{"id":14630,"date":"2010-03-16T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14630"},"modified":"2010-03-16T15:05:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:05:18","slug":"teague-pressured-from-both-sides-as-health-care-vote-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/teague-pressured-from-both-sides-as-health-care-vote-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Teague pressured from both sides as health-care vote looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Congressman hasn\u2019t decided how he\u2019ll vote, spokeswoman says, but he still has \u2018serious concerns\u2019 about the legislation<\/h4>\n

The New York Times is the latest news outlet to single out U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a>, D-N.M., as one of the House Democrats who could decide the fate of health-care reform, highlighting the immense pressure on Teague from the left and right as the debate comes to a head.<\/p>\n

The congressman still has \u201cserious concerns\u201d about the legislation, a spokeswoman said. Teague voted against the House version<\/a> of the bill last year.<\/p>\n

But Teague hasn\u2019t decided how he\u2019ll vote when the Senate version of the legislation comes up for a final vote in the House, spokeswoman Sara Schreiber said. The vote could come by this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the health-care reform debate began last year, Harry Teague has hosted dozens of public meetings and has had conversations with constituents in every corner of his district and on both sides of the issue,\u201d Schreiber said. \u201cOne thing is clear \u2013 his constituents expect him to read the bill and take time to analyze the impact before making a final decision, and that is exactly what he intends to do once there is a final proposal on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, Harry Teague voted no on the House health-care bill and has expressed serious concerns about both the Senate bill and about using reconciliation instead of regular order to move this bill through the Congress,\u201d Schreiber said.<\/p>\n

Reconciliation is a procedural move that is intended to allow debate without threat of a filibuster. Under such a process, a bill needs only a simple majority \u2013 not 60 votes \u2013 to pass.<\/p>\n

Pressure from White House, Pearce<\/h3>\n

Teague is one of 37 House Democrats who voted against health-care reform in November. The Times on Monday singled Teague out<\/a>, along with three others, as \u201camong those House Democrats whose decisions could make or break the legislation.\u201d The newspaper is also reporting that the White House plans to prioritize fundraisers and visits to member\u2019s districts in favor of those who voted for the legislation, providing an extra incentive for those members who are in tough re-election battles.<\/p>\n

Teague is in one of the most hotly contested House races in the nation. He\u2019s facing former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, a Republican, and Pearce has a narrow lead in the two polls that have been released publicly.<\/p>\n

While Obama and others are pushing Teague to vote for the legislation, Pearce and other Republicans have been pressuring Teague to vote against it \u2013 or at least providing a preview of how they\u2019ll attack if he supports it. The Pearce campaign put out a news release on Monday asking, \u201cWill Teague sell vote to Pelosi on health care?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexicans have been patiently waiting to hear how Congressman Teague will vote on the health care bill,\u201d Pearce spokeswoman Alicia Collins said in the release. \u201cThe question remains, will he vote with New Mexico and America and say \u2018no\u2019 to the higher taxes, government take-over of health care and job killing legislation? Or will Teague vote \u2018yes\u2019 and sell his vote for a presidential visit and extra cash for his campaign coffers?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times is the latest news outlet to single out U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., as one of the House Democrats who could decide the fate of health-care reform, highlighting the immense pressure on Teague from the left and right as the debate comes to a head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,117,116],"class_list":["post-14630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-health-care","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}