An almost somber Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio) said Friday that he will switch his vote to 'yes' on the health care bill.
Boccieri is in the swing district of swing districts in the swing state of swing states. His vote was a big get for the Democratic leadership, and it will be a key test of how the issue tests in November. He faces businessman Jim Renacci.
Boccieri said politics were not on his mind, though. He noted that the woman President Obama highlighted in his appearance in Ohio this week, Natoma, is from his 16th district.
"This town is wrought with that these days," he said. "But leadership on both sides are worried about who's going to take the House, who's going to keep the House. Who's worried about Natoma keeping her House?"
Former Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) will announce his 2010 plans at 1:30 p.m. eastern time today.
Sali is considering a run for his old sea. He has been largely silent for months as Iraq veteran Vaughn Ward has built a campaign against Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho). But Sali looms as a potential game-changer.
GOP leaders in Washington would rather not have Sali back for another campaign. They are firmly happy with Ward, and Sali significantly underperformed the top of the GOP ticket in 2008. While Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took 62 percent, Sali took 49 percent and lost.
Idaho's filing deadline is today, along with Iowa's.
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) is standing with the Stupak bloc.
Rahall told the Charleston Daily Mail that the lack of abortion language in the Senate bill is a deal-breaker for him.
When asked if he would vote against a bill that didn't include such language, Rahall said, "Correct."
He joins Stupak and Reps. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), Chris Carney (D-Pa.) Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) in explicitly saying that the lack of abortion language will lead to their 'no' votes. At this point, if Democrats lost all of them, they could only lose one or two more Democrats.
Republicans hope to go after Rahall with former state Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard.
An example of what undecided Democrats are facing at home -- this web video features Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) walking like an Egyptian behind the "Pied Piper" Nancy Pelosi.
Shea-Porter is thought to be a likely 'yes' vote. The web video was released by one of her GOP opponents, Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta.
Freshman Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio) will announce his health care vote at a press conference at 10:40 a.m. at the Capitol.
The fact that he's holding a press conference suggests it's a win for the Democratic leadership. It seems unlikely he'd make a big show out of it if he wasn't standing by his party and this bill.
Regardless, this is a big one either way. Boccieri is seen as a pivotal vote, and whichever side nabs him in 85 minutes will hail the decision as proof of their momentum.
Boccieri didn't appear at an event in his state with President Obama this week, but he has said that he's willing to cast a tough vote.
An attorney for Pennsylvania Republican Pat Meehan's campaign filed a motion to dismiss the challenge to his nominating petitions Thursday.
"Their petition to strike the nominating papers is devoid of any merit," said James Colins, a lawyer representing the Meehan campaign. "They're doing this to get some free publicity."
Four Republicans want Meehan's name removed from the primary ballot on account of "outright pattern of impropriety in the signatures, addresses, and dates" of his 3,623 signers, according to their petition.
A spokesman for state Rep. Bryan Lentz, Meehan's likely Democratic opponent, said the challenge would expose the Republican's "forgery and fraud."
Colins said the case could take two-to-three weeks to resolve. "I expect that when the court actually holds a hearing we'll win, but we may win on procedural groups before then," he said.
In the meantime, he added, "the candidates keep campaigning, the lawyers keep litigating."
Challenging an opponent's nominating petitions is a common tactic but it has been used increasingly in Pennsylvania this cycle, observers said.
Freshman Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) will remain a 'yes' vote on the health care bill.
He told the Jackson Citizen Patriot: "I needed to see the bill and the Congressional Budget Office score. The bill
fundamentally does what I hoped it would."
Schauer faces a rematch with former Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) or a pairing with Brian Rooney, the brother of Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), in the fall.
Former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan (R) is now facing a court challenge to his nominating petitions.
Four Pennsylvania Republicans are trying to have Meehan's name removed from the 7th district primary ballot because of an "outright pattern of impropriety in the signatures, addresses, and dates" of his 3,623 signers. For that to happen, the court would have to find that more than 2,600 of the signatures are invalid.
Last week, Meehan -- a top GOP prospect – identifted four signatures that had potential problems. As result, the campaign referred the matter to the Delaware County prosecutor.
A spokesman for state Rep. Bryan Lentz, the expected Democratic nominee, called Meehan's petition a "forgery."
"This challenge will demonstrate that the instances of forgery and fraud in Meehan's petitions extend far beyond what Meehan and his organization was willing to admit in their confession to the district attorney last week," Lentz campaign manager Vincent Rongione said in a statement. "Given the pervasive fraud and systemic abuse of the public trust Pat Meehan may not have met the legal standard necessary to placed on the ballot."
Lentz and Meehan are running for Rep. Joe Sestak's (D-Pa.) open seat.
In a letter to Lentz that was released to reporters, Meehan called the challenge a "shameless stunt." The Meehan camp has charged that 550 signatures on Lentz's petitions
could be challenged on various grounds, but a spokesman said it declined to do so
in order to focus on issues.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania said their candidate's petitions will be validated. "We remain confident that Pat Meehan's petitions, at the end of the day, are valid and he’ll be on the ballot," said Michael Barley, a spokesman for the party.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin's (D-S.D.) office says she will vote 'no' on the health care bill, even as former top Obama aide Steve Hildebrand threatens her with a primary challenge.
Her office office said she will not bow to pressure.
"There's been pretty constant and strong pressure here for a
while. We feel it every day," deputy chief of staff Russ Levsen told the Rapid City Journal. "That's part of being in the majority and being one of 39
House Democrats to vote against the health care bill last
November."
Hildebrand has threatened to primary Herseth Sandlin if her vote sinks the bill or comes close to it. It looks like the vote will be close either way, so the ball's in his court now.
Hildebrand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At least that's how Steve Chabot sees it. The two former Republican congressmen both represented parts of Cincinnati for several years in the House.
"He was just as popular in my district as he was in his district," recalled Chabot, who represented Ohio's 1st district while Portman represented the 2nd.
Now, the former colleagues will share the same ticket as Portman is expected to be the GOP nominee in the Senate race and Chabot is running against Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) in a bid to get his old job back. Portman is expected to face either Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) or Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) in the general.
Chabot is counting on Portman's lingering popularity to generate voter turnout in November.
"He's a hometown guy, so he's going to clearly help to generate turnout down here," he said. "The top of the ticket helps us this time."
In 2008, Chabot lost to Driehaus by five points but he's expects a different race this cycle. "Conservatives and Republicans are very energized, they weren't last time," he said.
While he expects healthcare to be a favorable issue for the GOP this cycle, Chabot said it's too early to say whether he'd campaign on repealing the healthcare bill.
"Relative to a repeal, I'm inclined to say that it would be an issue, probably not the key issue of the campaign, but it would certainly be an issue," he said. "Maybe repeal some things and maybe modify the thing in some capacity."
"It's hard to overturn an entire law," he added. "And obviously, you couldn't do it until after the [2012] election because [President Barack] Obama would veto anything that Congress did. Even if we took over both the House and Senate, we're not going to have veto proof numbers."
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