Vulnerable House Democrats vote against Senate budget proposal

By Alexandra Jaffe - 03/20/13 06:59 PM ET

All seven Democratic House members who are top Republican targets for 2014 voted against their party's Senate budget on Wednesday.

Though House Democrats were instructed to vote for the Senate Democratic budget, 35 in total defected.

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced earlier this year that Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber of Arizona, John Barrow of Georgia, Colin Peterson of Minnesota, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Jim Matheson of Utah and Nick Rahall of West Virginia are all top pickup opportunities for Republicans in 2014.

All seven of those districts lean Republican, and went to GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney last cycle.

Some of the Democratic defectors, like Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), who is also heading into a tough race in 2014, said the budget didn't offer a balanced approach.

"It is not enough entitlement reform in there going forward. It needs to be a more complete and balanced picture and it wasn't bipartisan in the end of the day," Schrader told The Hill.

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), who also voted no on the budget, said in a statement that "none of the budget proposals on the table this week reflect the type of bipartisan compromise that New Hampshire families expect and deserve."

Aside from policy implications, most of the members who voted no on the budget had political implications to consider as well.

The NRCC has already begun to use the Senate budget to attack House Democrats. The committee issued a release on Tuesday charging that average household income would drop by more than $2,400 if the Senate budget were passed. The NRCC cited a report from Republican staff on the Senate Budget Committee.

That release targeted Kuster, Kirkpatrick, and Reps. Ami Bera (Calif.), Paul Ruiz (Calif.), Scott Peters (Calif.), Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Brad Schneider (Ill.), Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.), Pete Gallego (Texas) and Suzan DelBene (Wash.). All but DelBene voted against the Senate budget on Wednesday.

The NRCC continued the attack on Wednesday with a paid web ad that featured average Americans urging their members to balance the budget, and calling for viewers to "co-sign Paul Ryan's plan to balance the budget in 10 years."

Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget is due for a vote on Thursday, and it is expected to pass with majority Republican support. It has come under fire from Democrats, as it balances the budget by scaling back Medicare and other entitlements.