Women's Work

When Rosemary Camposano quit her job as a Silicon Valley marketing executive nearly a decade ago to raise her son, it was, as she puts it, "just in time to witness the worst eight years in the history of our country, bar none." Fast-forward to the present day, and she's back to running large-scale communications operations, but this time—in between peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and baseball games—she's taking aim at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C.

Two weeks ago Camposano teamed up with four other high-powered Hillary Clinton supporters to form a PAC called WomenCount, addressing what they say is an alarming lack of concern for the voices of women voters. Within four days the group—also made up of a CEO, a former newspaper editor, a professor, and the founder of the Esprit clothing line—raised $250,000 and took out full-page newspaper ads proclaiming "Not So Fast" to counter calls for Clinton to drop out. Now, having linked up with a loose coalition called Count Every Vote '08, they are expecting upward of 3,000 people to join them in protesting on Saturday at an important Democratic meeting.

The normally obscure Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) of the Democratic Party will meet in Washington to sort out the "Florigan" delegate dilemma. If it adopts the DNC lawyers' recommendation to count 50 percent of the delegates' votes, Saturday could effectively become Clinton's last stand. But Camposano and her compatriots aren't about to let the RBC make such a decision out of the public eye (and neither is C-SPAN, which is broadcasting the daylong meeting).

Of course, many within the Democratic establishment are less than enthusiastic about Clinton supporters exercising their right to peaceably assemble. "We don't think it's a helpful dynamic to create chaos," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in with lukewarm sentiments, lauding the women's enthusiasm while expressing frustration with some of their demands. Still, as RBC member Ralph Dawson told NEWSWEEK, "I don't know what it's going to look like, but I'd rather that happen here in Washington this weekend rather than in Denver in August."

NEWSWEEK's Katie Paul talked with Camposano about WomenCount's goals and Clinton's prospects. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How are you expecting Saturday's rally to play out?
Rosemary Camposano: In the morning we'll be focused on the representative delegates, everybody coming to the hotel itself to begin the meeting. We'll have a staged area for speakers. We've asked everybody to come in red, white and blue. From our perspective, this is about democracy and our Constitution. It's not about a giant rally for Hillary. Nobody is bringing Hillary signs. We have to get back to the basic principle that lawyers should not be deciding the outcomes of our elections.