On March 9, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the state's Republican candidate for governor, appeared on a Dallas television station and was asked a straightforward question. Would he veto, as Gov. Rick Perry did last year, the Texas version of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a bill that would allowed women to file equal pay claims in state courts? Abbott wouldn't say. Instead, he smiled and held forth for a few moments about the importance of women being paid the same wages as men. The campaign of his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis, quickly roared to life. Davis, who shepherded the equal pay bill through the Texas legislature, accused Abbott of dodging the question and demanded a hard answer. Abbott equivocated for 10 days, then said he would veto the bill, handing Davis fresh ammo.
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The equal pay fight has consumed the Texas gubernatorial race for almost a month
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Texas race points to key issue for Democratic candidates
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Equal pay issue used to galvanize base for expected low Democratic turnout
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Republicans tend to dismiss it as a non-issue
And right now we have a @placeholder party that is so disinterested in winning over women voters that they are floundering on no-brainer issues like supporting equal pay."
A volley of them were fired off in January, on the five-year anniversary of the @placeholder signing.
Several likely 2016 @placeholder candidates have come out against equal pay protections, mostly on the grounds that they would encourage lawsuits and cripple the ability of private businesses to set their own pay scales based on merit.