Tag Archives: U.S. Senate

Senate Bill To Include Opt-Out Public Option

Harry Reid is holding a press conference starting at 3:15 to announce the details of the health care bill that will voted on by the Senate. Early reports say that the bill will include the opt-out public option. This is important because it will take 60 votes to remove the public option out of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears poised today to announce his intent to include a public option with an opt out clause in the bill he brings to the Senate floor.

Policy details will likely be scarce, and the draft bill could still change. What goes to CBO will have different options under certain sections of the legislation, and there are conflicting reports that Reid might ask the CBO to send back analyses of other versions of the public option. Though most on the left would prefer it if public option compromises would simply be suffocated of all oxygen, it’s also true that if a public option with an opt-out clause is included in the base bill, it will to a great extent shape the the floor debate. (For instance, 60 votes would be required to strip the public option out of the bill.)

I will update when the announcement is made.

Update The bill will include the public option.

Update #2 The bill will also contain co-ops. I’m not sure what that’s about. Is it for states who opt out to form state-based public options?

CASTLE TO RUN

Breaking News Update:

From Politico

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) will be running for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware, according to a source connected to the congressman, instantly giving Republicans the opportunity to flip a traditionally-Democratic seat in their column.

WDEL is reporting that Michael Castle has scheduled a press conference for noon today.  WDEL called it “ambiguous” in their tweet.

Last chance for predictions!

Update by Delaware Dem:

I removed the question mark from the title of this post due the News Journal article which states:

U.S. Rep. Mike Castle will announce today at a noon press conference whether he will seek public office again, his spokeswoman confirmed.

This is it. Our long local nightmare is over. Finally the tease ends.

Castle and Biden to Play Chicken?

Senate Guru has a nice post up about some of the potential gamesmanship between Beau Biden and Michael Castle in the next month or so.

Beau is due back this month from Iraq and Castle has been sitting on the pot for way too long.  Senate Guru’s guess is that neither of them wants to battle the other.  This may be true, but all we know for sure is that Mike Castle doesn’t want to go against Biden, otherwise he would have jumped in the ring, accepting all challengers.

For Beau, this suggests that if he comes back and jumps in the race with both feet, he’ll scare the “moderate poseur” into exile on the sunny beaches of Florida.  While I am on the record as not being 100% behind Beau, I’ll take him in a heartbeat over Castle.

In Which We See a Castle vs Biden Senate Race Becomes the CW

Tom Schaller over at Five Thirty Eight takes a long look at the possibility of a Republican taking the Senate seat previously held by Barack Obama. He cites an article written over at the Rothenberg Political Report notes that a seat held by someone who has gone to the White House (either President or VP) has flipped 50% of the time, but since the numbers involved are pretty small it is hard to know what that means. But before he gets to looking at the landscape of the Senate race in IL, he stops in Delaware first:

Let’s start with Delaware. As Gonzales points out, the only real possibility for a Republican winning there is if the state’s at-large congressman, Mike Castle, decides to risk his House seat to take on Vice President Biden’s son and current attorney general, Beau. But even that would be a tough challenge for Castle, because the young Biden will have not only the family name and the White House to bank on, but he will be a returning Iraq vet. If Castle runs, whatever happens you’d have to give him props for having the guts to take on the Bidens.

Am I the only one who is tired of hearing this story? Castle hasn’t decided on anything, and if Beau is to be in play here, the thing he needs to decide first is that he is going all in on the family business. A decision that it is nowhere clear to me (or some others I’ve spoken to) that he has made. Nor does this take into account that the political landscape here frequently is Castle vs Biden, if only by proxy. But I think that the thing that makes me really tired of hearing this over and over is the astonishing lack of any other names in the ring for this Senate seat for Delaware. I suspect the lack of other names is both about “whose turn is it now” AND that there may not be anyone beyond Beau who could credibly run for this seat.

There is nothing here that advances the story, and it is interesting that for one of the few Senate seats a R could win in 2010 that we’ve been stuck with the same narrative for so long.

End of the 2Q Fundraising

Today, June 30, is the end of the 2nd quarter and the last day to give for donations to appear in the 2Q fundraising reports (federal candidates). I know it’s not an election year, but fundraising reports, especially in the early race are used as a gauge of strength of a candidate. There are two worthy local candidates you could consider if you’re feeling generous.

John Carney, candidate for U.S. House of Representatives. Carney will either be taking on Delaware powerhouse Mike Castle (which I think is unlikely) or he’ll be taking on someone from the shallow bench (to be named later).

Links: John Carney for Congress
You can also give through Act Blue (a worthy organization dedicated to electing Democrats): John Carney at Act Blue

There is also a Senate race in Pennsylvania that is shaping up to be of national interest. Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat-again Arlen Specter will probably be taking on Representative (and retired Admiral) Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race. Sestak is not a progressive, but he is a loyal Democrat and Specter is a loyal Specterite. This will really be something to watch! The winner of the Democratic primary will probably take on Republican Pat Toomey, who barely lost to Specter in the Republican primary of 2004 and whose candidacy helped push Specter out of the Republican Party. Early money in this race will be key.

Links: Joe Sestak’s official web page
There isn’t yet an official Sestak for Senate page, but here is the Act Blue page.

There are lots of other interesting 2010 federal races if these two don’t catch your fancy.
Fivethirtyeight.com’s Top Ten Senate Races (June edition)
TheHill.com’s Top Ten 2010 House Races