Republican Women

WASHINGTON – Today, EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock released a statement reacting to comments made by GOP Senate candidate Wendy Long. The Buffalo News reports that Long claimed efforts made by her party to limit access to birth control were “a complete fabrication” and dismissed Republican attacks on women’s health and finances as “this whole phony war on women.” Schriock responded:

“It seems impossible that Wendy Long could have missed the last year and a half her party spent attempting to roll back the clock on women’s health and make it harder for women to care for their families. But we’re happy to educate her – the Republican war on women is very real. And New Yorkers know it

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Mark Johnson of The Charlotte Observer is staying on top of the legislators and lobbyists who have chosen to take advantage of a loophole in the new ethics law the legislators crafted, debated and passed last year.

What a colossal waste of time and money that process has proven to be. Picture this:

RALEIGH - A staffer for the Committee to Elect Republican Women greeted guests at the group's breakfast Wednesday on the opening day of the General Assembly. And when a lobbyist handed her a check, she discreetly slipped it into a big white envelope already puffed with donations.

At a reception for N.C. House Democrats the night before, a breadbasket on the table at the entrance brimmed with checks from political action committees, or PACs, many delivered by lobbyists.

Who says the new ethics laws have crimped anybody's style?

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I knew that someone would work hard to find a loophole around our new ethics laws here in NC. I didn't think it would happen this quickly and would be this blatant.

David Ingram is reporting in The Charlotte Observer that a group of Republican women has lost no time in leaping through a loophole in the new law that allows lobbyists to continue giving to political groups or PACs.

From the Observer:

.....And that exception has not been lost on the leaders of the Committee to Elect Republican Women, a group of 14 female state officials.

The group sent a letter this week to lobbyists, inviting them to attend a breakfast Jan. 24 before the new session of the General Assembly and to contribute as much as $4,000. The invitation even mentions the new law and argues that the group is exempt.

:::snip:::

Cherie Berry, founder of the Committee to Elect Republican Women, said it's doing only what it has done since its launch in 1999.

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