WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine has been selected to co-lead the Democratic efforts to recruit women candidates for the 2014 House races, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced late Monday.
Pingree will serve as co-chair with Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla, of the Women Lead program for the DCCC, which is the campaign arm for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. According to the committee, Women Lead will work on expanding the number of women serving in the House while working to “stop the Republican War on Women.”
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“Their commitment to the cause of women’s rights, and their natural leadership will expand opportunity for all women,” Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chair of the DCCC, said in a statement. “The facts are clear: When women vote, Democrats win. Bringing even more Democratic women into the political process is a winning formula for our party.”
Currently, a record 78 women serve in the House, 58 of them Democrats.
Pingree’s selection by Israel marks an upward step with the ranks of House Democrats for the three-term representative, who was recently appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee. In a YouTube video posted by the DCCC late Monday, Pingree assailed her Republican colleagues.
“There is no question that the Tea Party House Republicans want to turn back the clock on women’s rights and bring us back to an era that we thought was long over,” Pingree said.
Pingree is married to S. Donald Sussman, the majority share owner of MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald.
Washington Bureau Chief Kevin Miller can be contacted at 317-6256 or at:
kmiller@mainetoday.com
On Twitter: @KevinMillerDC
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