Not all Democrats falling for Obama
Jun 12, 7:18 AM (ET)
By BEN EVANS and SAM HANANEL
WA****NGTON (AP) - Nothing personal, Sen. Obama, but our re-election comes
first. Barack Obama, for all his attention and primary successes, does not
go over so well in a fair number of Democratic lawmakers' home districts.
So
it seems there is little chance that some will endorse him for president.
Some are counting on Republican votes in their re-election bids. Some are
newly minted and in rematches with 2006 opponents. Some may be wary of how
their constituents will react to a black presidential candidate. Some,
too,
have made it a practice of distancing themselves from the national party,
fearing the inevitable campaign ad that has their face morphing into
Howard
Dean, the party chairman, and Obama.
Rep. Dan Boren, the only congressional Democrat in Oklahoma, calls Obama
"the most liberal senator" in Congress and says he has no plans to make a
public endorsement.
"We're much more conservative" in eastern Oklahoma, Boren said. "I've got
to
reflect my district."
Georgia Rep. Jim Marshall, a Democrat and Vietnam veteran who won his last
election by about 1,800 votes, said he admires both Obama and Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., but feels no obligation to state a preference.
"If it turns out one of them is an ax murderer or something like that I'll
make a choice," he joked. Otherwise, "I don't think I need to get
involved."
For most of these fence-sitters - at least 14 as of Wednesday - it boils
down to political necessity: They are vulnerable Democrats in
conservative-leaning districts who take pains to avoid aligning closely
with
the national party.
McCain has his own issues in his party. Many conservatives opposed the
four-term senator, who has worked with Democrats and strayed from GOP
orthodoxy on some issues, before he sealed the GOP nomination in February.
Many still express reservations about him as the party leader.
Because McCain secured the party nomination much earlier in the campaign
season, Republicans have not been pressed about their endorsements like
Democrats have. But only a handful have publicly withheld their sup****t
for
him. That includes Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who long has bucked the
party
hierarchy, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is running his own presidential
campaign.
On the Democratic side, Boren said he, like most of the undecideds, will
go
along with nominating Obama at the Democratic convention in Denver in
August.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki challenged Boren over his *****sment
of
Obama and said the candidate had worked with Republicans in the Illinois
Legislature and in Senate.
Obama, seeking to become the first black president, is hardly the first
Democratic candidate to face such resistance. Over the years, moderates
and
conservatives have avoided associating with nominees going back to George
McGovern in 1972 and including John Kerry in 2004. Public endorsements
were
not an issue in 2004 since Kerry had wrapped up the nomination early.
"They are all scared to death about getting beat by a Republican," said
Sen.
Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of Obama's most prominent sup****ters. "I
don't
think that if the good Lord himself had been nominated as a Democrat that
some of those folks would have endorsed him. They are afraid of looking
too
much like a Democrat because of the kind of districts they're from."
As in the past, many uncommitted Democrats are from the South, which has
favored Republicans in recent elections.
Although Obama swept the region in the Democratic primaries with
near-universal sup****t from black voters, he often fared poorly among
working-class whites. As a result, he is seen as an asset in some
districts
but a question mark at best in others.
Rep. John Barrow, for example, represents a coastal Georgia district where
blacks make up more than 40 percent of registered voters, mainly in urban
areas around Savannah and Augusta. Not surprisingly, Barrow - who won his
last election by fewer than 900 votes - endorsed Obama in February.
But Marshall, the Democratic in***bent in a neighboring district in rural
central Georgia, has stayed quiet.
Marshall's district is less than one-third black, and he needs the sup****t
of white Republicans to win, including votes from the military community
around Robins Air Force Base. He faces a fresh challenge this year from a
retired Air Force general.
Republican campaign strategists already have shown they want to link
Democratic candidates with Obama and other national figures, such as House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's
former
pastor.
In special elections last month in Mississippi and Louisiana, Democratic
candidates Travis Childers and Don Cazayoux faced television ads
attempting
to make those connections.
But Childers and Cazayoux won surprise victories, raising questions about
the strategy's effectiveness.
Still, Childers is staying out of the presidential race, as is his fellow
Mississippi Democrat Gene Taylor. Cazayoux recently announced he is
backing
Obama.
Obama's campaign has made some progress in converting the holdouts.
Freshman
Rep. Nancy Boyda of Kansas, who had insisted she would not budge from the
undecided column, budged on Wednesday and endorsed Obama.
Boyda "has been impressed with Senator Obama's campaign because they're
willing to take their discussion to all 50 states, rather than just the
swing states," spokeswoman Liz Montano said.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a Democratic House leader who helped
orchestrate the party's strategy for winning control of Congress in 2006,
argues against reading too much into the holdouts. He said most of them
always stay out of national politics and that the party is generally
unified
around Obama.
"They're just going to stick to their knitting," he said. "It's not that
they're anti-Obama."
--
"Impeachment is off the table" Nancy Pelosi
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