Playing the woman card

Someone's already playing the woman card in the Maine gubernatorial race, but it's not either of the female candidates running for governor (Rosa Scarcelli and Libby Mitchell). Nay, it's former state attorney general Steve Rowe.

A group of women led by former state senate prez Beth Edmonds met yesterday at Amore Styles (because women like getting their hair done!) to kick off the "Women Roweing" campaign, voicing their support for Rowe's candidacy. They cited his focus on education and jobs; in a press release, Stephanie Cotsirilos of Orono said, "Steve has a unique ability to understand the relationship between major economic issues and major social issues - he understands that a healthy Maine with healthy families means a healthy economy." 

When I asked Dennis Bailey, who's doing PR for Scarcelli's campaign, whether he was surprised about the "Roweing" campaign or viewed it as a setback, he echoed Scarcelli's quote in today's PPH: "It's an old playbook, and a very defensive move on Rowe's part. I guess he figures with two women in the race, he needs to show that he has support from women. I'm sure he does. And so does Rosa. So if we did a 'men for Rosa,' wouldn't that look a little odd?" (I asked the same question of the Mitchell campaign and will update here when they respond.)

With relish, I'm sure, Scarcelli even Tweeted one of Rowe's quotes from the article: "Women are the ones who get things done," he said. "It's as simple as that. I listen to them and then make decisions based on the guidance."

With most signature deadlines yesterday, the 2010 election season is starting to take shape (minus a Green candidate for gov). Hooray...