Health care vote to put Nelson on hot seat

WASHINGTON — For a U.S. senator, holding the key vote on a big issue certainly has its perks.

You get invitations to appear on the Sunday talk shows. The White House cares what you have to say. Colleagues seek your input.

But it also brings a lot of pressure. Phone calls from angry constituents on both sides of the issue flood your office, pundits attack you and advocacy groups air ominous-sounding ads in your home state, trying to push you one way or the other.

The health care debate is putting Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska in just that situation.

He’s one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate at a time when every vote is crucial. Democrats hold 60 seats in the Senate, including the two independents who caucus with them.

Because it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, many of Nelson’s fellow Democrats are urging him to stick with the team. But Nelson has criticized many of the health care proposals on the table and has said that he won’t vote to advance a “bad bill.”

As the Senate moves closer to a vote, the pressure on Nelson will only increase.

Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, can sympathize.

“It’s a very uncomfortable position to be in,” Kerrey said in a recent interview.

Kerrey knows what he’s talking about. He was in a similar position in 1993, when the Senate considered President Bill Clinton’s economic proposals. Recalling that vote, Kerrey said he had staked out positions making it difficult for him to back the plan. But Clinton could afford to lose only a handful of Senate Democrats on the legislation.

“I’m watching the television and I see a press conference and there are five Democrats, the other five, announcing that they’re going to vote ‘no,’” Kerrey said. “I’m sitting in my office saying, ‘Oh, my God, now what do I do? I’m the last one.’”

Kerrey ultimately voted for the plan, saying he didn’t want to bring down the Clinton administration.

Kerrey said Nelson is being smarter in his approach to the health care bill by not forecasting how he’s going to vote.

“He’s not going to get trapped, as I did,” Kerrey said.

Still, the stakes are high on health care, an issue that is both sweeping in how profoundly it affects the country and that is intensely personal for people. The debate also has run into highly controversial areas such as abortion.

“Whatever you think of the bill, it’s a very tough vote for Ben,” Kerrey said. “Politically ... I would guess it’s the toughest thing he’s ever dealt with.”

Nelson declined to be interviewed for this article. Spokesman Jake Thompson noted that Nelson has said the only pressure he feels is “to make sure Washington policies benefit Nebraskans.”

But Nebraskans have diverse opinions on what those policies might be. A couple of liberal groups pushing for legislation with a strong public option recently released poll results indicating that Nebraskans were split on the idea of a public option, or government-run plan.

The Nebraska Democratic Party’s Central Committee has voted to support a health care bill with a robust public option, and about two dozen people rallied outside Nelson’s Lincoln office last week, urging him to support the legislation.

Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report said that at this point, Nelson seems to have little to worry about from his own party. Even if Nelson does vote against the health care legislation and angers some of the faithful, it isn’t clear that the party would have anyone with enough stature to mount a primary challenge when Nelson is up for re-election in 2012, Duffy said.

Of course, others in the state have been working just as hard to persuade him to oppose the legislation.

And Republicans, both nationally and in Nebraska, are ready to pounce on any vote in favor of the legislation.

Those on both sides of the debate have been buying enough advertising in Nebraska to make it feel like a campaign season.

For example, checks with just two Omaha television stations found that Americans for Stable Quality Care, a group pushing to make health care more affordable, had spent $366,000 to air 564 spots. A group called 60-plus, which has sponsored ads critical of the pending health care legislation, spent about $89,000 at the two stations to air 70 spots.

Based on his own experience, Kerrey said that whatever heat Nelson feels in the coming debate, his office receptionists will feel it more.

“The happy people aren’t calling,” Kerrey said. “It’s just one after another: ‘You tell Ben Nelson that he votes for that thing, why I’ll never ...,’ and after a while you get a little fatigued taking all that in.”

World-Herald staff writer Erin Grace contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:

202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com

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