Abortion Rights Groups Spend Against Fiorina, Fret About Anti-Abortion Climate

As the Senate race between Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina (R) narrows, abortion rights groups are throwing their weight behind Boxer, and one of them, EMILY’s List, has launched a new independent expenditure effort through the group Women Vote! The ad, interestingly enough, focuses entirely on Fiorina’s ignominious former tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, not her staunch anti-abortion views. “This race is a dead heat for one reason and one reason alone: women voters don’t have the information they need about Carly Fiorina,” EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock said in a statement.

Meanwhile, NARAL Pro-Choice America’s PAC, which has already donated to Boxer’s campaign, announced it had approved an additional $70,000 in contributions to the campaigns of 13 House candidates and Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who’s running for Senate in Florida. It’s nowhere close to the spending by conservative groups like American Crossroads, but abortion rights groups are energized by what they fear are a new crop of surprisingly rigid anti-abortion candidates in the current election.

“The 2010 election cycle features some of the most extreme anti-choice candidates in recent memory,” NARAL president Nancy Keenan said in a statement. “At this point in the campaign season, we know that voters are especially attentive to issues on which there’s a clear difference between candidates—and choice is one of those issues. We want to make sure these mainstream pro-choice candidates have the resources necessary to make this contrast clear to voters who have not yet made up their minds.  We are confident that voters don’t want politicians interfering in our personal, private medical decisions.”