Posted on 04/28/2004 5:09:49 PM PDT by FourPeas
If a woman is ever to be elected president of the United States, Carol Moseley-Braun says she will have to show us the money.
After putting together a nationwide campaign this winter in the Democratic presidential primaries, the former U.S. senator and ambassador said a woman will never be elected president until she can raise the kind of campaign money the men do.
"I wasn't taken seriously because I couldn't raise the money," Moseley-Braun told the Muskegon Economic Forum Tuesday night at the Muskegon Country Club.
"Money is the mother's milk of the process," she said.
She ended up near the bottom of the vote and fund-raising totals among the 10 candidates who were vying for the Democratic nomination that Sen. John Kerry apparently has won. Moseley-Braun spent only $800,000 compared to the $40 million-plus of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and the more than $100 million by President Bush in the primary season.
She said she still is trying to pay off a $50,000 campaign debt.
"Money is an issue for women candidates that it doesn't seem to be for the guys," she said.
It might take public financing of campaigns to allow women a fair shot at the presidential prize, she said. The former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, Moseley-Braun pointed out that that country, which does have public financing of campaigns, has had two women prime ministers from opposite parties.
Moseley-Braun strongly supports her party's presumptive nominee. She said she served six years with Kerry in the U.S. Senate and found him to be "very thoughtful" and "detailed."
She said she especially remembers his dedication and interest in environmental issues. He also was strong on education, trade and economic development, said Moseley-Braun, who worked with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, on women's pension issues through her private foundation.
"He'll make a great president if the American voters see fit to elect him," Moseley-Braun said of Kerry.
Moseley-Braun has a law degree from the University of Chicago and went on to join the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Chicago in 1973. After leaving the district attorney's office to start a family, she worked unsuccessfully on an environmental issue in the Chicago park system but impressed prospective voters who urged her to run for representative in the Illinois General Assembly.
"I had one person tell me that 'Blacks won't vote for you because you're not part of the Chicago machine, whites won't vote for you because you're black, and no one will vote for you because you're a woman,' " she said. "That's all I needed to throw my hat into the ring."
In the Illinois General Assembly, she became a champion for education, government reform and civil rights. She went on to serve a term as the Cook County Recorder of Deeds before winning the 1992 Illinois U.S. Senate seat. It was the first time the state had elected a woman to the U.S. Senate and the first time the Democratic Party elected an African American to the Senate.
After being defeated for re-election, she was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. This past year, she put together one of the more credible 50-state presidential campaigns for any woman or black in history.
"My story is evidence, if not proof positive, of the realization of the intent of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution," she said.
Uh, no. Guess again.
"Money is an issue for women candidates that it doesn't seem to be for the guys," she said.
I'd guess "the guys" would disagree.
Now that is funny.
Ms. President attracting one vote at a time
She grew up a few minutes away from where I live...
Although, it was a Dimocrat stronghold (i.e. very racist) at the time.
WTF? Carl Lenin's opponent last time, Rocky Raczkowski, would likely disagree. Rocky's campaign was broke, which was too bad since he would have been a great senator and had the right issues.
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