Some say calculated risk of 'no' vote failed for Alabama Democrat in Gov. race

Pundits and politicos are saying that Rep. Artur Davis' calculated "no" vote on the federal health care reform backfired and contributed to his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for Governor in Alabama.

The Washington Post: "In what was widely thought to be a tight race, the state's agriculture commissioner, Ron Sparks, won the Democratic primary by 25 points. Davis looked stunned Tuesday as he gave his concession speech. Davis helped run Obama's successful 2008 primary campaign in the state and modeled part of his strategy on that effort." But groups around Alabama campaigned against Davis after his no vote on health reform. "An African American group called the Alabama New South Coalition, which had backed Obama in 2008 supported Sparks because, it said, 'Artur Davis voted against President Obama's health-care package to further his ambitions when the president needed him most'" (Bacon, 6/2).

The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News: "Davis gambled that he could win the Democratic nominee for governor while focusing on the November general election, political observers say. Hoping to attract independent voters in the fall, Davis snubbed black political groups and was the lone black congressman to vote against the federal health-care bill, an unpopular measure with the majority of Alabamians" (Jones, 6/3).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.