‘No’ vote on healthcare reform not helping Democrats seeking reelection

Four House Democrats who voted against their party’s healthcare reform law had already lost reelection by 10 p.m., and many more were expected to follow suit before night’s end.

And Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who first voted for the law and later against the healthcare reconciliation bill when her vote wasn’t as vital, has lost reelection to Republican Rep. John Boozman.

Democratic Reps. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.), Chet Edwards (Texas), Glenn Nye (Va.) and Rick Boucher (Va.) had clearly lost by 10 p.m. In all, as many as 27 of the 34 Democrats who voted against the president’s healthcare overhaul could lose their seats in the midterm elections, according to a review of The Cook Political Report‘s Nov. 1 list of competitive House seats.

And Democrats could lose yet more seats previously held by healthcare reform foes.

For example, the Democrat running to replace retiring Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.), Roy Herron, has already lost to Republican Stephen Fincher. 

In Arkansas, retiring Rep. Marion Berry’s (D) chosen replacement, Chad Causey, is trailing badly behind Republican Rick Crawford. Berry, a yes vote the first time around, voted against the healthcare reform bill in March out of concerns it wasn’t clear enough on abortion and did too little to control costs.

Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) also left his seat wide open when he retired to run for the Senate. Republican Jeff Landry is ahead of Democrat Ravi Sangisetty in that race. (Meanwhile, in the Senate race, Melancon was badly trailing incumbent Republican Sen. David Vitter.)

Only Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Daniel Lipinski (Ill.) and Collin Peterson (Minn.) were expected to easily coast to reelection. And Democrat Terri Sewell is considered a shoo-in to replace Rep. Artur Davis (Ala.), who resigned to run for governor and lost in the Democratic primary.