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GOVERNOR'S RACE
Look the gift horse in the mouth
BY SETH GITELL

Less than three weeks ago, Treasurer Shannon O’Brien told the Phoenix that EMILY’s List, a political-action committee that helps pro-choice, Democratic women candidates get elected, would not become a liability in her race for governor (see "Shannon O’Brien Plays It Safe," News and Features, May 10). Yet two weeks ago EMILY’s List became just that, when it circulated a mailing to members that went out of its way to criticize Senate president Tom Birmingham for "squelching the state’s Clean Elections Law" — a critique that seems irrelevant to the group’s overall mission of getting women elected to office as well as to the central message of the O’Brien campaign, which emphasizes fiscal prudence, education, and health care.

The mailing elicited sniping from her gubernatorial opponents and articles in the Associated Press and Boston Globe, in which O’Brien campaign operatives were forced to defend it. The incident merely proves that when it comes to the political side of its operations, as opposed to its fundraising, EMILY’s List has a poor track record. Most recently, in a Chicago congressional race pitting former Clinton staffer Rahm Emanuel against former Illinois state representative Nancy Kaszak, the group ran ads attacking Emanuel for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a nonstarter in the race. Closer to home, in the Ninth Congressional District race, the group backed State Senator Cheryl Jacques, who eventually lost. It didn’t help that the group subsidized a mysterious push-poll that attacked then–state senator Stephen Lynch of South Boston for his financial dealings and ran a television ad running down the abortion-rights credentials of State Senator Brian Joyce of Milton.

EMILY’s List chief of staff Joseph Solmonese won’t talk about his group’s tactics. "We speak to women voters about issues that are of concern to them," he says, noting that what the group said about Clean Elections in the letter was a small point made in a much longer profile of O’Brien. He also noted that criticism of the letter seems excessive given that it was a fundraising letter aimed at donors — not a televised issue ad aimed at voters. That may be true. But women, like men, care about Clean Elections and NAFTA, along with every other issue up for public debate. Aren’t there some issues that women might care about more than men? Like the fact that in Massachusetts in 2002, there is only one woman running for governor amid a field of men?

EMILY’s List could be a vital resource for O’Brien (helping, for instance, in raising much-needed out-of-state funds). But if it continues to veer off the reservation and put the O’Brien camp on the defensive, as it just did with the fundraising letter, it’ll be hard to justify O’Brien’s alliance with the group. "I don’t think I have to send that message to EMILY’s List," O’Brien told the Phoenix three weeks ago. "I think they saw what happened in Cheryl Jacques’ race."

Does O’Brien still believe that? "EMILY’s List has been and will continue to be an important resource to help Shannon," says O’Brien campaign press secretary Adrian Durbin.

But that’s unlikely if the group beats the Clean Elections drum in a state so squeezed for funding that draconian cuts to Medicaid are up for debate. How O’Brien manages her relationship with EMILY’s List may dictate how she ultimately does in September.

Issue Date: May 23 - 30, 2002
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