The House Democrats’ political arm has begun its attacks on vulnerable Republicans who opposed the children’s health insurance bill passed last week, and it didn’t even wait for a veto from President Bush.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeted eight GOP lawmakers in radio ads on Monday. The spots were bolstered with e-mails and automated phone calls featuring the mother of a boy enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Democrats also are taking SCHIP on the presidential campaign trail. The Democratic National Committee issued a statement Monday demanding that White House hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) take a clearer stand on the current SCHIP debate.

“Republicans who continue to vote in lockstep with President Bush and against children will be held accountable,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the DCCC chairman, said in a statement.

House Republicans complain that their Democratic counterparts shut them out of the process of creating the SCHIP bill and emphasize that they, like Bush, support reauthorizing the program.

“The Democrats are just playing political games by bringing an SCHIP bill to the floor that expands government, raises taxes and has no chance of getting signed into law. It is time to work across the aisle to extend healthcare to our nation’s most needy children,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Julie Shutley wrote in an e-mail.

The DCCC bought airtime in the media markets represented by Republican Reps. Steve Chabot (Ohio), Thelma Drake (Va.), Tom Feeney (Fla.), Sam Graves (Mo.), Joe Knollenberg (Mich.), Randy Kuhl (N.Y.), Jim Saxton (N.J.) and Tim Walberg (Mich.). Automated phone calls went out in every district but Saxton’s.

The House and Senate last week passed legislation to reauthorize SCHIP and boost funding for the program by $35 billion over five years. Bush, backed by most congressional Republicans, vows to veto the measure, charging that the Democrats are using an SCHIP expansion as a stalking horse for socialized medicine.

Bush has proposed a $5 billion expansion, a far cry from the $35 billion package primarily drafted by Senate Democrats and Republicans, and from the $50 billion expansion originally approved by the House.

Forty-five Republicans voted for the SCHIP compromise bill when the House passed it, 265-159. The Senate passed the measure 67-29, with 18 Republicans voting with all of the Democrats.

The DCCC is running two different ads. The spot airing in Chabot’s district features a narrator saying, “Did you know Congressman Chabot gets healthcare at taxpayers’ expense but Chabot and Bush are blocking healthcare for 10 million uninsured children?” A similar line is used in the spots against Drake, Feeney, Graves, Knollenberg and Saxton.

The second ad, targeting Kuhl and Walberg, touts the benefits of SCHIP and the 61-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase used to finance it. “Yet President Bush threatens to veto SCHIP and Congressman Kuhl [Walberg] stands with him, instead of kids.”

House Democrats, along with Republicans such as Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), say they will try to flip some House Republicans to get enough votes to override Bush’s veto. With last week’s vote as a guide, the House is about 25 votes short of the two-thirds majority it would need. The Senate vote already is veto-proof.

In addition to reaching out to centrist or vulnerable House Republicans, House Democrats last week also sought the support of Republican governors. Because SCHIP is administered and partially funded by states, governors from both parties are keenly watching Congress and the White House duke it out. Last Thursday, 24 House Democrats wrote 22 GOP governors asking them to pressure Bush to change his stance.

One Democratic governor announced Monday that he would begin fighting Bush over SCHIP on a different front.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration seeking to overturn restrictive new policies governing federal approval of SCHIP expansions at the state level.

The lawsuit charges that the administration did not follow the formal process for making new regulations when it announced the new limitations on SCHIP enrollment.

In August, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified the states of the new rules, which effectively prohibit any state from expanding the income limit for SCHIP eligibility above 250 percent of the federal poverty level. The policy has already been used to justify the rejection of New York’s application to raise its limit to 400 percent of the poverty level. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) also threatened legal action.

Although New Jersey has no applications pending with the federal authorities, its program already enrolls children in families with incomes up to 350 percent of the poverty level. In the last few years, the Bush administration approved several applications made by the state to expand its program.

In a statement, Corzine said the policy could force New Jersey to remove 10,000 children already receiving SCHIP benefits. “This same administration previously signed off on our decision to cover the 10,000 kids they are now seeking to kick out of SCHIP,” he said.