Posted on 10/03/2010 1:35:51 PM PDT by DBCJR
It is 2,100 miles from the middle of the Wiregrass to San Francisco, but the Bay City's congresswoman has more to do with the outcome of Alabama's 2nd Congressional District race than any other person.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is at the center of television ads running in the Wiregrass against incumbent Democrat Bobby Bright by two outside organizations -- the National Republican Congressional Committee and the American Future Fund. One ad claims Bright has voted with Pelosi more than 7 out of 10 times since taking office almost two years ago.
Ask Republican challenger Martha Roby which of Bright's 1,500+ votes as congressman most displays the difference between the two candidates, and she will say Bright's first vote to confirm Pelosi as speaker.
Roby says Pelosi does not represent the values of the 2nd Congressional District.
"I don’t believe her liberal policies represent the conservative policies of those who live and work here in central and southeast Alabama. She sets the agenda," Roby said. "When the majority of Americans say we don’t want this health care bill, and they shove it down our throats every day, what else is there to say?"
Bright, meanwhile, includes no mention of Pelosi, or any other party leadership in his ads. Bright has cast himself as an independent voice in Washington who doesn't adhere to party politics. He scoffs at any attempt to tie him with Pelosi, and drew criticism from some pundits by -- in an off the cuff remark at a speaking engagement -- saying Pelosi could get sick and die as one possible reason the question of whether he would vote to confirm Pelosi again as speaker was premature.
Bright says the Pelosi angle won't fly in the Wiregrass.
"My opponent can’t handle it, so they invent and create issues that will try to separate me from my people. It insults their intelligence," Bright said.
"The fact is I have always voted with what my people want me to do. And they are so concerned about trying to take back the majority (in Congress) that they won’t acknowledge when someone is doing something right, and that’s wrong."
Bright points to his votes against major Democrat-sponsored legislation in Washington such as the stimulus bill, cap and trade and health care reform.
As for the ad from the NRCC, a Washington Post voter database does show Bright voting the same as Pelosi 71 percent of the time. However, many of those 1,500+ votes were procedural in nature and the same database lists Bright as the second-most independent member of Congress, behind only Democrat Walt Minnick of Idaho.
Roby said voting against the legislation is not enough. She said she would support and vote for Republican alternatives to the Democrats' failed legislation, and said she will push for a repeal of the health care reform law if elected.
"Bobby Bright has been given the opportunity to vote for Republican substitutes. All of the things he said he was concerned about in the health care bill was contained in the Republican substitute. It’s hard for me as a citizen and a voter in this district to understand exactly what he is for. If he is against Obamacare but not for common sense health care reform, then what is he for?"
Bright said there was "nothing to" the Republican health care alternative, and said the substitute is an example of political tricks and "gotcha politics" designed to trap him into casting votes that would be used against him by his opponents.
"We have had over 1,400 votes and so many of them have been motions to recommit, to bring up previous questions and they have been political shenanigans, legislative tricks," Bright said. "The truth of the matter is I voted against the massive health care bill twice and will continue to work to repeal the parts that are wrong."
Bright said he voted against the bill for several reasons, but primarily because it put an undue burden on small businesses and that he doesn't feel there is a mechanism in place to pay for the bill. He said he prefers "more of a market model" to health care reform.
Television ads from the Bright and Roby campaigns have been docile. Other organizations, however, have produced several attack ads.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has spent more than $256,000 in this election cycle in opposition to Bright, according to election records and the Sunlight Foundation, a political watchdog organization. Another conservative organization, the American Future Fund, has spent $420,000 so far in opposition to Bright.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent $365,000 in opposition to Roby thus far, the most recent media buy coming Tuesday for $176,000.
Bright has raised just more than $1 million thus far, with about $411,000 in individual donations and $690,000 in donations from political action committees. Roby has raised about $569,000, with $447,000 in individual donations and $120,000 in PAC donations.
Some political pundits called Bright's election in 2008 an "experiment." He was the first Democrat elected to the seat in 50 years.
On election day, voters will get to determine if they accept or reject the results of that experiment.
Pelosi is held in as much esteem as any dictator in history.
House Speaker Pelosi hangs over area race....
Images of the old hag riding her broom in a holding pattern....
Like a bad odor when someone has the vapors.
Will they leave her hanging until after election day or cut her down?
LOL!
Time for regime change
The thing I have asked Bobby Bright and what he can not reply to is this:
Why are you then a democrat?
"Your" people (I am one of his constiuents--NOT his people) do not want any of the goods the democrats are peddling.
So why, Bobby, are you a democrat???
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