done serious damage to their organization’s reputation among serious pro-choice men and women. It is really distressing as a feminist to watch.
Glad to set the record straight.
Lorna Brett Howard