A coalition of union and liberal groups began running television ads designed to get "the attention of one particular television viewer: Sen. Kay Hagan," The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record reports.
Hagan, a Democrat from North Carolina, is among the lawmakers who have expressed reservations about a public option.
"To pressure her and other senators, Health Care for America Now is backed by the AFL-CIO, ACORN, MoveOn.Org and the NAACP and has bought $1.1 million worth of television in 10 states, including North Carolina. The ads urge viewers to call their senators. Most of the other states in which the ads will run are home to members of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Hagan serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, which has first crack at crafting a plan. Although the ad says generically, "Tell your senator - It's your health. It should be your choice," a spokesman for the group says the North Carolina buy is aimed at Hagan."
A spokesman for Hagan told the News & Record that he didn't know if Hagan would ultimately support the public plan or not and that she was concerned millions of Americans would drop their employer-provided insurance they have now and move to a public plan (Binker, 6/21).
In the meantime, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has enlisted the help of close friend Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., for help in his re-election campaign by getting Kennedy to film a commercial with him, The Hill reports. Dodd has starred in a number of controversies in the last year, making his bid for re-election tougher than in previous years.
"Kennedy, perhaps Dodd's closest friend in the Senate, stars in a new television ad the Connecticut Democrat is running a year and a half before Election Day and vouches for Dodd's efforts to reform the nation's healthcare system. 'Quality healthcare as a fundamental right for all Americans has been the cause of my life, and Chris Dodd has been my closest ally in this fight,' Kennedy says in the ad, which is running in Connecticut" (Jacobs, 6/21).