Health law leaving mark on Hill campaigns; Obama courts Latinos on health issues

Health care votes and positions continue to leave their mark on races for office around the country as well as in the battle for the presidency where both Mitt Romney and President Obama are courting Latino voters.

The Washington Post: Virginia Poll: Kaine, Allen Still Tied In Much-Watched Senate Contest
Yet the new poll includes some negative trends for Kaine: Registered voters are now equally divided in their impression of him, with 41 percent apiece viewing the Democrat favorably and unfavorably. A year ago, Kaine's rating was 2 to 1 positive, at 57 to 28 percent. Kaine's decline could be the partial result of negative ads that have aired against him in the state and efforts by Republicans to link him to health care reform, the stimulus package and other controversial Obama administration policies (Pershing and Craighill, 5/8).

The Associated Press: Chamber To Run Congressional Ads
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching ads in Florida, Missouri, Hawaii and Ohio as Democrats struggle to hold Senate seats and their slim majority. The Republican-friendly lobbying group is also targeting 17 House races from New York to Minnesota. The ads, hitting Democratic incumbents over votes for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and backing his energy policies, will begin airing Wednesday and Thursday and run for 10 days to two weeks, part of a multimillion-dollar buy six months before the election (Cassata, 5/8).

The Associated Press: Obama And Romney Campaigns Target Hispanic Voters
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is launching a series of Spanish-language television ads in three battleground states. ... The Obama campaign ads promote the president's federal health care overhaul, and are running in Florida, Nevada and Colorado. Polling shows that Obama has a wide lead over Romney among Hispanics (Fouhy, 5/8).

Denver Post: Obama Campaign Launches Second Round Of Spanish-Language Ads
President Obama's re-election campaign is releasing a new series of Spanish-language ads in Colorado, Nevada and Florida today. The ads focus on how the Affordable Care Act, the president's health care legislation currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, affects Hispanics. They follow ads that went up last month about how Obama's education policies -- particularly Pell Grants and HeadStart -- impacted the Hispanic community (Burnett, 5/8).

Politico: Obama Up With Second Spanish-Language Ad Campaign
President Obama's re-election campaign is going on the air with a second series of Spanish-language ads. According to the campaign, the ads will air in Colorado, Nevada and Florida. The ads tout Obama's health care reform effort -- a reform effort that the campaign says has made affordable health care available for up to 9 million Hispanics. It's the second Spanish-language ad buy from the campaign -- with the Obama campaign hoping to max out their support among Hispanics wary of Republican rhetoric on immigration (Tau, 5/8).