Former senators seeking a comeback term who voted for Obamacare in 2010 seem to have both fallen short. Former Senator Evan Bayh lost by a solid 52 to 42 percent margin, with 74 percent of precincts reporting, to Republican Congressman Todd Young. And Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who beat incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in 2010, apparently beat him again, currently leading 52 to 45 percent, with 57 percent of precincts reporting (including 84 percent in Milwaukee County and 53 percent in the state capital’s Dane County, the two major sources of Democratic margins in the state.)
Evan Bayh won two statewide races for governor and two for senator in Indiana; Russ Feingold won three statewide races for senator in Wisconsin. Collateral issues played some role in their defeats—Bayh’s seeking a lobbying job and largely cutting his ties to Indiana when he announced his retirement from the Senate in 2010; Feingold’s spending money supposedly raised for backing political causes for personal advancement. But their votes for Obamacare were not a help. Not in Wisconsin, which Barack Obama carried twice; not in Indiana, which he carried in 2008.
