Annie's List in Texas

Nice cover story in The Texas Observer about Bye-Bye Boy's Club - the highly effective Annie's List PAC to elect moderate and progressive women to the Texas legislature. It would have been nice if it was more effective in 2006 but it seems to have found its legs now making clear differences in a number of races.

Maldonado went through Annie’s List candidate training. She was given three staffers trained in the group’s campaign school. She broadened and sharpened her message beyond her educational expertise. She knocked on countless doors, day after day, keeping herself to a personal vow: “For everyone who says no, I told myself, I will always talk to five who say yes.” She phone-banked “until I was hoarse.” Whenever a volunteer came back from block-walking and reported an undecided voter, Maldonado called each one personally. “They were surprised to be hearing from the candidate,” she says. “But I told them that’s part of the change we’re talking about.”

This past November, despite an infusion of almost $600,000 into her opponent’s campaign by Republican and big-business groups in the final six weeks, Maldonado became one of four new women legislators to “flip” Republican districts across the state. Over the past three election cycles, Annie’s List candidates have taken eight Republican seats and sent 13 new lawmakers to Austin, setting records for women’s representation in each of the last two sessions. Those women, in turn, are threatening to turn the most powerful boys’ club in Texas into a very different, less dysfunctional place.

Over the past three election cycles, Annie's List candidates have taken eight Republican seats and sent 13 new lawmakers to Austin, setting records for women's representation in each of the last two sessions. Those women, in turn are threatening to turn the most powerful boys' club in Texas into a very different, less dysfunctional place. - Annie's List, electing good people for Texas.