Niagara County women support Romney, Collins

Providing yet more proof that Republican and conservative voters are energized heading into the 2012 elections, roughly 140 backers of presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Congressional candidate Chris Collins packed a fire hall in southern Lockport Wednesday night.

The crowd — heavy with women, a group Democrats have long insisted are in their pockets heading into the final stretch before November’s elections — waved signs and placards supporting a full slate of candidates including Romney, Collins, Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, Assemblymen Ray Walter and John Ceretto, Congressional candidate Mike Madigan, U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long and local state Sen. George Maziarz.

Organized by the Niagara County Federation of Republican Women and WNY Women for Romney/Collins, the rally showcased the pro-woman bona fides of the candidates. In fact, it was Corwin — a leading figure among Western New York women in politics — who sponsored the event, where the candidates reaffirmed their support for women, and the most important women’s issues of the election: the economy and job creation.

The rally also served Republican organizational goals heading into massive get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at ending the Obama-Hochul mismanagement of the national economy.

“Women here in Western New York — and across the nation, especially the swing states — they understand that, at the end of the day, the real women’s issues are the economy and jobs,” said Mary Jo Tamburlin, past president of the Niagara County Federation of Republican Women and a group spokeswoman. “For four years, we’ve seen Barack Obama’s war on women: he’s shrunk our paychecks, he’s increased the number of unemployed women, he’s seen a massive increase in the number of women on food stamps. And Kathy Hochul has helped him with that anti-woman, anti-family agenda since she went to Washington.”

Tamburlin offered a simple prescription.

“We want real hope and real change,” she said. “We want a president who understands what it takes to create jobs. We want a Congressional representative who will help put Americans back to work. That’s a real women’s agenda, and Mitt Romney and Chris Collins support that agenda. They support women, and after four years of worrying about our jobs, about our homes, about our children’s futures, it’s time for change.”

Despite the women-heavy audience at the rally, a number of men were in attendance, including Niagara County GOP Chairman Mike Norris, who has been a strong proponent of expanding membership in the Federation of Republican Women.

“Niagara County is fortunate to have a group of energetic, enthusiastic, smart women in the Republican Federation who aren’t afraid to make their voices heard, as this rally proves,” Norris said. “Wednesday, women came out in force for Mitt Romney and Chris Collins. And almost every one of them told me the same thing: Americans are hurting. Families are hurting. Women are hurting. Wages are stagnating. Jobs aren’t being created under this president. And Kathy Hochul is a rubber stamp for his failed policies.”