| To nobody's particular surprise, Joan Buchanan announced last week that she has been endorsed by Emily's List. Some folks wondered aloud why the national organization that exists to elect women candidates had waited until six short weeks before the election to jump into the race. The very name Emily's List is, after all, an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast." So why weren't they all over this race, you know, early?
Well, it turns out they probably were. As I discussed yesterday, Joan Buchanan's ability to self-fund has allowed her a lot of maneuvering room, which she's used to set up a well-oiled campaign that's been operating a little below the radar. Now that the June 30 filing deadline has come and gone and Buchanan has timed the endorsement announcement for maximum impact, I expect that we'll see a lot of money being bundled by Emily's List.
But it looks like Emily's List has been more quietly involved in Buchanan's race for some time. Going back to the FEC reports, we find that the Buchanan campaign reported payments of $2,506.98 on May 22, May 29, and June 15 to its campaign manager, Kate Chapek. That would be the same Kate Chapek who's worked as the Political Program Director for Emily's List and is currently described at LinkedIn as Regional Coordinator for Emily's List. A 2006 blurb from the Michigan GOP offers this description of Chapek:
At the Madison Heights labor union hall, where the Vote America team will run its final get-out-the-vote push, the folding chairs are about to be folded.
"You don't want chairs, you don't want people to even think of sitting down," says Kate Chapek, who parachuted into Michigan five weeks ago.
Chapek, whose enthusiasm and high energy level might have made her a cheerleader in another era, is political program director for Emily's List.
So it's looking quite a bit like Emily's List has a lot to do with the top-notch campaign being run by Joan Buchanan. |
