Congress is elected represent their district and represent their ideas and beliefs in Washington. Right now, some elected members think they know what is best for the people in their district with out ever asking them. DailyKos decided it was time to ask what the people in Henry Cuellar's district actually think.
The Research 2000 poll asked a few key questions about health care, Henry Cuellar, President Barack Obama and the 2010 election.Henry Cuellar has gone as far to The Hill he can't support any bill with the public option due to current costs structures.
A quick break down on the top lines of the poll indicate Cuellar's district does not feel the same way as Cuellar. When asked, "Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans?" 53% favor creating government administered health insurance options, 40% oppose the plan and 7% were not sure. The numbers change slightly when asked about a vague plan and attaching Barack Obama's name. When asked, "Generally speaking, do you favor or oppose Barack Obama's health care plan?" 51% of all respondents still favored the plan, with 42% opposed and 7% still unsure.
It's important to point out again, Cuellar is opposed to a public option and stand on the fence of health insurance reform as it is now in the House.
Another interesting question asked to the good people in Congressional District 28 was a question on trust. Republican's have been making the case that they are winning the debate on health care and are earning the average American's trust. Again, the top line results challenge this myth. When asked, "Overall who do you trust more on the issue of health care, the Democrats or the Republicans?" 44% favor Democrats and only 35% favor Republicans. Not quite the hearts and minds the Republican Party would have you imagine.
The poll finally shows that 49% of all respondents do not favor Cuellar's positions on health care and 41% do. Keep this number in mind because 22% of respondents also said they would be less likely to vote for Cuellar if he opposed a public health care option.
There is substantial more to this poll, and I encourage you to look at the whole thing, but with 1 in 4 Texans and 1.5 million children without insurance, maybe it is time for our elected officials to listen to their districts and fight for a public option.
Update: Just finished talking with Congressman Cuellar's office. The congressman stands in support of the public option but his staff has indicated he is not a strong supporter of the current House bill as indicated in the Hill article. A public statement is coming soon and we will get that up as soon as we get it.
Update:As promised, the Cuellar office released this statement to clarify the Congressman's position. Ashley Patterson, Cuellar's press secretary, e-mailed me. This is statement is unedited and is the entire statement.
"Congressman Cuellar is an advocate for health care reform and he has gone on the record supporting the public option. In fact, this August one publication in the 28th district referred to Cuellar as "Defending the Public Option". Another said Congressman Cuellar "maintains" that a vast majority of his uninsured constituents could be covered by the proposed House plan. The Congressman indicated last month that he could not support the bill in its current form, because he wanted to ensure Congress amended H.R. 3200 to ensure the plan's cost-efficiency. President Obama echoed similar cost concerns during his address to Congress earlier this month.
Congressman Cuellar has supported health care since serving in the Texas State Legislature. He coauthored the pilot program for what's now the Children Health Insurance Program in Texas. He hasn't wavered from recognizing the need for reform nor does he plan to in the future. He's asked honest questions about how this plan will affect the nation's deficit, but he hasn't pointed to the public option when asking these questions."
Phillip's ed. note: I think this is a good idea that is very, very, very poorly written. PLEASE VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET, and if you happen to live somewhere with a special election, take note. I'd imagine that if you are reading this blog, you'll be active enough to know there's a special election -- but please, please, please, vote straight ticket Democrat! Vote early, and vote often!
Straight Democratic Party Voting this November election - don't do it. It's a trap. (Phillip's ed. note: no it's not.)
For a good Democrat to tell other good Democrats not to vote a straight party ticket sounds insane. Especially this year when we have such a great slate of candidates. I mean it though, and Lloyd Doggett and John Courage will tell you the same thing this time around.
This Nov. 7th election is special. So special in fact, that it's really two separate elections if you live in any of these Congressional Districts 15, 21, 23, 25 or 28. These are the five US Congressional Districts that just got re-re-re-districted. The Congressional races on Nov. 7th in those districts are like open primary races. At least two of these races have more than five candidates running (CD21 & CD23). If no candidate wins their open primary race with more than 50% of the vote, a runoff of the top two vote getters will occur probably in December.
Quorum Report has the final list of candidates in each of the re-re-districted seats.
Interestingly, Albert Uresti (future state senator Carlos Uresti's brother) filed in CD-23 against Rodriguez, Bolanos, and Bonillia.
CD-21 ended up fielding a lot more candidates than originally expected including 3 independents, 1 and a half democrats, 1 republican, a libertarian, and the Treaty Oak.
The only person getting a free ride this go around is Rubén Hinojosa the Congressman in CD-15.
No Nonsense in November and Donna Howard's campaign both used online phonebanking in their campaigns to contact voters; I think it's a great way to harness the power of the netroots and to clean up voter information lists for future campaigns. I booked a computer lab at Rice last year during No Nonsense and was able to have a half-dozen volunteers call Double D voters from the comfort of our campus. If I wasn't busy with Garnet Coleman's campaign, I'd sign up for this myself.
If you haven't gotten involved with a local race, this might be a good opportunity to help out a good man running against one of the most right-wing Democrats in the House.
[Update: Ciro Rodriguez was on Majority Report tonight. Missed an email about this until now, but it's on their blog here.]
Ciro Rodriguez got another boost today in his race against Congressman Henry Cuellar in the Democratic Primary for CD-28 as his camp revealed a list of high-powered endorsements including that of 2004 Democratic Presidential Candidate and U.S. Senator John Kerry.
You will recall no doubt recall that Ciro Rodriguez lost to Cuellar in the CD 28 primary in 2004 by a very slim margin. Given Rodriguez's list of congressional endorsements, it appears his colleagues on The Hill want him back. The following sitting members of Congress endorse Ciro Rodriguez: (Fund-raising update below, too!)
(I'm working on taxes today, so thanks to Journalers like SADem you can be kept up to date, even on a Sunday. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Here's a shocker, the San Antonio Express-News has endorsed Henry Cuellar for re-election.
Among the reasons: "Cuellar has worked hard and demonstrated an independent nonpartisan mind-set that angered labor unions and other liberal interest groups."
"The congressman angered some Democrats with his willingness to work with Republicans, but extreme partisanship is a cancer that threatens to destroy the nation's political system. Cuellar's willingness to place his district ahead of his political party is refreshing."
Cheney's hunting victim apparently has had a heart attack. Apparently he's stable. So does that make him even with Cheney in the heart department or is our Veep still one up on him?
Latinos for Texas has a post on some interviews they have with Ciro Rodriguez. LFT-PAC is also meeting tomorrow to endorse in a number of races including Governor, HD-28, SD-19, HD-47 and maybe others. A good old fashioned caucus, sounds like fun!
Katy Hubener launches her first TV spot (as today marks the start of Early Voting in Dallas in HD-106). Watch it on her site. We'll be moving on to HD-106 Special Election coverage just as soon as we get HD-48 under our belt.
The Van Os campaign for Attorney General put out a press release today on Greg Abbott asking for some answers.
Texans have a right to know that wheeler-dealer Republican political operative John Colyandro, a central figure in the Tom DeLay-TRMPAC money-laundering scandal that funneled large sums of corporate dollars into the hands of Texas Republican candidates in the 2002 general election, served on Greg Abbott’s campaign payroll during the same time frame in 2002.
Texans also have a right to know that Greg Abbott is one of the favorite candidates of Bob Perry of Perry Homebuilders. Perry is one of the biggest financiers of Karl Rove’s favorite political tactic of maligning their opponent with insults and lies. For example, he financed the so-called "Swift Boat Veterans" in their 2004 smear of John Kerry. Since 2001 Bob Perry and his wife have contributed over $570,000 to Abbott's campaign accounts. In the month of December 2005 alone, Perry gave Abbott $50,000 in one payment.
In a post on The Red State blog, a recent ad by Frank Madla says that he helped created the CHIP program. However, he only co-authored the orignial bill.
On Daily Kos post about the Ciro-Cuellar debate at Sunset Station, Cuellar asserts, "The CHIP [Children's Health Insurance Plan] is a Texas program that I started."
And yet there is still a third possible source: Fort Worth Mayor and former State Senator, Mike Moncrief (D). According to the mayor's website, "...he has been recognized nationally for authoring the Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)..."
Although I'm strongly leaning toward supporting Ciro Rodriguez, my goal here was to create a somewhat neutral district profile for TX-28. I cross-posted over at my blog Casual Soapbox, and I'm thinking about cross-posting on MyDD also. I'd love to get some feedback, since I enjoy doing this sort of research in my spare time (when I have any). If people find it helpful, I might do a few more. What do you guys think? -- abramcf
The Democratic primary down in TX-28 seems to have heated up recently, since the photo of President Bush cupping the face of incumbent Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar at the State of the Union surfaced. That photo has prompted a surge of support for primary rival Ciro Rodriguez. With so much interest out there, I thought I'd post a district profile, like the one I did for TX-21 a few weeks ago.
One of the hottest races in Texas this spring is going to be in CD 28. This an overwhelming Democratic district, to the point that the GOP doesn't bother running anyone in it. So, in effect, whoever wins the primary in CD 28 wins the election. The current Congressman from this district is Henry Cueller. From what I can tell, he's not much of a Democrat...
On School Vouchers
He said last month that he is against school vouchers, but Lone Star Project has dug up a dozen or so quotes by Cueller promoting vouchers. Apparently he was for them before he was against them...check out the extended entry for all the quotes and sources.
On Katrina Voted no on H Res 437: To establish the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina.
According to Dos Centavos, where was Cueller when Congress was voting on he initial $10 billion aid package for the Katrina effort? At a photo op with John Carter and Mike McCaul. Who were they photo oping with? None other than John Carter and Mike McCaul (both Republicans).
On CAFTA Voted with 15 other Democrats to pass CAFTA.
On Redistricting In 2003, Cuellar worked with Tom DeLay ally and House Redistricting Committee Chairman Phil King to redraw Texas congressional districts and eliminate five senior Democrats from Congress. (Source: Phil King Deposition November 23, 2003)
On Immigration Broke with Democrats to support the Republican Immigration plan to build a wall along the US/Mexico border; (Source:109th Congress Roll Call vote 31, February 10, 2005)
On The Budget Broke with Democrats to support the Republican Tax Package; (Source: 109th Congress Roll Call vote 621, December 8, 2005)
On Tort Reform Broke with Democrats to support Republican Leadership to limit the access of individuals to pursue civil class action law suits; ( Source: 109th Congress Roll Call Vote 38, February 17, 2005)
Cueller was endorsed by the "Club for Growth". This is the first time the organization has endorsed a Democrat. Why did they endorse him?
"By voting for CAFTA, to repeal the Death Tax, to prevent huge tax increases, and for supporting school choice, Congressman Cuellar has become one of the House's most pro-economic growth Democrats," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "The House of Representatives would be better off with more Democrats - and even some more Republicans - who demonstrate Rep. Cuellar's commitment to their constituents' prosperity through economic freedom. It is particularly noteworthy that Rep. Cuellar cast these votes for a stronger economy despite intense pressure not to by some in his party."
And finally...
Cuellar was one of several Texas Democrats to support Bush over Al Gore in 2000.
If that doesn't work, let me paint you a picture:
Ciro Rodrigez is running against Henry Cuellar. If you have the time, please volunteer for him. At the very least, send a few dollars his way. (since this morning, the netroots has raised over $6000 for Ciro...help out if you can.
