Sununu is urged to switch vote on stem cell research

2007-06-22

Source: Union Leader

Several Manchester activists joined with a nationwide organized labor-funded advocacy group yesterday to urge Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H. to change his mind and vote to override President George W. Bush's veto of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

Sununu spokesman Barbara Riley said the Republican's position "has not changed," however, and he "would not support an override of the presidential veto on stem cells."

Americans United for Change, which has spent $100,000 on television ads blasting Sununu's positions on the Iraq war and stem cell research, portrayed Sununu as the deciding vote on an upcoming override attempt.

State Rep. Michael Brunelle, D-Manchester, who organized a news conference call, said Democratic Senate leaders believe they now have 66 votes for an override, one short of the two-thirds super-majority needed.

Sununu, he said, is viewed as the most likely sixty-seventh vote because he is "only member of the New Hampshire delegation who does not support expanding federally-funded stem cell research," "has a history of going against the Republican leadership," and because he "knows his opposition to stem cell research is out of step of the vast majority of the people of New Hampshire and members of his own state party."

Brunelle cited a January 2007 SurveyUSA poll conducted for WBZ-TV in Boston. It showed that 62 percent of New Hampshire Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats support stem cell research while 28 percent of Republicans and 5 percent of Democrats oppose it.

He urged Sununu to "stop playing politics and do what's right for his constituents and the people of New Hampshire."

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