by EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock

When I first heard that this would be the “year of the woman” in politics, naturally my ears perked up. I welcomed the Republican women running – gender should be no barrier to leadership. But it was what these candidates stand for that concerns me: simply put, some of the very worst ideas and ideals in our country. Repealing health care reform. Privatizing social security. Taking away reproductive rights. And shipping jobs overseas.

But that’s just the beginning: they talk about being constitutional conservatives, but it turns out they just want to scrap the parts they don’t like. They stand with BP in the wake of the gulf disaster, and they say that unemployment insurance is unconstitutional. This isn’t about partisanship-these candidates are too extreme for any party. And what they all have in common? One Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin predicts a rising tide of women voters, but we know that the rising tide of women voters this year want more opportunity for their children, more stability for their families, more accountability for Wall Street. None of that is on the agenda of Sarah Palin or her candidates like Carly Fiorina. Carly laid off tens of thousands of people, many of them families right here in California. Carly, like Sarah Palin, wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending decades long independence for women, turning back the clock on our reproductive freedom and criminalizing doctors.

Like Sarah Palin, Carly sees no value in health care reform. She opposes pragmatic efforts to reduce pollution. She dismisses the significant threat of global warming. Carly called offshore drilling extremely safe-even after the BP disaster. Heck, she wants to drill right off your coast here, in California. That is the kind of radical agenda that California, and the nation, cannot tolerate.

Check out our latest video – featuring residents of California – talking about Carly Fiorina and Sarah Palin’s radical agenda.

In 1994, 16 million women stayed home from the polls – and we know what happened then. There is no time to waste. Replacing Barbara Boxer in the Senate with radical, right-wing Carly Fiorina would have devastating consequences for California, for the country, and for women in communities near and far. We need to build relentless momentum leading up to election day so that women in California know who Carly Fiorina is – and know that, like Sarah Palin, Carly Fiorina does not speak for them.

We’re proud to be working with individuals and partners throughout California on California Women Vote – we’ll be doing cutting edge research and communicating on television, in the mail, and person-to-person – ensuring that women voters know the truth about Carly’s record and her radical agenda.

This is not going to be 1994. We are not going to wake up on Wednesday, November 3rd knowing that we lost champions like Barbara Boxer because 16 million of us stayed home. We’ve got to put our shoulders to the wheel together to make sure that women – and men! – who reject the extreme radicalism of Carly Fiorina and Sarah Palin go the polls  on Election Day. Because there is no second chance here.