With the long-stalled transgender rights bill suddenly getting some traction on Beacon Hill, some of its more savvy legislative supporters are nervously considering a potential hurdle: a referendum on the legislation on the November statewide ballot.

Even if the bill were approved by the Legislature and Governor Charlie Baker, social conservatives, the core of the opposition, would have a chance to try to overturn it by putting the issue before voters. They would have 30 days after the bill became law to launch a campaign that would require them to gather 43,167 signatures of certified voters — and they know it.

With the public divided over the issue, taking it to the ballot may be an appealing option for opponents. Already, the Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate have protected their colleagues in conservative districts by putting the vote off until after the May 10 deadline for potential election challengers to turn in signature papers to qualify for the ballot.

And the last thing Democratic incumbents want this fall is a screaming campaign over what opponents love to call the “bathroom bill.’’

But whether the opponents of the transgender bill can muster a move to get the voters to make the final decision on the issue is complicated.

First, the time frame is tight, and it requires timely action by a lot of characters who don’t want it on the ballot.

The legislative leadership sets the pace of the conference committee between the House and Senate to smooth out differences in their two versions of the bill. It also sets the dates for roll call votes. Baker, who has signaled he won’t veto the bill, would have 10 days to make a decision, once it reached his desk. Attorney General Maura Healey, a strong supporter of the legislation, would have an unspecified amount of time to prepare the language of the referendum question.

Petitioners would have 90 days after the bill is signed by the governor to collect signatures — which could then be challenged for their validity. All this would have to be complete 60 days before the Nov. 8 election.

Social conservative leaders are not showing their hand. Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said his group has not given up the fight to stop the bill in the Legislature. But he would not rule out a referendum drive.

“Our focus is stopping the bill,’’ he said. When pressed about a repeal campaign, he said: “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.’’

Frank Phillips

New role for Kerry aide

He’s no longer Just For Kerry.

Drew O’Brien, the longtime senior aide to Secretary of State John F. Kerry, dating to Kerry’s time in the Senate, will leave the State Department this month to join the Weber Shandwick communications firm as executive vice president of global partnerships.

A veteran of the Menino administration and later deputy chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, O’Brien will work with public and private organizations “around the world to drive corporate social responsibility initiatives and develop partnerships that create market opportunity, facilitate social impact and generate high-profile brand enhancement,’’ Weber officials said.

O’Brien joined Kerry at Foggy Bottom in 2013 as special representative for global partnerships, splitting time between Washington and his family — wife Michelle Consalvo and twins — in West Roxbury.

“He’s going to be a tremendous asset,’’ said Micho Spring, president of Weber Shandwick New England and chair of the firm’s global corporate practice. “Our global clients are facing increasingly complex and challenging issues, and he is, I think, one of the great experts on how to forge partnerships.’’

In an e-mailed statement, Kerry said he had “benefited immeasurably’’ from working with O’Brien for 15 years, adding, “Before I was even sworn in, I told Drew I wanted to recruit military veterans to the State Department. Drew delivered, just as he did in advancing our economic diplomacy work around the world, and particularly in Northern Ireland.’’

Jim O’Sullivan

Healey’s pick for N.C. AG

Attorney General Maura Healey is hosting a fund-raiser for the Democratic candidate for attorney general in North Carolina, pitching him as an antidote to that state’s “now-infamous anti-LGBT law’’ in an invitation obtained by The Boston Globe.

Tickets to the fund-raiser, to be held at the downtown law offices of Goulston & Storrs on May 10, are $100. Contributing $250 will earn donors the honorific of “ally.’’ It’s $500 to be a “friend,’’ $1,000 to be a “supporter,’’ $2,500 to be a “sponsor,’’ and $5,100 to be a “patron.’’

The Democratic candidate, Josh Stein, is a Harvard Law School graduate who served as a state senator and senior deputy attorney general in North Carolina.

His Republican opponent, state Senator Buck Newton, recently trumpeted his efforts “to keep our state straight,’’ a quote Healey decried in her fund-raising solicitation.

Newton helped shepherd a controversial law that prohibits local governments from giving antidiscrimination protections to gay and transgender people. It also bans transgender people from using public bathrooms that do not match their birth gender.

Healey is a key supporter of a Massachusetts bill barring discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations. The legislation appears to be moving toward passage.

Healey met with Stein when he was in town last year, according to an aide.

“Josh’s election is important,’’ Healey wrote in the fund-raising invitation. “Supporting him is an easy way for us in Massachusetts to make a meaningful difference in a key swing state as well as to help me do my job better for you. As you know, Attorneys General coordinate on important national cases and Josh is precisely the type of ally I know I will be able to work with from his first day in office.’’

David Scharfenberg

Dixville to D.C. — fast!

Members of the admittedly small club of people who (a) like to watch “Madam Secretary’’ on Sundays and (b) have made the trek to Dixville Notch in far northern New Hampshire might have noticed something not quite right in this week’s episode.

In the first scene, Russell Jackson, the president’s chief of staff, bustles into the White House, harried and out of sorts.

“Two hours ago, I was at a pancake social in Dixville Notch, charming party insiders, when the guy at the syrup bar tells me Pakistan is imploding,’’ he says.

“Thanks for making it back so quickly,’’ the president replies.

Hey! Dixville Notch!

But the name-check raised more questions than it answered. Political junkies know Dixville Notch as the real-life scene of first-in-the-nation midnight voting. But it is remote, to say the least — closer to Canada than Boston — and a fairly unlikely place for a meeting of party insiders in the off-season. Not only that, the Balsams Resort, which is basically the entirety of the community, is shuttered. Where would such a pancake social even take place? And another thing: How in the world would Jackson get from Dixville to D.C. in less than two hours?

On “Madam Secretary’’ the characters seemed unperturbed by the disconnect. On Facebook and Twitter Sunday evening, it was another story.

Felice Belman

‘Dirty Dozen’ targeted

The Environmental League of Massachusetts’ political arm named the first wave of its “Dirty Dozen’’ state legislators this week, criticizing six Republicans for their votes on environmental issues and suggesting it may target them for defeat in fall elections.

The group highlighted the lawmakers’ votes against budget amendments in the last two-year legislative session, running from 2013 through 2014, that would have boosted funding for environmental protection agencies.

“You cannot do more with less,’’ said Joe O’Brien, political director for the Environmental League’s Action Fund, in a statement. “State environmental agencies are so underfunded, they cannot function effectively.’’

Several of the legislators, reached by the Globe, said the ratings failed to capture the totality of their environmental records.

Representative James J. Lyons Jr., an Andover Republican, touted his work fighting a proposed natural gas pipeline and said that was far more important than his vote against an environmental bond bill, which hurt him in the Environmental League’s ratings.

“What’s more important, stopping a pipeline from ripping up our forests, or supporting a bloated, pork-laden environmental bond bill which we couldn’t afford?’’ he asked.

Representative Geoff Diehl, a Whitman Republican, said ELM was “bitter’’ that he’d played a key role in winning voter approval of a measure repealing automatic gas tax hikes. The gas tax is used to fund public transportation and road and bridge repair.

Representative Marc Lombardo, a Billerica Republican, highlighted his support for a bike path and pond restoration in his hometown. Representatives F. Jay Barrows, a Mansfield Republican, and Elizabeth Poirier, a North Attleboro Republican, focused on their local open space protection efforts and work on a regional sewage treatment plant.

ELM also included Southwick Representative Nicholas Boldyga in its initial wave of “Dirty Dozen’’ lawmakers.

ELM president George Bachrach said members of the “Dirty Dozen’’ would be among the first legislators the group would consider targeting this fall. ELM’s political arm plans to make campaign donations and organize volunteers in several races.

David Scharfenberg