Stephanie Schriock wants the United States to catch up to Afghanistan.



"The percentage of women in Congress is 17 percent," points out the president of Emily's List, a national political action committee aiming to elect pro-abortion rights Democratic women to Congress. "The United States is down in the world of democracies in women elected to office.



"In places like Iraq and Afghanistan, there's a 25 percent minimum of women in parliament," notes Schriock, "partly because our government told them they had to do it."



Also, candidates there don't have to buy as much TV time.



At the moment, Schriock's path to Afghan equivalency runs through Northwest Oregon, where former state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici, Democratic nominee in next month's special election to replace departed Rep. David Wu, would become the only woman in the state's delegation. Emily's List has been working closely with Bonamici since last spring, before Wu's definitive implosion and resignation, providing advice, about $60,000 in fund-raising through its mail and email list of almost 1 million, and some independent expenditure spending of its own.



"Even with my political background," says Bonamici, it was important "that I had the phone number of the Emily's List regional director, and I could call at any time. That meant a lot to me."



It may also have meant something in Bonamici's surprisingly substantial victory, with 65 percent of the vote, in last month's crowded 1st District primary contest against state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and state Rep. Brad Witt. Long before the primary was scheduled, lots of Oregon women Democrats were talking about the importance of adding a woman to the delegation.



"I look at the young women of today that look at Congress, and they can't understand why" there aren't more women, notes Bonamici. "It's important to have a woman's voice at the table."



Of course, say both Bonamici and Schriock, that's only one difference between Bonamici and Republican nominee Rob Cornilles. "I'm not interested in cutting Head Start, or funding for Planned Parenthood," says Bonamici. "These are important programs vital to people making decisions about their lives." A Cornilles spokesman said that Cornilles has never supported either of those positions.



Planned Parenthood's presence also connects the race to the other Emily's List priority, support for abortion rights, and Schriock insists that Cornilles, backed by Oregon Right to Life, is out of step with Northwest Oregon voters. Cornilles has rejected the charge, declaring in a statement Thursday, "I'm pro-life with exceptions in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother. And let's keep in mind, I'm running for the House of Representatives, the fiscal body of the federal government. The House has a very limited role to play in this issue."



In Oregon politics, a candidate's declaring that he is pro-life as a matter of principle but not of emphasis has not necessarily been fatal. Former Sen. Mark Hatfield got a permanent pass on the issue, and former Sen. Gordon Smith famously donned a sweater for a TV spot to successfully assure voters -- many in the 1st District -- that his opposition to abortion would not dominate his Senate service.



Schriock insists that strategy will no longer work.



"We are just in a different political environment," she argues. "The Republican Party is a different political party. We've got a Tea Party with a right-wing social agenda, and they're holding people to the fire on this."



The 1st District special election in January, like the national election in November, is likely to be less about abortion than about the economy, and Cornilles hopes his business background will play more of a role than social issues. In current political language, the race may be largely about the 99 percent and the 1 percent.



But for the major political player Emily's List, and for an undetermined number of 1st District voters, there will be a certain significance to 17 percent, the proportion of women in Congress.



Or in makeup of the current Oregon delegation, 0 percent.







