Panicked Healthcare Lobbyists Descend On Massachusetts To Save The 60th Democratic Vote For Reform

[eridani]

Despite that, I donated to Coakley and am phonebanking for her. We just can't afford a teabagger in the Senate from a blue state. Hoping she wins and and that someone more progressive will mount a primary challenge in two years.

http://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-lobbyists-descend-on-massachusetts-to-save-the-60th-vote-for-reform-2010-1

We've been following the special election in Massachusetts, where the GOP hopes to pull a surprise upset in the race to fill Ted Kennedy's seat.

If they do pull it off, healthcare reform is instantly in trouble, as the Democrats drop below 60.

But money is coming to the rescue of Democrat Martha Coakley -- healthcare industry lobbyist money, specifically.

Tim Carney identifies several of her top fundraisers. Take a look at who they represent:

Thomas Boggs, Patton Boggs: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Chuck Brain, Capitol Hill Strategies: Amgen, BIO, Merck, PhRMA
Susan Brophy, Glover Park Group: Blue Cross, Pfizer
Steven Champlin
Licy Do Canto, Raben Group: Amgen
Gerald Cassidy, Cassidy & Associates: U. Mass Memorial Health Care
David Castagnetti, Mehlman, Vogel, Castagnetti: Abbot Labs, AHIP, Astra-Zenaca, General Electric, Humana, Merck, PhRMA.
Steven Elmendorf, Elmendorf Strategies: Medicines Company, PhRMA, United Health
Shannon Finley, Capitol Counsel: Amgen, Astra-Zeneca, Blue Cross, GE, PhRMA, Sanofi-Aventis.
Heather Podesta, Heather Podesta & Partners: Cigna, Eli Lilly, HealthSouth
Tony Podesta, Podesta Group: Amgen, GE, Merck, Novartis.
Robert Raben, Raben Group: Amgen, GE.

Of course, this is how politics works. Lobbyists for various corporations and causes get involved wherever they can for candidates of both parties. But when you see all these big pharma (and insurance!) representatives coming with cash for a crucial vote, you know which side they're on.

[femmocrat]

1. And if she wins, she will be beholden to them....

That is also how politics works.

[Rowdyboy]

2. And if she loses,health care reform is over for the next 15 years or so....

That is also how politics works.

[Nikki Stone1]

18. If she loses, Obama should reinstate the Public Option in reconciliation and save the HOUSE seat in

November. That's the way to do it.

[David Zephyr]

23. Your lips to his ears.

That would be something.

[Nikki Stone1]

25. It could save the November elections

And all those House seats.

[Ian David]

3. Scott Brown vs Martha Coakley on the issues

Scott Brown vs Martha Coakley on the issues
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7483204

[Fumesucker]

12. But the OP was about the issue of HCR... And how the HC companies actually love it..

[FLAprogressive]

14. Barely a difference. Either the way the seat moves to the right....

[Ian David]

19. It's a HUGE difference. But yes, the seat "moves to the right" of Ted Kennedy, The Liberal Lion.

The question is, how FAR to the right do YOU want it to go?

[robinlynne]

4. You guys, Diebold is counting the votes! read bradblog. seriously.

How can people continue to act as if an election counted by Diebold is in fact a real election?
wake up!

[skids]

9. Our system is not COMPLETELY hack proof but it is solid...

Opscan throughout. I've never seen anything but a scan-on-the-spot. There's a paper record to fall back on. Plus given the Republicans are just gadflies here and a large number of the "indies" are "non-joiners" and so never volunteer at the polls, if anyone had to worry, it would be Brown -- any paid election office jobs tend to be patronage, and the Dems have a lock on that, here (a problem, but nothing has blown up so they seem at least moderately competant.) T

he precious little old ladies who do the poll work generally strike me as the honorably ethical type, though.

There could/should be improvements, of course. I'd start with mandatory hand count validation of a random subsample.

Feel free to be surprised that we have so many ignorant voters, but as far as the election system goes, we are no Ohio.

I appreciate Brad Blog for staying on the issue, but I have to say in this case it's bordering on sensationalism.

[robinlynne]

15. There is nothing at all safe about opscan. Diebold to boot. the little old ladies have

absolutely nothing to do with how Deibold programs the scanners. or what is inside the memory cards. There is nothing solid about it. at all.

[skids]

17. I've been on the election fraud issue since 2004...

I started posting here at DU almost exclusively in the Elections forum.

The system here in MA needs improvement, but my concern about Diebold actually pulling off a fraud here and not getting caught is pretty low, I have to say.

[robinlynne]

28. here you go. I'm only allowed a few paragraphs, so read the whole article via link at bottom:

......


With the 60th "filibuster-proof" Senate seat now hanging precariously in the balance, I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that the winner will now be whoever Diebold declares it to be. The near-entirety of the state will vote next Tuesday on paper ballots to be counted by Diebold op-scan systems. The same ones used dubiously in the New Hampshire Primary in 2008, and the same ones notoriously hacked --- resulting in a flipped mock election --- in HBO's Emmy-nominated Hacking Democracy.

And to make matters even worse, the notorious LHS Associates --- the private company with the criminal background that has admitted to illegally tampering with memory cards during elections, and which has a Director of Sales and Marketing who embarrassed himself with obscene comments here at The BRAD BLOG some years ago, resulting in his being barred from CT by their Sec. of State --- sells and services almost all of MA's voting machines along with those in the rest of New England.

Read my detailed coverage of the entire sad affair over at Gouverneur Times today. And yes, here we go again...


link: www.bradblog.com

[robinlynne]

29. why? they do it over and over. And poeple take it to court over and over,

and the judges decide against recounts over and over. Even the Dem Congress decided against contesting the 13 elections whose counts were contested by Dem candidates in 2006.

[eridani]

24. Not foolproof of course, but it REMAINS auditable

That is a huge difference. Wish people in states other than Oregon and Minnesota required mandatory auditing, though.

[skids]

30. It would be nice if any of the voting accuracy groups...

...had a program to approach secretaries of states and to fund a recount of a few randomly selected precincts for each election, in states where paper records are kept.

Of course, a lot of SOS's would turn a free audit down, but then we'd know who needed to be replaced.

The other thing such organizations could do is get a volunteer network to go grab the tallies that are posted on precinct doors immediately after the election in many states.

As it is there's a lot of fundraising, a lot of media outreach, some lobbying of rather limited effectiveness, and a lot of noise, but not much actual feet-on-the-ground, ballot counting, precinct-subcount-auditing action. The last organization that actually had plans to do some sort of auditing (USCV) decided to go the lobbying path instead a year or so ago, though I still hold them in higher regard than the rest since they actually bother to acknowlege (and quantify) that opscan with random audits can be made adequately secure.

So, I stopped bothering with this mini-movement.

[eridani]

32. A lesson from my laboratory

A schematic of the workings of a scale posted nearby is all very well and good, but you still need to check it daily with standard weights.

[robinlynne]

16. olid if you dumped the scanners and memory cards, and had the little old ladies

count the votes AT the precincts and in public.

[xchrom]

5. Quelle amuse, eh? Nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. Yes, Insurance and Pharma rush in to save the "reform" that they LOVE

How is it reform if the very industries it is supposed to "reform" are doing everything in their power to maintain this bogus illusion?

I am still trying to figure out how President Obama and the Dems ALL BY THEMSELVES came up with a plan that repudiated every single aspect that would constitute real reform and managed to put together an abomination that the 2 out-of-control industries LOVE and would do anything to preserve, alienates any and all actual reform seekers, will do nothing to control costs, will cost who knows how many Democratic seats and will eventually RETURN PUBS TO POWER in the very near future.

How did this happen, exactly, this perfect confluence of events?

How did we get reform designed by Democrats that any Republican would love and that they(Repubs) will ride to a wave of future victories?

Boy, were we played. I believe someone will torpedo this mutant. I have my eye on Byron Dorgan.

If Dorgan blows up the deal, I think the Repubs have already given the go-ahead to Snowe and Collins to make the shift TO MAKE SURE IT PASSES.

[wtmusic]

7. The could be donating to both candidates

although one of these supporters shows up in the opensecrets.org database.

Coakley has raised 5x as much as Scott Brown.

[Oregone]

8. Fucking disturbing

Oh, big pharma and insurance must be shaking in their boots about reform not being passed


Sarcasm, of course

[endless october]

10. her vote on the health insurance bailout is the least of my concerns.

honestly, i'd be more excited if she voted against this POS bill.

then there would be a chance to start over on real reform.

if it takes another 15 years to get single payer, that's better than this POS non-solution,

[BlueDemKev]

20. Here's the truth....

....if Coakley wins, and health care reform is passed this year, it will take approximately 15-20 years to get to single-payer (as the law incrementally gets more meat added to it). If Coakley loses, the health reform bill is dead, the Democrats will be exterminated in November, Obama's presidency will effectively be over, and our grandchildren may not live to ever see any kind of health reform bill passed.

VOTE FOR COAKLEY ON TUESDAY!!!!!!!

[OHdem10]

11. She was in DC with Lobbyists on Moday for a Fundraiser. She

owes her soul to them.

Another Pro-Business Democrat to throw middle class under
the bus.

This is why I cannot get excited over this election.

[pnwmom]

13. How do you know the same corps didn't give even more money to Brown? n/t

[eridani]

26. I'm sure they're hedging all their bets n/t

[pnwmom]

27. Then I think your headline is misleading. They're not panicking, and they're

most likely giving money to both candidates.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

21. Sure hope this isn't common knowledge in MA.

Democrats pissed off about healthcare are not going to view this as a plus for Coakley.

[MisterP]

22. and that's how it'll play out from now until 2118:

run a corporate candidate vs. a teabag candidate, then scream that the boogeyman is gonna get us all if we don't pour ourselves into the corporatist project, or that we "can't afford" this "just to send a message"

because the DLC and other neolib, cosnervative, corporate power brokers will know that we'll fold

every.

damn.

time.

all the while admitting how bad a candidate is

[glitch]

31. That's the corporate tag-team "winning" formula alright. nt