The national antiabortion group, Susan B. Anthony List, is the recipient of a cool 50 grand courtesy of defeated U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s campaign fund. The Fort Morgan conservative, who now works for the List’s Votes Have Consequences outreach effort, will fund the “Young Leaders” training program, an initiative of the group’s separate tax-exempt charitable education foundation.
That organizational do-si-do may allow Musgrave to effectively skirt a federal campaign finance rule that prohibits candidates from donating unused war chests to their employers.
Musgrave said of the contribution that will drain her federal campaign fund:
As technology advances and sonograms continue to offer compelling visual evidence of the humanity of unborn children, we’re finding that the younger generation is more pro-life. I’m confident the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund will effectively marshal the energy and enthusiasm found among young pro-lifers to be a voice for women and the unborn for years to come.
One of those young women leaders could be Kristi Burton, the 21-year-old Peyton resident who was the figurehead behind Amendment 48, the so-called personhood law that attempted to confer constitutional rights on fertilized eggs. Musgrave endorsed the antiabortion and anti-contraception state ballot measure that went down in flames by a three-to-one margin. Burton has since moved on to national prominence with absolutist antiabortion groups the American Life League and American Right to Life.
The congresswoman’s three month tenure with Votes Have Consequences following her own bruising electoral loss has also not gone unnoticed.
Musgrave’s role is to raise funds to target members of Congress in the 2010 election cycle who support abortion rights. On a March 12 press call announcing the initiative, she vowed to use the same scorched-earth tactics employed against her that resulted in Betsy Markey’s landslide 2008 victory.
Last month, a Musgrave called out members of Congress in a fiery fund raising letter to “publicly defend socialism, authoritarian gun-grabbing, gay marriage, infanticide and everything else they vote for in Washington …”
Neither Votes Have Consequences or the Susan B. Anthony List will confirm whether Markey, who supports abortion rights, will be targeted by the group for defeat in 2010.
