Highlighting Ken Cuccinelli’s strident opposition to abortion will help drive female voters who might otherwise stay home to the polls in the off-year Virginia governor’s race, according to a Democratic poll conducted last month for the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America.
A statewide survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, shared first with POLITICO, focused on which messages might get women who voted in the 2008 or 2012 presidential elections, but not for governor in 2009, to show up.
They found that statements about Cuccinelli’s position on abortion had a bigger effect among this group than any other issue in generating both the level of support and intensity for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. “Protecting a woman’s right to choose” trumped health care, guns, transportation, spending and college affordability. This held true in each of Virginia’s three-biggest media markets.
“We set it up in a way to really put choice in a rigorous test against the other issues that are fundamental to the campaign,” said pollster Drew Lieberman. “I’m not saying it’s going to be a bigger issue than jobs or the economy or transportation, but it’s not an issue at the margins. It is fundamental.”
Last year President Barack Obama used Mitt Romney’s opposition to abortion to great effect in Northern Virginia. McAuliffe, who has been working to re-activate the Obama coalition, regularly attacks his opponent on the hot-button social issues.
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia has made the race its top priority this year. Nearly 100 days out from the election, the group’s Virginia arm is releasing new undercover audio that they say features employees at Crisis Pregnancy Centers telling women that taking birth control pills increases their risk of breast cancer and that abortion is the cause of America’s economic woes.
Cuccinelli has been a supporter of the non-profit Crisis Pregnancy Centers. He sponsored the bill in the state legislature that gives them a portion of the money raised from the “choose life” license plates.
Cuccinelli is beloved by the anti-abortion movement. He has been outspoken in the past, but during this year’s race he has been adamant that he will not invest political capital in pushing a social agenda if he wins. Instead, he insists that he has not changed his underlying principles but will focus on growing the economy to create jobs.
Last year, as attorney general, Cuccinelli approved regulations that require abortion clinics to retrofit their facilities to meet standards for new hospital construction. In 2008, he proposed an amendment to end state funding for Planned Parenthood. In 2007, he cosponsored a personhood bill, which would have put into state law that life begins at conception. He has pushed a series of other bills that alarm groups like NARAL.
Democrats say that Cuccinelli is saying whatever he needs to say to get elected and will revert to his old ways once ensconced in office.
“Like all Americans, the people of Virginia want a leader for their state who focuses on strengthening the economy and restoring jobs. Instead, Ken Cuccinelli’s priorities are finding creative ways to fund these clinics that lie to women about their reproductive choices,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro Choice America. “Women need to count on access to reproductive health care and accurate information from credible health facilities as a baseline to lead our busy lives.”
NARAL says they also have audio of representatives at the Crisis Pregnancy Centers saying that hormonal birth control is the same as having a chemical abortion, that the so-called rhythm method of birth control is effective, and that condoms are naturally porous.
“Virginia voters have a clear choice at the ballot box in November,” said Hogue, “Terry McAuliffe, who shares the priorities of the women in the state, or Ken Cuccinelli, who has used his office to push an extreme agenda.”
The survey, conducted June 22 to June 30, reached 600 women in Virginia who either voted in 2008 or 2012 but did not vote in 2009, or who registered since the 2009 gubernatorial election and voted in 2012 but not in 2010. Of this sample, 69 percent identified themselves as “pro-choice” and 79 percent of those said they voted for Obama in 2012. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.
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