Dana Goldstein profiles Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (read a transcript of their discussion here) and concludes that she sounds an awful lot like a certain presidential candidate:
Napolitano was under a lot of pressure. Nevertheless, on Jan. 11, a few weeks ahead of Arizona's Super Tuesday primary, she announced her support for Barack Obama, citing his ability to attract independent voters and his appeal to national unity. For those who'd been tracking Napolitano's rhetoric and career, the move didn't come as too much of a shock, despite her Clinton connections. Napolitano has been dropping buzzwords like "unity," "compromise," and "nonpartisanship" since her first campaign for attorney general in 1998 -- years before a young Illinois state senator burst onto the political scene.
Napolitano's rhetoric -- and governing style -- has proved both successful and wildly popular. Today, it is almost impossible to find an Arizona progressive with a bad word to say about her, though it hasn't always been that way.
Also, Holly Yeager explores the continuing relevance, or lack thereof, of EMILY's List.
On this front, EMILY's List has built an impressive record since its founding in 1985, when no Democratic woman had been elected to the Senate in her own right. By building a network of donors -- and later, working on women's voter turnout, campaign staff training, candidate recruitment and other fronts -- EMILY's List now takes partial credit for electing 71 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 13 to the Senate, eight to governorships, and 358 to state and local offices.
But despite its many electoral successes, EMILY's List faces significant challenges, including questions about who it endorses and how useful its fundraising techniques are in an Internet age. Its endorsements have been criticized for being too dedicated to the cause of women, even at the expense of liberal male politicians. Others question whether abortion rights remains the defining issue it was earlier in the group's history.
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--The Editors
