Health law counts new allies, all-time high support in Calif.

The battle to win American hearts when it comes to supporting the health law continues as a new organization takes hold, a ranking lawmaker reiterates his intent to defend it and the law finds all-time high support in California.

Politico: The New Campaign: Obamacare For America
Several former White House staffers have found a new way to promote Obamacare: They're spending millions of dollars in secret corporate and union cash, and they're harnessing grass-roots tactics to some of the biggest names in the health care industry. Organizing for Action, the successor to President Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and Enroll America, a group led by two former Obama staffers that features several insurance company bigwigs on its board, are planning to unleash the same grass-roots mobilization and sophisticated micro-targeting tactics seen in the 2012 campaign (Haberkorn and Vogel, 2/1).

Politico: McDermott Won't Retreat On Health Care
In Jim McDermott's ideal world, health reform would have meant a single-payer health care system. But in Jim McDermott's real world, he'll happily defend President Barack Obama's health care law -- and defend is precisely what he expects to do in his new post as the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee (Cunningham, 2/1).

Los Angeles Times: Support for Health Care Overhaul Reaches All-Time High In New Poll
Support for President Obama's health care overhaul is at an all-time high in California, according to a new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California. The survey, released Wednesday, found that 55 percent of Californians back the changes to the nation's health care system under the federal Affordable Care Act, up 8 percentage points since last March (Mishak, 1/31).

The fight over health care also continues in the states, where Virginia lawmakers are criticizing the state's attorney general --

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Democrats Criticize Cuccinelli For Comments In His Book On Medicare, Social Security
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday denounced Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's remarks in his new book about government programs like Medicare and Social Security. The gubernatorial candidate's book, "The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty," will be released Feb. 12. But according to media reports on excerpts from the book, Cuccinelli writes that politicians bolster their power by creating benefits that make people dependent on the government (1/31).