Editor’s note: This article was updated at 12:55 p.m. on Monday to include a comment from Scott Milne’s campaign.
Planned Parenthood on Friday released its candidate scorecard, along with a long list of endorsements in local and statewide races. For the second election running, the Democratic candidate for governor wasn’t on its list.
The reproductive health care organization, which through its political arm has been at the front of the national fight for abortion rights, was a leading force behind the Vermont Legislature’s passing last year the most far-reaching abortion protections in the country. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, signed the bill into law.
Lucy Leriche, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood in Vermont, said Scott and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, “have both come out in support of reproductive rights,” noting that Scott signed the abortion rights bill and Zuckerman “has always been a supporter of our work.”
Leriche pointed to Scott scoring 100 on its candidate survey in 2018 as reason for not endorsing his opponent, as it did last election cycle, and said the group endorses races not based on party, but based on candidates’ records on supporting reproductive rights.
She also pointed to the lieutenant governor’s race, in which the group endorsed Molly Gray, the Democratic candidate, and said Scott Milne, her Republican opponent, didn’t even bother to fill out its survey.
“And that’s not the case with the governor’s race, where we have two candidates who have demonstrated their commitment to reproductive rights,” she said. “We have a process and criteria, but we don’t take a blanket way of looking at these races.”
Milne’s campaign manager, Sen. Corey Parent, R-Franklin, said Milne is pro-choice and believes in reproductive rights, but doesn’t fill out surveys for any special interest groups. “Most of those groups probably already know who they’re endorsing anyway,” he added.
Planned Parenthood also endorsed the re-election of Treasurer Beth Pearce, Attorney General TJ Donovan and Secretary of State Jim Condos. The only other statewide race in which it didn’t endorse the Democratic candidate was Doug Hoffer, the incumbent auditor of accounts.
Scott has a complicated relationship with Planned Parenthood. As his previous opponents have repeatedly pointed out, Vermont Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion group, supported Scott in his race for lieutenant governor in 2010, which launched his path toward the top office.
Rep. Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, the current House majority leader, was director of public policy for Planned Parenthood at the time.
“Phil Scott is being supported by an extremely conservative group that believes abortion should be outlawed even in the case of rape and incest,” she was quoted as saying in 2010, in a press release from the campaign of Steve Howard, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, who ultimately lost to Scott.
In 2016, Planned Parenthood paid for television ads attacking Scott and claiming that “Phil Scott wants to restrict a woman’s right to choose.”
According to a VTDigger/Seven Days fact-check, Scott completed the group’s issue position survey in 2010 and described himself as “pro-choice but with restrictions.” He wrote, “Because of my beliefs, I find it impossible to answer the question in your survey with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” adding, “I do support a woman’s right to choose; however, I do not believe it needs to be a ‘blank check’ in order to be effective.”
As the Legislature was debating the abortion rights bill last year, Scott would not say whether he would sign it, though he did note concerns from Vermonters and others in his party along the way. But when the bill got to his desk, he signed it. His office announced the decision in the same press release as his veto of a 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases.
Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, praised the governor’s decision on the abortion bill. “This is the first step in ensuring the next generation of VT women have the same access to reproductive and abortion care that VT women have had for the last 46 years,” she wrote in a tweet.
At the start of the 2020 legislative session, the Legislature also passed Proposition 5, which would ensure reproductive rights in Vermont’s Constitution. Constitutional amendments must be approved by two successive legislatures, and succeed in a statewide referendum, before any change is made.
Leriche said the group is focusing its 2020 election efforts on candidates for House and Senate, who will be direct participants in that debate and vote on that constitutional change.
Jason Maulucci, who is managing Scott’s barebones campaign this year, said the governor “has always been supportive of a woman’s right to choose and his record as governor confirms his position.”
Asked if he was disappointed Scott didn’t get Planned Parenthood’s endorsement, he said: “The governor has not actively sought endorsements in this campaign and his record speaks for itself. Voters will make their decision based on his performance and vision for the state.”
Meg Polyte, Zuckerman’s campaign manager, said “every campaign hopes for every endorsement,” adding that the Democratic candidate was supportive of reproductive rights during his time in the House, Senate and most recently as lieutenant governor.
She added that Scott and Zuckerman have “significant differences” on issues involving women’s health. “I think that women’s health is a lot more than just having the right to choose for reproduction; it’s about minimum wage, it’s about health access, it’s about access to education, it’s about how they take care of their families and children,” Polyte said. “So I think there is a lot of difference there.”
Specifically on a women’s right to choose, Polyte added, Zuckerman “has been 100% on board, no exceptions, since before he got into office, while Gov. Scott has evolved on that.”