How Republicans can win on Obamacare UPDATED!
Examiner Editorial
November 10, 2009
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| Rep. Tom Perriello, D-VA, voted for Obamacare but represents a district that voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. |
There may only be a few weeks before an Obamacare conference report comes up, so the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee had better get cracking. First, as The Examiner's Hugh Hewitt suggested yesterday, the NRCC should establish a campaign fund designated solely to fund opponents of the 16 pro-Pelosi Obamacare Democrats. As Hewitt wrote, "stapling Saturday's vote to these congressmen will not only give them reason to reverse their positions next time, it will also give the country an opportunity to vote with their wallets." The NRCC told The Examiner that Hewitt's idea is being "actively considered." Let the stapling begin now.
At the same time, the NRSC should establish a similar fund on the Senate side with the promise that all funds contributed to it will go to unseat red and purple states' senators who vote for cloture or otherwise enable Obamacare to pass the Senate. Finally, if Michael Steele wants to make the RNC a genuine player, he will guarantee a dollar-for-dollar match for every donation received by the special NRCC and NRSC funds.
Democrats who ignored the groundswell of opposition to Obamacare and voted for the Pelosi bill face big trouble, says David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union. "They're betting that by the time election rolls around, they'll get away with it," he told The Examiner. Pelosi "staked everything on getting a vote, and it barely got through even with that." Andy Roth of the Club for Growth agrees that the vote has made some Democrats especially good targets. "If there's a Democrat who says he's a conservative but votes with Nancy Pelosi, that'll make it easier to unseat them. Democrats who are vulnerable yet still voted for this have a target on their back." That message must be driven home over and over in coming weeks.
UPDATE: Here are the 16 Democrats.
The number to the right of the representative's name is the percentage of vote received in his district by Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the 2008 election:
WV-01 Mollohan 57
WV-03 Rahall 56
AR-02 Snyder 54
AZ-01 Kirkpatrick 54
PA-10 Carney 54
ND-AL Pomeroy 53
SC-05 Spratt 53
AZ-05 Mitchell 52
AZ-08 Giffords 52
OH-18 Space 52
IN-08 Ellsworth 51
VA-05 Perriello 51
CO-03 Salazar 50
IN-09 Hill 50
OH-06 Wilson 50
PA-12 Murtha 50
UPDATE II: DNC targets 32 GOPers from districts carried by Obama in 08
Congress Daily reports the Democratic National Committee has already moved to target 32 House Republicans who voted against the Pelosi-Obamacare bill and who represent districts carried by the president in 2008:
