Like many Massachusetts residents, I'm banging my head against the wall when I look at the tight poll numbers in the special Senate race between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown. Apparently, mobilized conservative voters in Massachusetts want to "make a statement." So I'm asking you to adopt a Massachusetts voter and encourage Democratic turnout on January 19, 2010. The stakes are so high; Dick Morris is stumping for Brown on FoxNews, Michelle Malkin is HotAiring.....
Even worse, right-wing and regressive Brown is masquerading as a Kennedy heir, when in fact he is the direct opposite of anything Senator Kennedy would have wanted. Brown even has an ad up quoting John F Kennedy, entitled "Different People, Same Message." To hear or read Brown in the local press is stunning, flip-flopping so he sounds more palatable to the mainstream of Massachusetts voters, but again, Dick Morris is flacking for him and Brown's record is not mainstream.
• Brown was the lead sponsor of a legislative amendment in 2005 that would have allowed hospital emergency rooms to deny emergency contraception to victims of rape.
• Brown has co-sponsored the so-called Women's Right to Know Bill, legislation that would impose a mandatory delay before a woman can obtain an abortion. This legislation is supported by Massachusetts Citizens for Life, an organization that has endorsed Brown for United States Senate.
• Brown recently filed legislation that, if enacted, would allow the removal of previously mandated insurance coverage for a wide array of health services, including critical health care for women. Among the women's health services that his bill would allow to be removed as mandated coverage are mammograms, minimum maternity stays for new mothers, and screenings (pap smears) to detect, among other possible conditions, cervical cancer at an early, treatable stage.
• Brown opposes national health care reform that includes many benefits for women, such as ending denials by insurance companies to women who have had a Caesarean section or who suffered domestic abuse under the premise that they were "pre-existing conditions."
I didn't know Ted Kennedy, but I'm pretty sure he'd be horrified at the thought of someone like Scott Brown taking over. Here's what you can do to help Martha Coakley win:
Adopt a Massachusetts voter. Turnout in the primary was very low. If it's low again and the right wing is mobilized, that bodes badly for Martha.If you have friends who can vote in Mass. call them and make sure they turnout January 19!
-Make calls or volunteer
-If you live in Massachusetts, email volunteer@marthacoakley.com and see what you can do
-Organizing for America has a phone bank so you can make calls from anywhere in the US
-Blog, Facebook, Twitter and raise awareness so voters in Massachusetts turn out.
Thank you!