Washington Examiner – by Philip Klein
On Dec. 24, 2009, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed President Obama’s healthcare law with a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, triggering a massive backlash that propelled Republicans to control of the House the following year. On the Senate side, going into this year’s midterm elections, 25 senators who voted for Obamacare were already out or not going be part of the new Senate being sworn in next month. After Democratic losses on Nov. 4 and Saturday’s defeat of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the number has risen to 30. In other words, half of the Senators who voted for Obamacare will not be part of the new Senate.
To be sure, it isn’t fair to attribute all of the turnover in the chamber to Obamacare. In some cases — such as John Kerry leaving his seat to become secretary of state, or Robert Byrd passing away — Obamacare clearly had nothing to do with the departures. Additionally, some outgoing pro-Obamacare votes were replaced by new Democratic senators (although that tended to be the case in heavily Democratic states).
That having been said, many senators who voted for Obamacare lost re-election battles in which they were hit hard for their support for the law and other Democrats were forced to retire because they had no hope of getting re-elected given their support for the law. A total of 16 Senators who voted for Obamacare either failed to win reelection or declined to run for reelection and had their seats turned over to Republicans.
The following is an updated breakdown of senators who voted for Obamacare and will not be part of the next Senate.
Lost and replaced by a Republican:
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
Arlen Specter, D-Penn.
Left Senate and replaced by a Republican:
Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V.
Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Tim Johnson, D-S.D.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa
Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Roland Burris, D-Ill.
Left Senate and replaced by a Democrat:
Jim Webb, D-Va.
Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Herb Kohl, D-Wis.
Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
Chris Dodd, D-Conn.
Paul Kirk, D-Mass. (appointed to replace Ted Kennedy — seat later held by Republican Scott Brown)
John Kerry, D-Mass.
Ted Kauffman, D-Del.
Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Died in office:
Robert Byrd, D-W.V
Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii
Frank Lautenberg, D- N.J
How come only Dems died in office?
I suspect we will find most of these ex-senators working for the large health insurers who they pandered to.
Just like the GOP didn’t get rid of abortion when they controlled EVERYTHING from 2000 to 2006.