In one of his blog posts on offthekuff.com, Charles Kuffner discusses Planned Parenthood’s launch of a campaign to try to bring out voters for Democratic candidates, which includes gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis. Planned Parenthood plans to spend $3 million dollars on this campaign to reach out to over 300,000 women through phone calls, personal visits, mail, and online advertisements.  Kuffner points out that he loves this idea, but wonders why it took until now to be put into place. He states that the “bad guys” have been engaging in this tactic for years, and that he wonders where other groups are that should be doing the same thing. Though I agree with Kuffner that this type of campaign has been done before by others and that it seems odd that this has not been done already, I think this campaign is coming about because supporters of Democrats are now seeing that they are increasing their probability of having a fighting chance against Republicans in statewide elections.

         Kuffner then quotes Matt Mackowiak, a Repulican consultant in saying that this campaign will, “put the abortion spotlight back on Davis and could stymie her messaging as a candidate focused on a broad range of policies.” Mackowiak is also quoted in stating, “the campaign knows that talking about abortion is a net loser for her.” Kuffner, whose blog is intended for a Democratic audience, surprisingly agrees with Mackowiak. Kuffner states that his reasoning is because putting the spotlight on Davis’ abortion views is not a good move because there is not much she can do as governor for reproductive rights, except for using her power to veto.  I agree with Kuffner on this statement as well. I also believe that focusing too much about reproductive rights could push away any conservative voters who may have voted for her. Talking about a more diverse set of issues could potentially lure in unexpected voters and give Davis’ more of a chance in the upcoming election. Furthermore, not sticking to being known as a reproductive rights activist could also bring other organizations to campaign for money to bring in voters just as Planned Parenthood is starting to do.