I'm honored to have received the following endorsement from the below group of women who I deeply respect and admire. With their help, along with many others these past few months, I have been able to focus my plan to revive the MassGOP in order to move our Party toward victory in 2014. In the last election, Scott Brown lost women by double digits and that affected the rest of the GOP ticket. The women below understand, as do I, that we need to grow our base, recruit more women to run for office and increase our share of the women's vote in 2014.
January 30, 2013
Dear State Committee Members,
We believe that the MassGOP is at a crossroads, as we have had a front row seat to the devastating losses endured this most recent election cycle. We can also tell you that witnessing that process has served to reaffirm our commitment to challenging the MassGOP to work harder, to work differently, and to ultimately be more strategic. We believe the time is now for building up and strengthening our party, and to begin the turnaround process in a strategic way, not business as usual.
It is for that reason that we have pledged to support the best candidate to lead, build, and challenge our party with demonstrated experience. We firmly believe that candidate is Kirsten Hughes. For years she has worked tirelessly for our party, with deep commitment and loyalty, as a grassroots activist, as a statewide coordinator, and with an unparalleled fundraising ability. No other candidate in the MassGOP Chair race has been responsible for an unprecedented forty-two million dollar U.S. Senate campaign account, and as we all know, campaign cash is the mothers milk of any successful campaign. Also, Kirsten was elected with over 60% of the vote in the Democratic stronghold of Quincy to City Council. That in and of itself speaks to her work ethic and commitment.
Kirsten is the only candidate with that level of demonstrated experience.
She is also a wife and a mother, and will have the unique ability to reach out to women statewide through a new women's initiative she will roll out once elected.
Her initiative will:
•Establish and fund a MassGOP Women's Coalition;
•Create a MassGOP standing committee on women's issues specifically tasked to finding and promoting issues that appeal to a broad base of women;
•Issue MassGOP press statements regarding our perspective on issues facing the citizens of the Commonwealth and our nation, pushing back those which are promulgated by the Democratic machine;
•Host a MassGOP statewide forum once a year to facilitate the conversation among female elected officials, female candidates for office, and activists, to draft a women's issue based document for release to the public.
We know first hand that Kirsten is a team player, a good listener, and has offered a Unity Pledge to her opponent because she understands that honesty, respect, and hard work is the only way that we can build our MassGOP.
We believe that Kirsten is the candidate best suited to lead, day one, with a strategy to build out our grassroots. She will support races statewide up and down the ticket, and ensure that the MassGOP commits itself to short and long term objectives pointed towards a successful 2014 and beyond.
We feel strongly about our commitment to Kirsten, that she is the best choice for a critical time in our MASSGOP. We ask that you join us in supporting Kirsten Hughes for Chair of the MassGOP.
Respectfully,
The Honorable Lt. Governor Kerry Healey, Republican National Committeewoman
State Representative Elizabeth Poirier
State Representative Susan Gifford
State Representative Kim Ferguson
State Committeewoman Robin Almgren
State Committeewoman Amy Carnevale
State Committeewoman Christine Cedrone
State Committeewoman Judith Crocker
State Committeewoman Angela Davis
State Committeewoman Dot Early
State Committeewoman Jeanne Falcone
State Committeewoman Janet Garon
State Committeewoman Patricia Jennings
State Committeewoman Janet Leombruno
State Committeewoman Nancy Luther
State Committeewoman Barbara McCoy
State Committeewoman Mindy McKenzie Hebert
State Committeewoman Sue Smiley
State Committeewoman Mimi Sundstrom
State Committeewoman Elizabeth Mahoney
State Committeewoman Kim Palmer
State Committeewoman Brittney Carisella
The Honorable State Representative Karen Polito
The Honorable State Representative Susan Pope
Christina Bain
Kayla Berube
Susan Blais
Beth Lindstrom
C. Stolle Singleton
