Mitt Romney looked to parlay his debate-night story of seeking out female Cabinet members during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts into a new push for women voters in a Web video emailed to supporters Wednesday.
Romney supporters received a letter Wednesday afternoon from former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who pointed out that 10 of the top 20 positions in the state's Romney administration were filled by women.
"Governor Romney wasn't just checking a box," Healy writes. "He sought out our counsel, and he listened to our advice. We didn't always agree, but we were always respected."
In the video, other members of Romney's Cabinet speak about their experiences working for the governor, crediting him with compassion and empathy.
"He totally gets working women," said Ellen Roy Herzfelder, a former state secretary of environmental affairs. "Especially women like myself who had two young kids. I needed flexibility."
The video's release came as Internet mocking of a moment in the debate in which Romney referred to "
binders full of women" reached a boil on Wednesday. Romney was explaining that as governor, he intentionally sought female candidates for top-level posts.
“And I said, ‘Well, gosh, can’t we — can’t we find some, some women that are also qualified?” Romney said. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”
Social media quickly flooded with jokes about the inadvertent remark, with a Tumblr page and Twitter handle poking fun at the comment earning tens of thousands of shares.
In an interview Wednesday with Fox News, Healey defended Romney's comment.
“Well they tried to launch Big Bird and I don’t think that took off, so perhaps this is another attemp," Healey said. "But it’s really just a distraction. We have so many serious problems in the country today and women have so many serious problems now... If I had to say anything about binders, I’d say that there was an empty binder there yesterday that should have been filled by Obama about his plans for the next administration.”
Healey also defended Romney from arguments from some Massachusetts Democrats that he only hired women in his cabinet because he had been forced to sign a pledge to do so by an outside group during the campaign.
“The back-story here is that a bi-partisan woman’s organization, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus came to both candidates in the race and said if you’re elected, will you pledge, will you promise to put as many women in your cabinet as there are percentage of women in Massachusetts which is about 50 percent," Healey said. "Both candidates said yes, and so when Gov. Romney was elected, he set out to fulfill that promise. One thing you can know about Gov. Romney is that when he makes a promise when he’s campaigning, he’s going to fulfill that promise."
But the video also comes as Romney is looking to solidify gains made with women in recent weeks. President Obama held a commanding lead among female voters throughout early polling, but saw that lead erode after his first debate performance. The president looked to regain traction Tuesday night, repeatedly hammering Romney for his pledge to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and touting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
And on the campaign stump Wednesday, Obama also seized on the "binders" remark.
‘We don’t have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented women," Obama said.
