Karen Mulhauser

Mulhauser and Associates 319 7th Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Dear Friends and Colleagues, Imagine finding this message on your voice mail, Hi Karen, Ed Markey here. Its been 30 years. Do you remember that conversation we had 30 years ago on the plane? I did remember a conversation with Congressman Markey 30 years ago in fact, it is one of my favorite stories. So, I called and he wanted to see if I remembered the conversation the same way he did 30 years ago. I am going to tell you this wonderful story, but I am telling it because I am also asking you to make a generous contribution to his campaign for the U.S. Senate. We are working out a date for him to come to my Capitol Hill home and meet with us, but in the meantime, I hope you will contribute using this link before the April 10 filing deadline. Heres the story. In 1983 while I was leading two disarmament organizations, I was on a DC flight to Boston and found myself sitting next to Congressman Ed Markey. As an active organizer/lobbyist at the time, I praised him for his leadership on anti-nuclear policy and said we need more champions like him. And then with an hour left on the flight and a truly captive audience, I told him that I recently was the Executive Director of NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and that while I was impressed with his almost perfect voting record on issues that are important to women, I was disappointed with his votes against abortion. He reminded me that he is a good Catholic, that he went to Boston College and did I know what I was asking him to do?! I said I did and that he could remind everyone that he is a good Catholic and opposes abortion but that he did not think he should impose his religious beliefs on others especially since the Supreme Court had ruled a decade earlier that abortion is legal. He could say he knows that women cannot avail themselves of education, employment and the other empowering issues he supports if they could not decide when or if to have children women could never be truly equal without access to reproductive choices. He listened carefully and by the end of the flight he agreed and said he would start voting to support abortion and he did, starting in the fall of 1983. As we were leaving the plane, the woman in front of me said, Well, I can no longer vote for you! and the woman sitting next to her said, And I can finally vote for you!. I guess it was not a private conversation. In the years since, Congressman Markey has not only been a champion for disarmament, he has consistently voted to keep abortion legal and available. He told me on that recent call that the reason he wanted to test his memory about that conversation is that the press was curious why he changed his vote all those years ago and thought it might have been political. I assured him that I knew it was a deeply personal decision made long before he thought of running for higher office. Dont you think hed be a great Senator! Please contribute $500 or $100 or whatever you can before April 10, and please let me know you did so I can add you to the list for the party. Thank you for your support so we can help Congressman Markey cross the Mall to the U.S. Senate. Karen Mulhauser