“$10 for Tark” and “$10 for Tom” are message machines aimed at congressional Democrats still thinking about trying to push Obamacare through the House and Senate when they return in two weeks.
Danny Tarkanian is challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s November 2010 vote (dannytarkanian.org). This week, more than 5,000 new donors sent $10 or more to the former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Runnin’ Rebel as a way of sending a message to Reid to shelve Obamacare.
Tarkanian has made opposition to Obamacare one of the key elements of his nascent campaign, and a Mason-Dixon poll last week showed Tark leading the veteran Reid by 11 points. All Tarkanian needs is money, and Obamacare has sparked thousands to start sending the Republican the cash he needs to compete.
Betsy Markey is a freshman Democrat from Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, which is a Republican-leaning district. This week, Markey told voters that cuts in Medicare services were indeed part of Obamacare, and she lectured all voters on the need to suck it up and take it, according to a news account of her town hall meeting titled “Markey: Medicare Will Take Hit.” (coloradoan.com/article/20090827/LOVELAND01/90827004) “There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,” Markey told voters. “But we have to do this because we’re Americans.”
Evidently, many disagree with Markey’s views on the obligations of Americans or on the need to ration services to seniors, and hundreds of $10 or greater contributions began to flow to businessman and University of Colorado Regent Tom Lucero, an announced candidate to take on Markey next year (lucero2010.com).
There are other Republicans in both the Nevada and Colorado races, but the swell of support for two who have made opposition to Obamacare central to their campaigns signals to every single Democrat what is ahead if Obamacare continues to drive Democrats deeper into an already deep political ditch.
Reid could of course stop the bleeding next week with some comments indicating the need to revisit the approach and return with fresh and bipartisan ideas in the spring of 2010. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., clearly sees the writing on the wall, but do other Senate and House Democrats?
In a couple of weeks, the National Center for Policy Analysis will deliver to Congress petitions opposing Obamacare with far more than 1 million signatures registered online (freeourhealthcarenow.com). That’s an extraordinary response to a think tank’s appeal based on a free market analysis of the Obama proposals.
It is a signal of an argument lost by Democrats, but one not yet abandoned, which is why more signatures are needed, as well as more symbolic contributions to Tarkanian and Lucero.
When Democrats really begin to fear that the polls showing opposition to Obamacare are more than just accurate indicators of public opinion but are also becoming predictors of future political behavior such as voting and campaign contributions, then they will collectively shudder, at least any of them from districts or states that will be competitive next fall.
Lots of Democrats may like and admire the president, just as many Democrats certainly want to honor the memory of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. But neither their support for the president nor their love for the “Lion of the Left” is going to be much comfort if they are out of a job 15 months from now.
Obamacare has unleashed a storm of opposition to the direction Democrats are taking the country. Only the ideologically inflexible or the politically secure or dense will ignore the many messages voters are sending and hopefully will continue to send until Obamacare is shelved.
Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at www.hughhewitt.com.
