GOP Senate Targets Keep Their Distance From Ryan
While Republicans in the House have lined up squarely behind Paul Ryan's budget plan, both vulnerable sitting GOP senators and Senate candidates haven't been nearly as enthusiastic about his entitlement reform package.
Indeed, as many Republicans facing competitive Senate races voted against the Ryan plan as supported it.
Three Republicans voted no (Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg), while three voted yes (Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and Missouri Rep. Todd Akin).
It's a far cry from the tally in the House, where nearly every targeted Republican backed the Ryan plan last month; only four members voted against it -- including Rehberg. Senate Republican officials believe that their candidates' distance from the Ryan plan will inoculate them from criticism on the campaign trail.
"In Montana, Nevada, Nebraska, New Mexico and a number of other states with competitive Senate races next year, there will only be one candidate definitively on the record in voting to cut existing Medicare benefits for seniors and that will be the Democrat," said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Brian Walsh.
But it won't stop Democrats from continuing to attack their top targets. "It's still the negotiating position for their party," DSCC spokesperson Matt Canter said. "And they are supporting their party's leadership on it."
"I think that says a lot about how they know how potent this policy is. They have to respond to their own voters," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, at a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
Most major Republican Senate candidates who are in Congress have avoided taking clear positions on Ryan's entitlement reform.
A spokesperson for former-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., would not say whether he would vote for the Ryan budget proposal, while In New Mexico, the campaign of former Rep. Heather Wilson did not comment when asked by Hotline On Call where she stood. Wilson's main GOP opponent, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez, when pressed in an interview Tuesday over whether he would vote for the measure, declined to commit to a yes or no vote.
In Florida, former Sen. George LeMieux and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos would not say they would vote for the measure, even though they had positive things to say about the plan.
Rehberg explained his April "no" vote by saying that the measure was "rushed through."
But there have been some exceptions.
In contrast to his Florida Senate primary opponents, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner vocally supported the plan. In Texas, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, viewed by some observers as more moderate than some other candidates in the GOP field and trying to shore up his conservative credentials, also said he would vote for it.
And Heller voted for the measure in the House last month, and voted for it again Wednesday in the Senate.
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