Obit: Harriett Woods (Emily's List)

[MountainLaurel]

Harriett Woods, 79, whose narrow loss of a U.S. Senate race in 1982 sparked the creation of the politically powerful Emily's List, died of leukemia Feb. 8 at her home in University City, Mo.

Ms. Woods, who subsequently became a two-term president of the National Women's Political Caucus, stunned the political establishment in 1982 when she came within 27,500 votes, of 1.5 million cast, of beating incumbent Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.). Running neck-and-neck in the final weeks of the race, she was forced to cancel TV ads because she ran out of money.

The defeat was heartbreaking to her supporters; Ms. Woods had won the Democratic primary without party support, and she was the only Democratic woman in the nation running for the Senate that year.

"Out of that, I brought a group together and said: 'This is crazy. How do we elect a woman to the Senate?' " said Ellen Malcolm, founder of the progressive women's campaign fund that she dubbed Emily's List, for Early Money Is Like Yeast. "In 1986, we supported Barbara Mikulski in Maryland and Harriett in Missouri."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902202.html

[Morgana LaFey]

1. I saw that this morning and was greatly saddened

What a force she was. Think of it: she helped reshape the entire Congress, recast it "our" image (at least in part). It's an interesting thing, what her defeat led to, isn't it? Sometimes there's a bigger purpose at play when things don't seem to work out.