Allyson Schwartz's Women in Politics Event

Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz hosted her annual Women in Politics event on April 20th. Her special guests were Cecile Richards (President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund) and Stephanie Schriock (President, EMILY's List).

The room was very crowded and about half of the people there had to stand. Also the acoustics were not very good and my seat was behind a column near the back so I could neither see nor hear well. Thus my notes are very sketchy. Even so, I had a great time. This is an event I had wanted to attend for years and this year the stars aligned correctly. It is a little more expensive than the events I usually attend ($150) but I would recommend it to anyone interested in local Democratic politics. A lot of people came out for it and I had a chance to say hello to a number of candidates. There was a lot of networking going on.

Candidates / Officials in attendance (apologies for those I missed -- I was going on scanning nametags and recognizing people. The congresswoman recognized candidates in the room but I couldn't jot down all the names fast enough.)

Philadelphia City Council
Sherrie Cohen
Andy Toy
Bill Green (running for re-election)
Jeff Hornstein

Statewide Judicial Office
Kathryn Boockvar

Montgomery County Office
Linda Hee, recorder of deeds
Ann Thornburg Weiss
Leslie Richards, County Commissioner
Diane Morgan, county controller

Bucks County Office
Diane Marseglia, County Commissioner (re-election)

Philadelphia Mayor
Michael Nutter (re-election)

Others
State Senator Daylin Leach
Rick Taylor, former state representative
Bryan Lentz, former state representative
Doug Pike
Ruth Damsker

Introduction by Cynthia [did not catch last name], currently Allyson Schwartz is the only woman and only Jew representing Pennsylvania in the federal House or Senate. For the past 30 years each election brought more women to Congress, except the last one. There are now fewer women congressional representatives than there were before the 2010 election.

Schwartz spoke about her efforts in Washington. (A group of people behind me were very loud and I could not her the congresswoman's remarks.)

Stephanie Schriock of Emily's List. 60% of those on Medicare are women. More women than men on Social Security. In the first 10 days of the new congress a series of bils were introduced that are anti-women and anti-families. These bills would have eliminated funding for family planning, let hospitals allow women to die rather than do a medically necessary abortion; the Republicans dug in their heels and were prepared to shut down the federal government rather than continue to fund planned parenthood. These bills were often debated with no women present.

Cecile Richards (daughter of former Texas Gov. Anne Richards), president of Planned Parenthood. In a recent (CNN?) poll 2/3 of the American people opposed cutting funding for Planned Parenthood. Among those under 30 over 80% were in favor of continuing to fund it.