When conservative activist Jennifer DeJournett ran for school board in uber District 279 (Osseo, Maple Grove) a few years back, she looked around for campaign funding from PACs that directed money to conservative women candidates.  "I was basically laughed at, nothing like that existed,"  says DeJournett.

There's a plethora of PACs on the left that focus on women from national organizations like EMILY's List and NOW to the Minnesota-based Friends of the DFL Women and Women Winning.  All of these groups deem a candidate's worthiness for endorsement on one issue:  abortion.

Women Winning has been around since 1982.  When women my age were riding around on banana seat bicycles and gleefully playing with Barbie dolls without a thought to how anatomically correct or incorrect they might be-- the 1970's ERA crowd was establishing their mission to get more pro-Abortion candidates elected to office in Minnesota.  They've had a tremendous impact.  According to DeJournett's research, in 1981, 12% of the state legislative seats were held by women, in 2010, 35% of seats are held by women and all of the growth is from the DFL.  Today, there are thirty-three DFL women in the Minnesota House and ten GOP women.  In the Senate it's nineteen DFL women to eight GOP. 

DeJournett was motivated by these numbers as well as the lack of resources available to conservative women candidates and set out to change things, establishing the VOICES of Conservative Women PAC less than one year ago.  While the easy thing to do would have been to simply make her PAC the antithesis of Women Winning and seek Pro-Life candidates, DeJournett rejected the narrow definition of a conservative woman.  While the Board of VOICES happens to be women who are all Pro-Life, a question about abortion doesn't even appear on the candidate questionnaire.  "This resulted in a bit of a break in the initial group, there were those who wanted this to be a main goal of the PAC.  There was a lot of discussion, but it was decided that the candidates who we seek to endorse will be soundly conservative on the issue that matters most to the women we know...the pocketbook issues of spending, budgets, taxes, the economy."

As an under-forty woman, I grew up when things were pretty darn equal.  I got to play sports in school from a young age and had every choice of career opportunity.  While I've experienced the occasional sexist comment (and still do,) worrying about my sex and perceived slights has never held me back from accomplishing things.  It doesn't slow down VOICES either.  "We're not focused on gender and identity politics.  We're interested in finding ways to knit candidates together across the ballot whether they're running for school board or state senate.  Fiscal issues bond the candidates we choose to endorse."  DeJournett says.

DeJournett and VOICES co-Founder Pamela Punt attended campaign training from the left-leaning White House Project in Washington D.C. last fall.  It was this event that sparked the thought of "let's do this from the right, let's do this in Minnesota."  VOICES studied the liberal women's PACs and how they worked with each other to elect candidates and decided early on that her long-term goal was to challenge Women Winning in Minnesota.  A tough challenge....the PAC raised $200,000 during the 2008 election cycle.  "They're the gold standard and are highly successful at raising money," says DeJournett.

While Women Winning is hosting swanky luncheons at the Depot downtown, VOICES is hosting yard sales in the suburbs to raise money for their cause. While names like Ridder, Pillsbury, Lilly, and Cowles appear on the Board Member and donor lists of Women Winning, VOICES boasts no high-profile names, but has consistently been building email lists of smaller donors at events all over the metro area.  While Women Winning hosts fluff events like "Wine, Chocolate, and Choice", VOICES is hosting intellectual events like the recent "Evening of Insight" with the Director of Academic Freedom from the CATO Institute talking about the perils of state and federal mandates in public education.  But the major difference comes in the age-gap...Women Winning's board is an entire generation removed from the VOICES of Conservative Women Board, who are all under forty.

While resources for VOICES are scarce, one of their best resources is DeJournett herself.  Her trademark sweet-toned voice can get going a mile a minute when the subject is political strategy.   But don't let her ultra-friendly personality fool you, she's a native of the south side of Chicago and not only understands hardball politics, she's plays the game well too.  She's also a wiz in the arena of modern political communications with a fully integrated website, Facebook, and Twitter presence to keep members up to date.  Their competition, meanwhile posts a total of 17 Tweets over three months saying profound things like "Women still have a long way to go."   (If I had to guess I'd say a young paid intern is trying really hard to drag them to 2010.)  

VOICES communications savvy extends to the ads they've produced. To-the-point and effective, they've piqued the interest of potential donors around the country. 

 

There's great irony in the fact that the liberal-feminist agenda requires women be so rigidly defined in the political world by one single issue.  It's time to move on, it's time to grow up, it's time to move into the 21st century and understand that our equality hinges upon judging women by our individual minds not our common biological anatomy.   

There are hard-working, young conservative women ready to change the status quo.  Put some big bucks behind that sort of talent and you can be assured that the women winning in Minnesota elections will be conservative ones.

Disclosure:  I'm a proud donor to the VOICES of Conservative Women PAC, and if you're tired of liberal women representing us at the school board and City Council level as well as in St. Paul, you should be too.