For Emily’s Record, the Democratic political group that has helped elect lots of of girls who help abortion rights, backing Joanna Weiss simply made sense.
Weiss, a first-time candidate for Congress in a aggressive Orange County district, had based a Democratic advocacy group and was proving to be a formidable fundraiser.
However the sheer sum of money that Emily’s Record spent in help of Weiss raised eyebrows. Throughout a single week within the congressional main, the group’s impartial expenditure arm spent greater than $813,000 on tv and on-line adverts for Weiss. She is the one candidate that the tremendous PAC has backed this yr.
Weiss completed third within the forty seventh District main, behind Democratic state Sen. Dave Min and Republican Scott Baugh. The shedding guess by Emily’s Record in Orange County left Democrats scratching their heads.
“I had simply assumed that they have been smarter with their donor {dollars},” mentioned Mari Fujii, the primary vice chair of membership for the Democrats of Higher Irvine.
The group’s tremendous PAC, referred to as Ladies Vote, sometimes saves the majority of its battle chest for the November poll. However the group has additionally steadily waded into early main races, usually in districts with out an incumbent candidate.
When a document variety of American girls ran for workplace in 2018, Ladies Vote backed candidates in a dozen Home primaries, together with two in Southern California. Ladies Vote additionally spent in a number of Home primaries in 2022, together with a border district in Texas the place the group tried to oust Rep. Henry Cuellar, the final antiabortion Democrat within the Home. Challenger Jessica Cisneros misplaced by 281 votes.
Emily’s Record mentioned its work to help girls working for workplace extends past impartial expenditures to recruitment, marketing campaign recommendation and fundraising assist, together with bundling contributions and introducing candidates to main donors. Spokeswoman Christina Reynolds mentioned the group does “not touch upon strategic choices about particular races.”
The tremendous PAC reported having $1.5 million available on the finish of March, elevating questions concerning the group’s capability to affect November races in media markets the place an efficient exterior expenditure marketing campaign can prime $1 million.
The forty seventh District is likely one of the hottest races within the nation, pivotal to each Democrats and Republicans combating for management of Congress. The coastal district, which runs from Seal Seashore to Laguna Seashore and inland to Costa Mesa and Irvine, is represented by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), who’s leaving Congress in January.
Porter’s resolution to surrender her Home seat and run for the Senate, a bid that fell quick within the March 5 main, kicked off a flurry of campaigns to switch her in Washington.
Earlier than Weiss introduced her candidacy, Emily’s Record approached her to ask if she was excited about working, mentioned Mike McLaughlin, a senior advisor to the Weiss marketing campaign.
Former Rep. Harley Rouda and Min had each introduced they might run, and Emily’s Record was “very invested in attempting to maintain a girls in that seat,” McLaughlin mentioned. By then, Weiss had already determined she would run, he mentioned.
Emily’s Record didn’t promise to fund Weiss’ marketing campaign, McLaughlin mentioned. However, he mentioned, the group signaled that it might watch to see if Weiss merited an endorsement, and if she had the type of fundraising chops wanted to win in a battleground Home district.
Then the already aggressive race took a number of sudden turns.
Rouda suffered a mind harm after a fall and dropped out of the race final April. In Could, Min was arrested for driving beneath the affect in Sacramento and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor.
In June, Emily’s Record endorsed Weiss, saying that her historical past as “a neighborhood organizer, lawyer, and advocate for girls is unparalleled.”
By election day, Weiss had raised greater than $2 million from particular person contributions — greater than another non-incumbent girl working for Congress within the U.S., McLaughlin mentioned. (That determine doesn’t embody the $225,000 Weiss loaned her marketing campaign.)
“That’s what led Emily’s Record to then resolve to make an funding,” McLaughlin mentioned. “It was a aggressive race, and she or he was doing her half to construct a broad coalition of help.”
The primary political committee managed by Emily’s Record has given to dozens of candidates throughout the nation, however in far smaller quantities. Federal regulation restricts such committees from giving large quantities on to candidates. Impartial expenditure committees — together with the Emily’s Record tremendous PAC, Ladies Vote — can obtain and spend a limiteless quantity, nevertheless.
Ladies Vote started shopping for adverts for Weiss on Jan. 30, spending greater than $827,000 in every week on tv adverts and mailers, federal data present.
“If you happen to’re going to spend that type of cash, you’d count on to see it spent over an extended period of time and it might be focused higher,” mentioned Jon Gould, the dean of the College of Social Ecology at UC Irvine. “It had the texture that somebody all of a sudden dedicated some huge cash on the final minute.”
The board of the Irvine Democrats, which backed Min, took the bizarre step of writing to the president of Emily’s Record, chiding the group for investing so closely in Weiss. Their letter spelled out what the group noticed as Weiss’ greatest issues, together with her lack of expertise as a candidate and her resolution to ship her kids to non-public colleges exterior the district.
“Backing the flawed marketing campaign of Ms. Weiss will hurt the probabilities of electing a Democratic Home majority in 2024,” the group wrote. They urged that Emily’s Record redirect the cash to 2 different races in Orange County with sturdy Democratic girls candidates.
This yr just isn’t the primary time Min has been at odds with Emily’s Record.
In the course of the bruising 2018 main for California’s forty fifth Congressional District, Min ran towards Porter in a crowded subject to unseat then-Rep. Mimi Walters, a Republican.
After Emily’s Record endorsed Porter, the group’s tremendous PAC spent greater than $241,000 on adverts and mailers to help her.
Min’s marketing campaign then launched an advert suggesting Porter, Walters and one other candidate have been being funded by “particular pursuits.” In a voice-over, a narrator mentioned: “Washington insiders have spent over $100,000 to elect Katie Porter.”
In a terse assertion, the then-president of Emily’s Record dismissed Min’s advert as “dishonest.”
“In a yr the place we’re seeing a document variety of girls step up and run for workplace, it’s unlucky that there are those that try to decrease our success,” Stephanie Schriock mentioned. She referred to as Min’s feedback “disparaging” to greater than 5 million supporters of Emily’s Record, together with many who lived in his district.
The forty seventh District wasn’t the one race in California the place decisions by Emily’s Record rankled Democratic leaders. One Democratic guide, who requested anonymity to talk frankly about a company that works intently with Democratic campaigns, mentioned the group has made “many bizarre choices in California this yr.”
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) instructed The Occasions that the group had contacted her about working within the Central Valley’s twenty second Congressional District, hoping oust incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao of Hanford. However Rudy Salas, a Democrat and a former member of the state Meeting, already had the backing of Washington’s Democratic management. Hurtado mentioned she had weekly conferences with Emily’s Record till it grew to become clear the group was not going to help her financially. She completed in a distant fourth place within the main.
Emily’s Record didn’t endorse a candidate within the forty fifth Congressional District in inland Orange County, represented by GOP Rep. Michelle Steele. Democrat Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, a Backyard Grove councilmember and the daughter of Mexican and Vietnamese immigrants, completed third within the main, shedding by 367 votes to Democrat Derek Tran.
Within the fortieth Congressional District, an inland suburban district largely in Orange County, Emily’s Record endorsed Allyson Muñiz Damikolas in her bid to unseat GOP Rep. Younger Kim. The endorsement helped Damikolas herald extra money, however the group didn’t spend a big quantity to assist her. She completed a distant third behind Kim and Democrat Joe Kerr, a retired firefighter.
The outcomes of each these races, Gould mentioned, counsel that Emily’s Record “most likely made the suitable name.”
