Women's Campaign Fund Features 12 in NYC

The Women's Campaign Fund held a multi-level fundraiser in New York Monday night to raise money for its foundation and its political action committee and to showcase several of its candidates and Congressional supporters.

The fund offers financial help to women candidates of both political parties who support abortion rights.

The main event Monday was a cocktail hour headlined by radio talk show personality Al Franken. The donors then split up into 12 groups for separate dinners. At each dinner - which featured an impressive list of celebrity guests - a non-incumbent candidate for Congress was spotlighted.

"This isn't an event to give them money - it's an event to give them exposure," said Liz Berry, a Women's Campaign Fund leader.

But the candidates at Monday's dinners will be recipients of the organization's PAC money eventually, Berry said.

The candidates are: Darcy Burner (D), a former Microsoft executive who is challenging Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.); Phyllis Busansky, a Democrat seeking to replace retiring Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-Fla.); Christine Cegelis (D), the underdog in the Democratic race to replace retiring Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.); Florida state Rep. Nancy Detert (R), who is running to replace Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.); Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell (D), who is in a rematch with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.); attorney Kirsten Gillibrand (D), who is challenging Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.); Peggy Lamm, one of two Democrats seeking to replace Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.); Brown University political scientist Jennifer Lawless, who is challenging Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) in the Democratic primary; attorney Lois Murphy (D), who is in a rematch with Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.); attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky (D), who is challenging Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas); former FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley, one of two Democrats seeking to challenge Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), and former Idaho state Sen. Sheila Sorensen (R), who is running to replace retiring Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho).

This article appeared on March 14, 2006, in Roll Call, a Washington, DC newspaper.