In any grass-roots campaign, building an ongoing base of support is as important as winning the ultimate goal.

Extremely strong, effective, tenacious, and powerful political networks can be built when you fight losing battles as well as when you win.

Most of us see Justice O'Connor as something of an icon, although we do not agree with all of her decisions.

Some campaigns are not worth waging if you can't win; others have to be fought on grounds of principle regardless of the chances for success.

I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count.

Some of us may just, in one-on-one conversations with our family, with our friends, over the back fence with our neighbors, talk about the reality of our lives and realize that we're not alone, that we have a right to be physically safe and emotionally safe in our own homes.

The Violence Against Women Act is so important. It provides money to train the cop on the beat, to train the judges that this is a new day, that we won't tolerate this violence and to know how to deal with it.