in wisconsin so that's what we do and we are committed to that. >> suarez: the acronym stands for "early money is like yeast." what is it like when men have found it's easy to run and women a little tougher >> well, that's exactly right. what emily's list is about is a community of women and good men who pulled their resources together to get those important dollars for candidates to get started. for women it's still hard to get that seed money and what we're there to do is help recruit, train, support those candidates, get that early money in those campaign covers so they can build the staff and political organization they need to run a viable and successful race. >> suarez: how do you decide where money goes? more women than ever are running for public office at all levels of government now. how does emily's list strategize using that? >> it's a wonderful problem to have and we're hoping to see

more and more women to continue to run. for emily's list we look at our best opportunities across the country. i mean, honestly, we still don't have enough women running but the truth is we'll recruit more and more and what we do is look for folks that have strong political organizations and ties to their communities to understand ma what's going on in people's lives in the workplace and their schools we target those women fully with our community and resources. >> suarez: stephanie shriok of emily's list, thank you so much. >> ifill: more than two dozen women will take the convention stage tonight to talk about the role of women in the party. many more will be on the convention floor. joining us to talk about the role of women in the party, are senator kirsten gillibrand, of new york, and kamala harris, attorney general of california. welcome to you both. senator gillibrand, i'm very curious about what you thought about what ray just talked to you about emily's list, whether

women are really running, whether they inspire you. >> yes, and this year, specifically in this u.s. senate we have 11 women running for the senate, the most ever. we have six incumbents and five challengers but it's not surprising because we have patti murray, the chair of the d.c.s.s. who looked for the candidates and found strong women challengers and a couple of those seats are pickup seats for democrats. >> woodruff: i want to ask you both about women voters because we've heard the republicans say last week that, yes, the democrats argue they're better for women but in fact women have been most affected by this bad economy attorney general kamala harris, don't they have a point? >> women are no different from anyone. women do have the responsibility for raising families and taking care of seniors and aging parent but women care as much about what's happening with the economy.

women care about the affordable care act and what will happen when we roll it out in 2014 so women are intelligent people. (laughter) they pay attention to issues and they read and their circumstances may vary depending on where they live but the are reality is they're paying attention to all the issues and they will make decisions based on what makes sense for the country. >> and the number one issue for this election is the economy and women are key to economic security in this country. women aren't being paid a dollar on the dollar. president obama, the first bill he signed was the lily ledbetter fair pay act to make sure women no longer are going to earn 78 cents on the dollar. it makes a difference because these economic issues fundamentally affect every american family and equal pay is fundamental for that. >> ifill: yet so often when we talk about women's issues we're talking about reproductive and health issues. i wonder, attorney general harris, whether the todd akin

comments about "legitimate rape" and the debate about that in the republican party, that in some ways was a god send to democrats even though it took your eye off of the economy as an issue >> well, you know, i'm a career prosecutor so the idea that someone would refer to a "legitimate rape" is quite offensive. if not shocking. and i think it highlight what is we need still to do to educate people about crimes against women in violence and the need to take it seriously and that we encourage victims to come forward. often women who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are reluctant to come forward because they are concerned they will be unfairly judged. >> ifill: senator, in a conversation we're having about the economy, don't we get stuck in social debates that are off the point? >> no. women's reproductive freedom, our ability to make our own health care decisions, the decisions to make sure being a woman is not a pre-existing condition are fundamental to the

well-being of women because the debate we're having about whether medicare will be privatized fundamentally affects seniors. the majority of seniors are women. so when you're talking about women who are becoming 65 and are wondering is medicare going to become a voucher system, that's really important. so what we're seeing here is a defining of what democrats stand for. we stand for equal pay for equal work we stand for a safety net for seniors. we stand for opportunity for all american families to put every child in this country to reach their god given potential and fundamentally that also means being able to make decisions about your body it's not just about what todd akin said but it's about the beginning of the congress, h.r.-1 was the first bill to take away a safety net for women. h.r.-3 made abortion illegal. these the kind of things that the efforts were being made in

these pieces of legislation. >> and the defunding of planned parenthood and the idea that it is a one issue organization. it's about reproductive rights and the myriad of irk shoes that come up for women in that area and the idea that we would defund it shows a certain level of ignorance, frankly, about the health needs and concerns that women have and that's what that comment highlighted to me and the policies that are being suggested as the smart policies by the republican ticket should concern all women. >> it just gets back to your first question. if we had 51% of women in congress, do you think we'd be debating birth control? no, we'd be talking about the economy. we'd be talking about jobs. what are the best economic engines. >> let me ask you. you both, i think, talked about health care. this is pretty short, had something short to say about health care attorney general

harris it hasn't really become an issue, a talking point in this campaign but what's at stake when it comes to the supreme court whether president obama's reelected or governor romney? >> oh, there's a lot at stake. as a lawyer i think that we know that the supreme court will make decisions that will impact us for generations to come. think "brown v. board of education." think of cases that have interpreted the constitution of the united states around equal rights and so when we talk about the importance of the presidency it's certainly about the economic issues of that nature. but this could have impacts for hundreds of years. >> i do have to ask this question. there's going to be 28 women paraded on the stage tonight to talk about the power of the republican party. >> we only have 17% of women in congress. we only have 17 women senators, we only have six governors who

are women we still have a very long way to go and when the house of representatives is having a hearing about access to birth control and the first panel is devoid of a woman, women women's voices aren't being heard. >> ifill: thank you both, one of those women is on the floor right now, that's congresswoman nidia valasquez of new york. >> i am proud to speak to you as a hispanic american. as a proud latina and a puerto rican. (cheers and applause) from being the first in my family to attend college to becoming the first latina to chair a full congressional committee in congress, my story has been the american dream. and as democrats we want to

stretch the american dream for all. (applause) in spanish there is a saying that many mothers tell their children. (speaking spanish) (cheers and applause) tell me with whom you walk and i will tell you who you are. tonight i want to talk about who i have seen president obama walk with. president obama has walked with our small businesses, our job createors. he knows small businesses are the backbone of our economy. that is why he has signed 18 laws to help our entrepreneurs succeed. president obama has walked with seniors. president obama's health care

law won the support of the a.a.r.p. because it tran sends medicare without cutting benefits and helps millions of seniors with free preventative care and more affording prescription drugs. (cheers and applause) president obama has walked with our young people, america's future. he has made investments in the future that face enormous dividends for our nation. from government funding for pell grant scholarships to make college more affordable to head start to community college to job training president obama has walked with america's women. (cheers and applause) president obama is helping women access preventative health services like cancer screenings,

contraception and well women exams. meanwhile mitt romney and republicans in congress would like to roll back a woman's access to important preventative care. turn over women's health decisions to their doctors and defund planned parenthood. and president obama has walked with the hispanic community. because of president obama's work more hispanics have access to health care. more hispanic students can afford a college education and now dreamers who are american in every way except on paper no longer live under the shadow of deportation! (cheers and applause)

mitt romney, on the other hand, is walking away from us. he walks with people who disrespect us and people who divide us. and people who who do not believe that the american dream means all of us. president obama has walked with us for the last four years-- in good time and in tough times and now we are going to walk with the president to the polls and onward to victory! thank you, democrats! (cheers and applause) >> ifill: all right, we just heard from congresswoman nidia velasquez of new york and coming on to the stage right now up to

the lectern is the governor of the state of illinois, pat quinn. >> delegates and fellow americans it is an honor to be with you this evening and it's an honor to trent great state of illinois, the home of president barack obama! (cheers and applause) tonight i want to talk to you about a scary subject for many, many republicans. i want to talk about facts. (laughter and applause) you know, i watched the republican national convention last week and i heard a lot of

things that are simply not true. and one of our founding fathers, president john adams of massachusetts once said that facts are stubborn things. but last week as they nominated a very different man from massachusetts, republicans stubbornly smeared president obama's excellent record of reforming welfare. they went on and on pretending that our president weakened its work requirement. now everyone knows that that is a ridiculous charge even the republican author of welfare reform says romney is wrong. fact checkers have called this republican talking point blatantly false, a drastic distortion, wildly debunked and

a mind-bonging act of untruth telling. now, in illinois we know president barack obama. (cheers and applause) we know president obama has always made sure has spearheaded welfare reform under in the land of lincoln and under president obama states can only get flexibility if they move 20% more people to work. let me repeat that for our republican friends. more people working! not less! ha (cheers and applause)

then there's medicare. mitt romney and congressman ryan want to take away the promise that makes medicare medicare. they want to give seniors a voucher that cap what is medicare will cover and then tell our seniors they're on their own for what's left that would cost our seniors thousands of dollars every year and if they don't have the money it could cost our seniors their lives. but that didn't stop romney and ryan from telling the american people that their plan won't hurt seniors. the fact is, it will. and president obama's plan will protect medicare and protect our seniors. (cheers and applause) facts are stubborn things! (applause) now, when congressman ryan got his turn he blamed president

obama for an auto plant that closed under president george w. bush. remember him? here is the fact, congressman ryan: when president obama took office in january of 2009 the chrysler plant in belvedere, illinois, employed just 200 people. and today because president obama saved the auto industry that same chrysler plant is employing more than 4,000 american workers! (cheers and applause) now, there's something else. there's something tells republicans left out of their convention: any explanation of why they call mitt romney

"governor romney." we already know that this extreme conservative man takes some pretty liberal deductions. evidently that includes writing off all four years he served as governor of massachusetts. (laughter and applause) and if you want to know how someone's going to govern the country, look at how he governed his state. mitt romney promised massachusetts three things: more jobs, less debt, smaller government. then he left his state 47th out of 50th in job growth, he added 2 $2.6 billion in debt and on his watch government jobs grew six times faster than private sector jobs. what has promny promised today? more jobs, less debt, smaller government. but he didn't do it then and he

won't do it now! (cheers and applause) from day one president obama has told you where he stands, what he believes and what he is doing to make our middle-class strong again. america's moving forward under president obama's leadership and that's a fact. it's now our job in the next nine weeks to make sure the american people know the facts your vote is a valuable thing entrusted to someone who respects you you have no tell you the truth. so join... all of us should join together in voting for president obama and together together let's name will of the people the law of the land. thank you very much. (cheers and applause) >> ifill: we go back to shields

and brooks, syndicated columnist in mark shields and "new york times" columnist in david brooks. mark, you were chuckling at a couple times during that. >> well, he escaped the curse of illinois governors up to now. rod blagojevich, george ryan, many of his predecessors. >> ifill: two of his predecessors are in jail. >> and others even before that. i thought it was the writing off of this four years of governor of massachusetts was the first attempt at humor of the convention. we've been spared any humor in this entire campaign and it was just welcome. it was not a thigh slapper but i thought it was cute. >> one thing i noticed is that the stage to is gigantic and the speakers are very far away so they have a tendency to shout to the hall rather than talk to the camera. >> ifill: somehow that different than from tampa? >> first of all, the seats in the middle of the arena is at

one end and it was natural to take a conversational tone. it's fine for short speeches but if you shout for 40 minutes, 25 minutes, it will wear i think on t.v. audiences. as for pat quinn's facts i would say he's absolutely right about welfare reform. the republicans were inaccurate about that. he's slightly about the romney ryan medicare plan where he would have the option to stay in medicare and the people who decided to go away from the support, the government has a standard. so he's fudge ago little there. he's right on medicare. >> woodruff: not much of a liability, mark, is it, for the republicans? because they have gotten so much attention about facts they didn't quite get right. >> well, when paul ryan is still answering questions on a very tough forum like the "today" show and mat lawer is talking to him about what he said in his acceptance speech and he finally today acknowledged that, in fact president obama was not responsible in any way and he

didn't mean to suggest that, it's an erroneous reading of the speech. he didn't suggest that president obama was responsible for the closing ever to janesville plant. so it's a problem. let's be very frank. we have people going through stop signs on facts on both sides of this campaign and i just think the campaigns message is that there isn't a big price to play. that people's level of expectation about the candor of the political debate is pretty low. >> woodruff: on either side. >> that's exactly right. one of the things the parties do really swell fact checking. there are people that are democrats, people that are republicans do meticulous fact checking. every speech is run very carefully. when they lie, they do it intentionally and they're doing it because they think it's nobody paying attention. >> ifill: what are you looking for mark, in >> choice versus change.

they are emphasizing the choice that the republican wants to take us back, we want to go forward. that's a continuation of what obama is doing. i still think when the country two-thirds think we're heading in the wrong direction you have to present what obama used to call "change we can believe in." you have to have a second act, something new because people think the country is going in the wrong direction. you have to give them a second act. >> ifill: that's a heavy burden. >> i think the second term is acknowledging there have been disappointments and missteps. i think that's important. but clearly laying out how effective it will be different and better than and how the country would be better off and american lives will be better off in a second obama term. i think that's is what. >> ifill: so it's not enoughst enough just to say the other guy. he has to make his own? >> and so far we don't hear too much of the new ideas. we'll see. >> david brooks, mark shields, thank you much. a ree minder, you can see the

speeches as well as the entertainment on our live stream. >> ifill: a reminder: you can see all the speeches-- as well as the entertainment-- on our live stream. and tomorrow morning, also on our livestream, i'll be hosting a panel of the party's rising stars. that starts at 9:45 a.m. eastern time. >> woodruff: those are just two of our six live stream channels. another offers a feel for what it's like on the floor. that's our special hat cam. for up-to-the-minute reporting, exclusive interviews and helpful context during the convention, including what's going on behind the scenes here at newshour. also, on our web site you can take a quiz from the pew research center to determine your political party i.d. >> ifill; again, the major developments of the day. democrats opened their convention here in charlotte, north carolina, on a mission to reelect the obama-biden ticket. and a suicide bomber in eastern afghanistan killed at least 25 civilians and wounded 30 others. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. stay with us. we'll be back in a few minutes on most pbs stations with full coverage of tonighs t'ssion of

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