Keller @ Large: Governors Charlie Baker, Chris Sununu Targeted By EMILY's List
BOSTON (CBS) - For decades, the EMILY'S (Early Money Is Like Yeast) List PAC has raised millions to support female Democratic candidates who back abortion rights. And they're gearing up early for next year's elections by targeting Republicans deemed insufficiently pro-choice, including Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.
"Their records are not good, not good for women, not good for families," says Emily Cain, executive director of EMILY's List. "And we're gonna be calling them out on it every day."
But their critique doesn't stop with abortion policy, according to a statement issued today by Cain. "Each and every one of these nine Republican governors have failed to perform what should be their primary duty in office: to use their offices to improve the lives of families across their states," she wrote. "When faced with an unprecedented public health crisis, they prioritized politics over people and took cues from a willfully ignorant former president rather than informed experts."
But Sununu at times broke with the White House over shutdowns and mask mandates, attracting fire from right-wing protestors.
And Baker was among the GOP's most high-profile critics of Trump pandemic rhetoric, drawing lawsuits and flak from local Republicans and strong support from Democrats for his coronavirus management.
So we asked Cain: in what way did Baker toe the Trump White House line on the pandemic?
"For us, what we're seeing there is Gov. Baker failed for weeks to stand up a statewide vaccination program. He could have been a leader on that," she said.
The fact that the state has recovered from some early stumbles to become one of the vaccination leaders nationally is beside the point, suggests Cain. And if Massachusetts Democrats nominate a woman to challenge Baker next year (should he decide to seek a third term), she's likely to enjoy substantial donations from EMILY's List to make that case.
For now, approval of Baker's pandemic oversight is very strong, especially among Democrats. So it may be that this particular line of anti-Baker attack will wind up in the context of an old political tactic, one we see Republicans using when they try to cast lifelong moderate capitalist Joe Biden as a "radical socialist" – throw everything you can think of against the wall and see what sticks.
