CQ Politics: Push By Unions, Emily’s List Key to Clinton N.H. Victory

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002654492

CQ TODAY
Jan. 11, 2008 – 4:53 p.m.

By Emily Cadei and Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

The surprise victory of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary earlier this week has been attributed to a wide variety of factors, including the powerful emotional appeal of a widely televised voice-cracking, eye-welling moment the normally stoic New York senator had the day before the primary.

Yet in a race decided by less than 8,000 votes, Clinton’s victory was surely due in large part to the efforts of two prominent labor unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and EMILY’s List, an organization that lends political support to Democratic women who favor abortion rights.

EMILY’s List targeted 54,000 New Hampshire women, all of whom had voted frequently in past primaries or who had registered to vote since 2006, with five direct-mail pieces and telephone calls — made by New Hampshire women — centered on kitchen-table issues and Clinton’s experience.

“It was about reminding them of what was at stake in this election,” said Maren Hesla, who runs the organization’s independent expenditures program.

AFSCME pitched in with mailings lauding Clinton and attacking Obama, while the AFT funded a set of radio ads targeted at women over the age of 25.

Combined, the three groups dumped approximately $600,000 into New Hampshire.

FULL story at link.