Charlie Baker (R. MA) has become Debbie Wasserman Schultz's (D. FL) favorite punching bag:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/...
At a Boston news conference, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz criticized Baker for saying last Wednesday that his opinion on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on insurance coverage for contraceptives “doesn’t matter” because the case would not affect Massachusetts. She knocked him for what she called his “pretty stunning indifference on Massachusetts women’s health care needs.”
“Charlie Baker is clearly an example of someone who had the gall to say that his position doesn’t matter on whether or not women deserve to have their bosses deciding for them what kinds of access to health care they can get,” Wasserman Schultz, a US representative from Florida, said at state Democratic Party headquarters downtown. “And Massachusetts women voters deserve to know that that’s how casual and cavalier Charlie Baker treated this issue.”
Last Thursday, Baker, who supports abortion rights, walked back his comments, acknowledging the case could affect some women in Massachusetts, expressing support for birth control coverage, and proposing a fix — a small state budget increase to provide coverage for women whose employers choose not to cover contraception.
Baker spokesman Tim Buckley responded to the attacks Monday with a statement noting the candidate’s “long pro-choice record and support for women’s health care,” knocking Democrats for “playing politics” on the issue, and emphasizing that Baker has provided “a real solution to ensure contraceptive care in Massachusetts is not disrupted by the court’s decision.” - Boston Globe, 7/14/14
Baker certainly felt the wrath from his comments which lead him to say this:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/...
Baker acknowledged the ruling could affect a small number of women in Massachusetts, and he pledged to cover them through the Department of Public Health if elected governor.
On Friday morning he fleshed out that proposal, saying he would add a $300,000 line item to the department’s budget.
His campaign said it is unlikely the state would need to expend the full amount, given the relatively small number of women most expect to be impacted.
Baker, in his statement, urged his opponents, Governor Deval Patrick and lawmakers to back the idea. “Effective leadership requires an ability and willingness to move beyond the politics and focus on constructive solutions to strengthen our commonwealth and support its people,” he said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Grossman said, if he were governor, he would be working with experts and legislators to find a way to cover every woman in the state before the legislative session comes to an end July 31. He said proposals like Baker’s are among those he would consider. But then he took a shot at the Republican.
“Charlie Baker is in to heavy-duty damage control, trying hard to regain support from Massachusetts women he lost earlier this week,” he said. “My advice to you Charlie: Take the weekend off and regroup.”
Democratic frontrunner Martha Coakley did not have any immediate reaction to Baker’s proposal. But she said last week she would work to require any company doing business with the state to offer contraceptive coverage to its employees. She also said she was looking at ways for the state to make coverage available to affected women.
Leigh Appleby, a spokesman for the third Democratic candidate, Donald Berwick, said, “Don is glad to see that Charlie has come to realize how wrong his statement was.” He said Berwick would push for a single-payer health care system, taking the decision about what to cover out of private employers’ hands.
Women voters have played a pivotal role in recent Massachusetts elections. Baker lost the women’s vote by 24 points in the 2010 gubernatorial race, according to a post-election poll. - Boston Globe, 7/11/14
Baker knows he needs to win female voters if he wants to win. Now the latest poll, which was taken before his comments, show Baker gaining a little bit:
http://www.masslive.com/...
A new Boston Globe poll shows the likely Republican nominee Charlie Baker closing in on Democrat Martha Coakley in a hypothetical match-up in the race to become the next governor of Massachusetts.
In a general election match-up, Coakley bests Baker 40 percent to 35 percent, a four percentage point jump for Baker since last week.
Looking at the Democratic primary between Coakley, Treasurer Steve Grossman and Don Berwick, the current attorney general still leads the pack with 53 percent of likely Democratic primary voters backing her. Grossman has support from 17 percent of likely primary voters and Berwick has five percent, according to the survey.
The poll of 604 likely voters conducted by SocialSphere Inc. for the Globe between June 29 and July 1 has a 4 percent margin of error. The sample of likely Democratic primary voters has a 5.1 percent margin of error.
Baker is up against tea party Republican Mark Fisher in the party's gubernatorial primary and there are three independents also running for governor. - The Republican, 7/11/14
And the insiders are seeing some trends here:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/...
With two months left before the primary election, Massachusetts political insiders are slowly coming to believe that Martha Coakley will win the Democratic nomination for governor, but they still have no idea whether Charlie Baker will end up winning the corner office back for Republicans.
For this latest Insiders Poll, I returned to the same questions I asked back in November: asking them to assign percentage chances for the possible outcomes in the primary and general elections for open statewide offices.
Back then, we didn’t even know for sure who was running. Since then, we’ve had nearly eight months of campaigning, both state party conventions, forums and debates around the Commonwealth, and several public polls.
And yet, as you’ll see below, the crystal ball remains cloudy on many of the races. The insiders’ best collective guess is that Martha Coakley, Warren Tolman, Deb Goldberg, and Steve Kerrigan will be the next Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. But those predictions are hardly set in stone.
The results below are aggregated from 101 completed surveys completed by political insiders throughout the Commonwealth and across the political spectrum. Most of the respondents are identified at the bottom of this post.
The results are almost precisely the same as they were in November, with Baker gaining one percentage point at the expense of the independents.
This might, however, reveal a slight increase in the perception of Baker’s strength. That’s because many of the insiders say that Coakley is her party’s strongest candidate in the general election. Since they are becoming more convinced that she will win the nomination (see below), you might expect them to believe the Democrats’ chances for November have improved. Since that’s not the case, it stands to reason that they see Baker as stronger—or Coakley as weaker—than they thought back then.
Some of the insiders’ comments reflect that thinking. But for the most part, these political observers just seem uncertain of how the political winds will blow in the final weeks of the election. - Boston Magazine, 7/11/14
We shall see.