The Democrats have a message for FCC Commissioner Michael Copps: Don’t screw things up on net neutrality.

Democrats allied with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are working to put
public pressure on Copps — also a Democrat — as the net-neutrality vote draws near.

Genachowski needs Copps to vote for his plan during a commission meeting on Tuesday if the rules are to pass.

As a result, Democrats who support the plan are pushing this message in
the media: If Copps doesn’t vote for Genachowski’s plan, the consequences
will reverberate all the way up to the White House. They are arguing the damage could even hurt President Obama.

A prominent Democrat close to the White House said it this way on
Friday: “If Copps votes no on Tuesday, he’d be handing the president a
huge loss at a time when the Democrats should have a big win.”

“Voting no…would be snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory and
would be giving the Republicans a huge win,” the source said.

President Obama made a campaign promise to support net neutrality, and
this vote could be the last opportunity to pass the policy.

Copps, however, sees the proposal as too watery and has pledged to negotiate with the FCC chairman in order to strengthen it.

As the vote approaches, the issue has drawn commentary from Democrats
all the way up to the White House. White House spokesman Matt Vogel
weighed in this week.

“President Obama believes that Chairman Genachowski’s proposal on open
Internet advances this important policy priority and constitutes an
important step in preventing abuses and continuing to advance the
Internet as an engine of productivity growth and innovation,” he said.

Ardent net-neutrality supporters who want tougher rules are sending
their own message: they say Copps may vote “no” unless the plan is
strengthened.

Despite the spin wars over Copps’ vote, analysts expect he will fall in line on Tuesday.

“The two Democratic Commissioners can block approval of the
net-neutrality rules, but we believe it’s in the majority’s interests to
coalesce around a decision,” analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said in a note
this week.

“So while we expect some tough bargaining that goes down to the wire
next Tuesday, our sense is an order likely will be approved, with some
modifications, but not radical changes, to the draft, given the
tightrope the FCC leadership appears to be walking,” they said.

Even Copps has seemed to express that he might not be able to extract all of his demands from the chairman’s office.

“We are hoping and working for needed improvements,” Copps told Bloomberg. “I cannot say we’ll get there.”