Cosmo's Political Picks of the Week: Grimes, Udall, & Burke

In keeping with its new campaign that urges its readers to vote for candidates who share their top concerns – abortion and free contraception – Cosmopolitan has announced its first political picks of the electoral season, and they are Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) for U.S. Senator from Kentucky, incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), and Mary Burke (D) for Governor of Wisconsin.

No longer just mavens of fashion and sex, the editors of Cosmo recently announced that the magazine has jumped into the world of political punditry, with its new initiative titled #CosmoVotes.

In laying out the publication’s preferences, Amy Odell, Cosmopolitan.com’s editor and head of the political effort, recently explained to Politico that no pro-life candidates would be eligible to receive Cosmo‘s blessing.

“We’re not going to endorse someone who is pro-life because that’s not in our readers’ best interest,” Odell said. “[P]eople say that’s a liberal thing, but in our minds its not about liberal or conservative, it’s about women having rights, and particularly with health care because that is so important.”

“All young women deserve affordable easy access to health care, and that might include terminating a pregnancy, and that’s OK,” she added.

Editor-in-chief Joanna Coles also noted that Cosmo might delve into gun control as a political issue as well.

“If there are candidates who are in favor of 9-year-old girls shooting Uzis at a theme park – we are not in favor of those candidates,” Coles affirmed.

Beginning this week, and until the November elections, Cosmo editors will endorse from one to three candidates based upon their “established criteria,” which are abortion, free contraception, equal pay, and anti-voter I.D. laws.

In endorsing Grimes, Cosmo describes the U.S. Senate candidate as a “fearless pro-choice challenger to one of the most ruthless and powerful Republicans in the Senate” [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell].

One of Grimes’ main pro’s, in Cosmo‘s eyes, is that she supports raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, “a position that would be enormously helpful to her potential constituents in one of the poorest states in the country.”

“If the minimum wage were raised, a whopping 255,000 Kentucky women would see their pay increase,” the publication adds.

Cosmo is not sharing with its readers, however, the words of economist Thomas Sowell, on the subject of the minimum wage:

Countries with minimum-wage laws almost invariably have higher rates of unemployment than countries without minimum-wage laws…

As for being “compassionate” toward “the poor,” this assumes that there is some enduring class of Americans who are poor in some meaningful sense, and that there is something compassionate about reducing their chances of getting a job.

Cosmo, however, seems more concerned with the egalitarian-sounding idea of equal pay for women, rather than jobs for women.

Unfortunately for Grimes, she does not meet all of Cosmo‘s strict criteria for election to public office. Grimes’ imperfections are the fact that she is an NRA member and a coal-lover, but Cosmo cheers itself up over these flaws with the admission that “on those issues, she’s certainly not any worse than McConnell.”

Undeterred by Grimes’ minor imperfections, Cosmo saves the candidate’s best qualifications for last: “She’s earned endorsements from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and she’s recommended by EMILY’s List.”

Hailed by Cosmo as a “champion of women’s rights,” incumbent Udall is from Colorado which, the publication says, is “ground zero for anti-choice ‘personhood’ laws, which seek to define fertilized eggs only a few cells large as people with rights equal to, and sometimes greater than, those of actual, born people.”

Udall’s pro’s, in Cosmo‘s view, are that he co-sponsored reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act, which sought to reverse the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.

The Colorado senator also has received the essential endorsement of both NARAL and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. An added plus, Cosmo observes, is that Udall co-sponsored legislation to protect puppies.

Cosmo says Mary Burke “is the antidote to Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s anti-woman and anti-worker crusades.” The publication accuses Walker of gutting unions’ abilities to organize, disenfranchising voters, and, of course, signing restrictive abortion legislation, such as requiring ultrasounds prior to abortions and admitting privileges at local hospitals for abortionists in the event of an emergency during a procedure.

By contrast, Cosmo says Burke is a strong supporter of “reproductive freedom” and of raising the minimum wage. Burke’s other pro’s are that she believes voter ID laws are designed to keep African-Americans from voting and that she supports same-sex marriage.

As with other Cosmo political picks, Burke is supported by Emily’s List and NARAL.

Stay tuned for the next crop of Cosmo‘s political picks of the week.