Bush Dogs Caving on SCHIP... To Us

by: Matt Stoller

Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 18:27

Democratic-leaning groups are making hundreds of phone calls in the Macon area district of Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall, deriding Marshall for voting against the funding of a children's health program and potentially causing problems for Marshall, one of the most vulnerable congressional incumbents in the country in the 2008 elections.

The groups - Blue America and BlogPAC - are targeting Marshall and four other House Democrats who voted against the bill that would have added $35 billion over five years to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known nationally as SCHIP and in Georgia as PeachCare for Kids.

Today, one of our targets, Baron Hill, switched his vote.  The North Carolina members are considering it as well.  And Marshall?  Not so much.  Here's his spokesman.

"It's impossible to predict an impact," Moore said. "Some people were upset and some people were happy" with Marshall's vote, he said. "But you're only hearing from the upset ones. A lot of constituents agree with the way Jim voted."

This is rather amusing, since Democrats are quick to argue that they aren't hearing from progressives when they want to justify their vote on something reactionary.  Now all of a sudden there's a silent conservative majority out there.  Tell me, who are these people that are so excited about cutting funding to children's health care?

And then, of course, there's this.

Marshall's positions on SCHIP and the Iraq war, among other things, earned him at least two Democratic primary challengers. Macon Mayor Jack Ellis last week formed an exploratory committee to challenge Marshall. Robert Nowak, a schoolteacher from Macon, this week joined the primary race.

Two primary challengers?  Here's Nowak's site, and a nice comparison of where he stands versus Marshall.