Women Who Worked for Romney Rally to His Defense

Women who have worked for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney are leaping to his defense, as Democrats go after him for his remarks concerning women in Tuesday’s debate.

Romney said he received "binders full of women" to consider as appointees when he was governor of Massachusetts. Democrats have latched on to the “binders” comment in their criticism.

Kerry Healey, Romney’s lieutenant governor, says he hired women for 10 of the 20 top positions in his administration, more than any other state. “Mitt Romney had a commitment to making sure women were properly represented in his administration,” Healey, now a Romney campaign adviser, told Fox News. She said his action fulfilled a campaign promise.

The Romney campaign has released an ad on YouTube, which features three Romney cabinet members vouching for his support of women.

“He totally gets working women, especially working women like myself who had two young kids,” Ellen Roy Herzfelder, former state secretary of environmental affairs, says in the spot.

Meanwhile one of the women hired from the binders took no offense at the term. “Yes, I was a woman in the binders,” Ruth Bramson, chief human resources director in the Romney administration, told Politico. “I don’t think that’s true at all,” she said, referring to the attacks on Romney.

“We were the women in the binder. There was no question about it. While he may not have initiated the process, he certainly used the résumés of the women in the binders to bring in some very talented people.”