September 19, 2008: The New Agenda responds to NOW Endorsement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: newagendapress@yahoo.com
Sept. 19, 2008 – The New Agenda, a non-partisan women’s advocacy organization, recognizes the decades of worthy work and achievement by the National Organization for Women. But The New Agenda is concerned that NOW’s recent endorsement of Barack Obama leaves many women in this country out in the cold.
This precedent-setting move marks the first time in NOW’s 42-year history that it has endorsed an all-male ticket.
Since its founding in 1966, NOW has endorsed only five presidential candidates:
1972 Shirley Chisholm for President
1984 WalterMondale/Geraldine Ferraro for President/Vice President
2003 Carol Moseley Braun for President
2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton for President
2008 Barack Obama/Joseph Biden for President/Vice President
The New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind says, “We find it quite perplexing that NOW has chosen this moment to endorse an all-male ticket.” The endorsement seems all the more puzzling given the fact that the Republican Party is running its first female candidate for Vice-President, Gov. Sarah Palin, and the Green Party is fielding its first all-woman presidential ticket with Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente.
“Women need to stand together and help one another,” says Siskind. “Women’s issues such as unfair pay, domestic violence, and unpaid leave impact women of all political parties.”
The New Agenda is a not-for-profit organization and will not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election.
The group is in talks with representatives from both Senator Obama’s and Senator McCain’s campaigns about the platform of women’s issues it wants to see addressed.
The New Agenda has also requested a meeting with Gov. Sarah Palin to discuss the group’s platform.
Jennifer Borg, another co-founder of The New Agenda, says, “We want to give Sarah Palin a chance to tell us what Sarah Palin believes on women’s issues.”
###
