By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

While the feminist political action committee EMILY’s List has endorsed numerous candidates for Congress and other offices over the years, its backing of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s 2008 White House bid is its first intervention in presidential politics. And with Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses coming up on Jan. 3 — little more than a month away — the group is making a substantial financial investment on behalf of Clinton in that state.

According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday and Tuesday, EMILY’s List — which rallies financial and logistical support only for Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights — spent nearly $100,000 in the past week to lay the groundwork for a media campaign aimed at persuading Iowa women to attend the caucuses and give their support to Clinton. It is the biggest amount spent by an outside group in support of a presidential candidate this cycle, and EMILY’s List officials promise more money is forthcoming.

The former first lady to President Bill Clinton is the first woman to emerge as a top-tier candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination. Yet she is facing serious competition for the support of women voters in Iowa, particularly from her two closest rivals, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who was the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee.

The FEC report shows that EMILY’s List made $59,000 in expenditures to Adelstein Liston, a political media strategy firm, with the balance going to online ad buys made with Yahoo and Google. Maren Hesla — director of Women Vote!, EMILY’s List’s get-out-the-vote arm — said the payments to Adelstein Liston went toward the creation of a new Web site, You Go Girl, which provides information on the caucus process and testimonials from women who support Clinton. Launched a week ago, the site is targeting women who are thinking about attending the caucuses but are not committed to do so.

“One of the tricks in the caucuses is to figure out ways to bring in new voters,” said Arthur Sanders, chairman of the political science department at Drake University in the Iowa capital of Des Moines. “Caucus voters tend to be the same old people.”

After conducting a survey of likely female voters in primary states in October, EMILY’s List noticed a disparity between the wide lead Clinton holds among women voters in national polls — in which she also holds a sizable overall lead over runner-up Obama — and in Iowa, where state polls show her in a tight race with Obama and Edwards. This phenomenon appeared in an ABC News-Washington Post poll of Iowa voters conducted Nov. 14-18, in which she was statistically tied with Obama (trailing by 32 percent to 31 percent) among women respondents.

The ABC poll also illustrated how crucial it may be for Clinton to galvanize support of women behind her bid to make political history. The poll showed her with the support of just 19 percent of the Iowa men who responded — trailing not only Obama (28 percent) but also Edwards (25 percent), and not much ahead of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson , who had the support of 15 percent of male respondents. Overall, Obama led with 30 percent to 26 percent for Clinton and 22 percent for Edwards, in a poll that had a statistical margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

But these pollsters interviewed 500 people they identified as “likely” Iowa Democratic caucus-goers, and EMILY’s List officials say their survey shows Clinton can tap a major lode of support among women who currently say they are not sure they will attend the caucuses. “It is very clear that it is among women who don’t have a history of caucus attendance where she has room to expand her margins,” Hesla said.

Elements of the group’s efforts to stimulate interest among this non-activist constituency include the new site, as well as an online ad campaign to drive traffic to the site, including banner ads on other Web pages such as iVillage.com and Epicurious.com that feature topics aimed predominantly at women such as shopping tips and cooking advice.

The idea, said Hesla, is to reach out to women “who are not necessarily political,” and try to persuade them that, “Yeah, they’re interested in caucusing for Hillary.”

The Web advertising strategy will be augmented with direct mail and phone-calling campaigns that will highlight the Web site and provide direct information on the caucus process.

Hesla would not disclose how much the organization plans to spend overall, but confirmed that there would be more expenditures in Iowa. “It will be a substantial investment,” she said. “We’re still sort of looking at what we might need to do besides the Web site, besides the advertising, besides the direct mail, in reaching women.”

Whether EMILY’s List plans to expand its direct campaign efforts to other key primary states is also up in the air. “Right now we’re focused on the caucuses, but it’s a fluid primary season and we’re monitoring what’s going on in those other states as well,” said Hesla.

The group takes its name from an acronym of the first part of a catchphrase in the political fundraising community: Early Money Is Like Yeast — It Makes Dough Rise.