The truth about Romney and those ‘binders’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-truth-about-romney-and-those-binders/2012/10/17/c7024bc2-1863-11e2-9855-71f2b202721b_blog.html

Posted at 10:28 AM ET, 10/17/2012
By Greg Sargent

There’s a lot of chatter this morning about Mitt Romney’s claim last night that as Massachusetts Governor, he directed his administration to reach out to women’s groups to find female applicants for government jobs, resulting in them delivering him “binders” full of qualified women.

The tale isn’t quite how he told it, according to Liz Levin, the chair of a women’s group that was right in the middle of the story at the time.

In fact, Levin tells me, the groups initiated contact with him and urged him to hire more women — when he was still a candidate — and began creating the binders themselves on their own initiative before he took office. In fairness to Romney, she says, he did agree to work with them.

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Levin, an Obama supporter, says MassGAP and other groups were the ones who first reached out to the gubernatorial candidates to get them to commit to hiring more women. She says Romney signed their pledge — as a candidate — and agreed to work with the groups.

At that time, the groups, on their own, were compiling lists of qualified female candidates for positions in state government, she says. After he was elected governor, in November of 2002, the groups took him a notebook full of those candidates.

“He did not initiate our project,” Levin says. “He was the recipient of a project we put together.”

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Levin allows, however, that Romney was a “willing participant with us.” She says Romney designated Kerry Healey — now a top Romney adviser — as liaison to the groups.

At first, their collaboration brought results. “He did increase the percentage of women who were in state government, which we appreciated,” Levin says. However, by the end of his administration, she adds, the level of women in government had slid back down again.

Levin points to a University of Massachusetts study showing that by November of 2006, the level of women as a percentage of senior level positions had dropped to lower than it was when Romney took office.

Separately, David Bernstein has reported much the same thing, relying on multiple anonymous sources involved in the project at the time. Levin allows, however, that Romney was a “willing participant with us.” She says Romney designated Kerry Healey — now a top Romney adviser — as liaison to the groups.

At first, their collaboration brought results. “He did increase the percentage of women who were in state government, which we appreciated,” Levin says. However, by the end of his administration, she adds, the level of women in government had slid back down again.

Levin points to a University of Massachusetts study showing that by November of 2006, the level of women as a percentage of senior level positions had dropped to lower than it was when Romney took office.

Separately, David Bernstein has reported much the same thing, relying on multiple anonymous sources involved in the project at the time.


http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2012/10/16/mind-the-binder.aspx

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I will write more about this later, but for tonight let me just make a few quick additional points. First of all, according to MassGAP and MWPC, Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent. However, as I have reported before, those were almost all to head departments and agencies that he didn't care about -- and in some cases, that he quite specifically wanted to not really do anything. None of the senior positions Romney cared about -- budget, business development, etc. -- went to women.

Secondly, a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006. (It then began rapidly rising when Deval Patrick took office.)

Third, note that in Romney's story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn't know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women. So what does that say?