Towards the end of my graduate career my boss starting recruiting a prominent ES cell scientist from Johns Hopkins to the University of California-Irvine. Ever heard of it? Most people haven't. However, they managed to pull a HUGE name from Johns Hopkins (a University I'm sure you've heard of).
Why? Because now he has a chance to get some of the $3 billion designated for stem cell research by the state of California.
To move a lab across the country is not trivial (I know because I had to move my lab from Emory [where I got my degree] in Atlanta to UCI when my boss moved there).
However, It is no exaggeration to say that Federal funding is the lifeblood of academic scientific research and academic scientific research drives virtually all biomedical advances in this country (and, by extension, the world). There are a million biotech companies in this country and most of them were founded based on discoveries made in academia.
(Federal) money makes the (scientific) world go round. Do not underestimate the importance of Federal (or in this case state) funding.
The last five years (with no Federal funding for ES cell research) have been an unconscionable setback to the most promising field of biomedical research today.
[BTW, I have to say that I do not think it is appropriate to have a single diary topic for both abortion and stem cells. They are unrelated. Grouping them together is to let the religious right frame this argument. I would like to see this changed. Just my opinion.]