Leading Pro-Abortion Group Will Likely Back Hillary Clinton for President 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 17, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading abortion advocacy group that has consistently been the top political action committee in the nation is expected to endorse New York Sen. Hillary Clinton once she formally declares her intention to run for president. However, Emily List’s track record hasn’t been very good in recent elections.
"We are going to be there early on,” Ellen Malcolm, president of the organization, told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.
"When [Clinton] gets in the race, there are going to be millions of women excited about electing the first female president," Malcolm added.
The pro-abortion group typically sends out mailings to its hundreds of thousands of members asking them to contribute to a candidate’s campaign. Emily’s List also provides campaign staff members but Malcolm didn’t say if that would be the case for Clinton.
A report in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, indicates that Emily’s List has also built up a well-oiled political machine that could help Clinton the most.
"The voter turnout program that Emily’s List has established in key states – which actually could prove to be more valuable,” Roll Call reports.
The multimillion dollar group only supports only pro-abortion Democratic women for elected office, and that could upset other leading Democratic candidates like Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois or former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina because they support abortion as well.
In fact, Edwards recently received the backing of Kate Michelman, the longtime president of NARAL, another top pro-abortion organization.
"This is a big risk for Emily’s List," one Democratic strategist told Roll Call.
"Last cycle, Emily’s List took a hit for taking the wrong side in primaries," the consultant said. "Now to bet the house on a divisive, polarizing figure like Hillary Clinton may be a ‘jump the shark’ moment.”
Planned Parenthood endorsed pro-abortion Sen. John Kerry in 2004 in his race against President George W. Bush.
Emily’s List outraised and outspent every other political action committee on any issue during the 2006 elections, but it didn’t mean success.
Of the 19 competitive House races in which EMILY’s List backed and funded a candidate, only two won. This follows on the heels of the group’s 2004 performance, in which it went three for 13 in head-to-head contests against the conservative Club for Growth.
In 2006, the only successful EMILY contenders for Republican seats were state Sen. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) — who was heavily favored all along to win the seat of retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe — and New York attorney Kirsten Gillibrand, who won only after the late leak of a police report alleging that Rep. John Sweeney of New York had choked his wife.
Combined EMILY’s List contributions of $100,000 and independent expenditures worth $270,000 could not save the high-profile candidacies of Iraq War vet Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and child-safety advocate Patty Wetterling.
In New Mexico, Atty. Gen. Patricia Madrid (D) failed in her quest to oust perennial survivor Rep. Heather Wilson (R), despite $48,000 in contributions and $110,000 in independent expenditures from the group.
Other EMILY candidates who had high hopes — in Arizona, Washington State, Nevada, California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nebraska — all lost, even as male Democrats rode the wave to victory on November 7.
