The term came into widespread use around the time of the 1996 Republican National Convention. Its first use in a news article about that election appeared in the July 21, 1996 edition of "The Washington Post". E. J. Dionne, the article's author, quoted Alex Castellanos (at the time a senior media advisor to Bob Dole) as suggesting that Bill Clinton was targeting a voting demographic whom Castellanos called the "soccer mom". The soccer mom was described in the article as "the overburdened middle income working mother who ferries her kids from soccer practice to scouts to school." The article suggested that the term "soccer mom" was a creation of political consultants. Castellanos was later quoted in "The Wall Street Journal" as saying: "She's the key swing consumer in the marketplace, and the key swing voter who will decide the election."