GOP Robo Calls Target Kratovil on Health Care
Rep. Frank Kratovil, of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, earned the dubious distinction Thursday of becoming the only Maryland congressman to be targeted Republican robo-calls over the health care issue.
As President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress launch a final push for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. medical system, Kratovil again finds himself uncomfortably in the spotlight on a major national issue.
Republicans have seized on media reports that list Kratovil as a potential flip-flopper on the issue to batter the 41-year-old centrist Democrat with a fresh wave of attacks.
In fact, though Kratovil has been widely reported to be among a small group of House Democrats who might change his position, he reiterated this week that he intends to vote against the Democratic legislation that is expected to come before the House later this month.
The freshman congressman, a popular target for Republicans since the day he took office last year, is among the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country in 2010 because he won by a razor-thin margin in a largely Republican district in 2008.
Kratovil voted against the House version of the health care bill last year and has said he will vote against the Senate version of the bill when it comes back to the House sometime in the next few weeks.
That vote is designed to be the first phase of an effort by Obama and the Democrats to push health care legislation through Congress, using a process known as reconciliation that both parties have employed over the years to gain approval of controversial measures with 50 Senate votes, as opposed to a 60-vote supermajority.
Kratovil has said he remains open to voting for the reconciliation package, but only if it addresses his concerns--which include the overall cost of the package and the impact on small businesses and rural areas--that led him to oppose the Democratic proposal last year, his spokesman, Kevin Lawlor, said.
However, the Marylander is regarded as unlikely to support the follow-up initiative unless it receives broad bipartisan support in Congress.
“He’s reserving judgment,” said Lawlor, referring to the reconciliation package that has yet to be written and would first have to clear the Senate. “But he’s not going to vote for anything that looks like the House bill that he voted against.”
Lawlor said that the call volume to Kratovil’s Washington office had gone up Thursday after the automated Republican calls went out across the district.
“We’ve gotten an awful lot of phone calls, and it’s hard to tell what comes from a paid robo call and what doesn’t,” the Kratovil aide said. “We’ve consistently engaged with our constituents on this issue, and the calls are a good opportunity for us to tell people that he voted “No” on the bill the first time it came through the House. In most cases, callers agree with the actions he’s taken on the issue.”
Andy Sere, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, said that “thousands of targeted phone calls” were going out to Kratovil’s district, which takes in the entire Eastern Shore and portions of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties.
He said the national Republican Party's House committee, which is unofficially backing Baltimore County state Sen. Andy Harris’s campaign for the Republican nomination this fall, had not yet begun to air a new round of radio attack ads against Kratovil, as it did last year.
The shape of the national Republican campaign against Kratovil “will continue to evolve as things change,” Sere said in an e-mail.
Here is a transcript of the NRCC calls targeting Kratovil:
Hello I’m calling from the NRCC with a Code Red alert about an impending health care vote in Congress. Even though a majority of the country wants them to scrap it, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are planning to ram their dangerous, out-of-control health care spending bill through Congress anyway. What’s worse, Congressman Frank Kratovil might vote for it. Frank Kratovil votes with Nancy Pelosi 84% of the time and may follow her orders on this bill, too. Frank Kratovil might vote for a bill that will kill jobs, raise the costs of health care, and increase taxes. Frank Kratovil should be focusing on creating jobs, yet he might be the deciding vote that causes this massive new spending bill to pass. Please call Frank Kratovil now at 202-225-5311 before it is too late and tell him to vote "No" on Nancy Pelosi's dangerous health care scheme. Visit www.NRCC.org/CodeRed to learn more. This call was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. 202-479-7000.
To listen to an audio version of the call, click here.
Comments
I oppose this health care bill and feel that our representatives should vote to support the wishes of the majority of their constituants. Even though I am a Republican, I feel that Frank Kratovil is a reasonable, moderate politician with integrity. On the other hand, I believe Andy Harris to be just the opposite!! I have watched him campaign tactics that use every method we despise in government officials. He is a far right radical Republican, extreme in his social beliefs and I find him extremely arrogant. He resembles anaother sxisting state Republican who uses similar campaign techniques to win votes, instead of winning on his own merits. Do wither of them answer the concerns of the people? NO. Never seen it happen. It's time the public insists that politicians stick to the truth and win on their own merits . Also, there are already too many broken promises in politics today. Sound familiar? All I ask of my Congressman is: Oppose this revised health care plan, and oppose the dangerous proposed Ruthsburg site that will cause cancer-causing chemicals in the explosive residue to permeate our water table, contaminating local crops, Chesapeake marine life and cause cancer. The chemical dangers are now a matter of public knowledge. Any representative explosed to this chemical information, but proceeds to support a site that pruduces these carcinogens, will be held personally-liable for the cancer and environmental damage it causes.
Posted by: M French | March 6, 2010 12:23 PM
Kratovil is a good guy. The RNC is desperatley trying to make him look like the enemy though. He might this, He might that.
Code Red - he might vote. So ingenious.
Sounds like fear-mongering to me.
So far Kratovil has been a man of his word. The competition from the RNC is not.
Posted by: matteasternshore | March 10, 2010 2:27 PM
Why should Kratovil and other moderate democrats fall on their swords for ObaMarxist and the other Socialists?
Posted by: rory | March 12, 2010 8:26 PM
Thank you Rep. Kratovil for your no vote previously, and I hope you have been listening to our calls. I am from the eastern shore, I am a Republican, and I voted for you. This is because I expect that you will do the right thing. Please stand the ground and vote no again as our voice on the shore.
Posted by: Jess | March 16, 2010 2:53 PM
It would be a shame for Congressman Kratovil to vote to retain his office by voting to appease conservatives, who are rabidly against any Democrat and even against liberal or moderate Republicans. Republicans love to pray in the streets with one eye open to see if they are getting the credit from the fickle crowds. I hope he has the moral courage to vote for this health care bill. His victory was on the President's coat tails. His loss will be because he betrayed the trust of Democrats and the poor, the least of these our bretheren, as Jesus says.
Posted by: SKVAM | March 20, 2010 3:57 AM
Congressman Kratovil,
Please keep up the fight to say no
. I am a 27 year old american citizen. I do not want our children to pay for our mistakes if this bill gets cramed down our throats. It will destroy this economy even more. Thank you.
Posted by: eric opperman | March 20, 2010 2:13 PM
Eric, I know that you were a lousy speller in elementary school, but you still don't know how to properly spell "crammed". If you're going to use Faux News words, then learn how to spell. Shame on you...27 and a citizen? LOL.
Posted by: Eric's Teacher | March 21, 2010 3:23 AM
SKVAM:
I, and many others, believe passage of this health care bill will hurt everybody, including the poor. We believe health care will get more expensive and less accessible for all people. Insurance rates will go up. The poor will be hurt by passage of this bill. So will the rest of us. Except of course, the ones voting for it, since they are exempting themselves from it.
Posted by: BA Ray | March 21, 2010 10:21 AM
Dear Editor,
Last Thursday, we were among 8,000 others called to participate in Congressman Frank Kratovil’s phone-in town meeting. If I needed any more proof of how little any opposition counts with our representative in the U.S. Congress, I got it.
For 58 minutes our so-called Democratic congressman spoke from the same script he used last August. It was as if not one thing had been done to modify the upcoming bill to please him, his Blue Dog colleagues, and his Republican soul mates. He kept repeating references to things in the bill he knew the American People wouldn’t like, but failed to articulate what those were. Surely he was aware many of the problematic parts had been removed.
When I called his office last August, I urged him to fight for an inclusion of a Single-Payer or Public Option, because I believed without such safeguards the program was bound to fail. I was assured he was in favor of a Public Option.
On Thursday night, not one call was taken from the Annapolis side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Not one. I did not get a chance to ask him what happened to the Public Option he had favored, and he never mentioned it.
One caller asked him a question I wanted to ask: What is the difference between a Blue Dog Democrat and a Republican? Listening to Mr. Kratovil waffle the answer to that question was as good as anything we see on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart Show. The answer? There is no difference!
Mr. Kratovil seems a far bettter candidate than his last opponent, Mr. Harris, so why doesn't he come clean and run as the Republican he surely is!
Posted by: Gabrielle Strandquist | March 24, 2010 9:57 AM