CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Aug. 24, 2009 – 10:23 a.m.
So Much for the ‘Dog Days’ of August
By Bennett Roth, CQ Staff
Back in June when Rep. Gene Green , D-Texas, was considering venues for his August town hall meetings, he did what he has ordinarily done and reserved space at local civic clubs. The rooms hold about 75 people, which Green figured would be more than adequate; in past years less than a third of that would attend.
But, as it turned out, this was no ordinary summer break. The rooms were overwhelmed as large crowds showed up, many of them coming from outside his district and loudly protesting the Democrats’ direction on health care.
“We’ve never had this kind of activity,” said Green, who is in his ninth term representing a largely Hispanic and overwhelmingly Democratic district. Next year, he said, he may have to reconsider his meeting sites. He already has instituted a policy requiring town hall attendees to show photo identification to make sure they live in his district.
Members of Congress used to look forward to August as a month when they could escape the pressures of Washington, return to their districts for a handful of low-key meetings with constituents or travel abroad on fact-finding missions. Instead, August has proven to be a politically perilous period this year as health care interest groups including stakeholders like drug companies and hospitals, have mobilized to influence the debate.
Some Democrats saw this coming, warning that the summer break would turn into a political free-for-all if members went home without enacting legislation or crafting a coherent message to sell voters.
But nobody expected this. The question, analysts say, is whether August will ever be the same again. The combination of the 24-hour news cycle, the growth of the Internet and the amount of special interest money available sets a new template for outside groups and voters to take advantage of this month to influence public opinion and sway lawmakers on the issue of the day.
Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia, said he could not recall a late-summer period that has seen so much political activity on a policy issue, even during the stormy Vietnam War years.
“When you add it all together, it has made August the peak political season rather than the usual doldrums,” said Sabato. He said that while congressional leadership officially has labeled the August break “a work period,” it has been viewed in the past by lawmakers as an opportunity to take vacations or travel with colleagues. From now on, Sabato suggested, “their district work periods are really going to be work periods.”
It is true that health care is a particularly emotional issue that affects the public in every congressional district in a very personal way. Other issues may not spark such impassioned reactions and high-dollar lobbying during future breaks.
What makes this year stand out, said Rep. Russ Carnahan , D-Mo., is the passion that comes with health care. “The pace is very much similar to what I have done in past years,” Carnahan, now in his third term, said about his recess schedule. “The difference is the intensity of focus on one issue.”
A New Dynamic in an Off-Year
During election years, August has always had an element of unpredictability, given the slowness of the news and the number of people on vacation. President Obama this week acknowledged that late summer dynamic when he reminded health care overhaul supporters that last year around this time, many cable television pundits were claiming he had lost his momentum in the presidential race.
To make his point, Obama entered a new adjective into the political lexicon to describe the late summer drama: “There’s something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up,” he told Organizing for America National Health Forum.
In this off-year, much of the noise is being fueled by interest groups underwriting costly advertising blitzes and mailings, and organizing bus tours and noisy protests at town hall meetings.
Industry, advocacy and political organizations have pumped about $57 million into health care ads, much of it in the last 45 days, Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, told the New York Times. He said it was the quickest he had seen such a large expenditure of ad dollars.
The competing messages are being amplified by the Internet.
Jacki Schechner, a spokeswoman for a liberal coalition, Health Care for America Now, which is running television ads in selected GOP House districts, said that spots have more of an effect because they are posted on YouTube.
“It’s not just a one-off deal,” she said. “They can live in perpetuity online.”
Conservatives for Patients Rights, a group that opposes the Democrats’ health care plan and is being largely bankrolled by former hospital magnate Richard Scott, used its Web site to prod supporters into action by listing the schedule of town hall meetings.
Keith Appell, a spokesman for the group, said that many of the people who attend town hall meetings also watch cable television, which broadcast some of the more raucous meetings. He said the group’s goal was to exceed expectations for turnout at the town hall meetings, and even they were surprised at the size of the protests.
“This did touch a nerve,” said Appell, who is also a consultant with Creative Response Concepts, the Virginia based firm that developed the Swift Boat ads during the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned Sen. John Kerry ’s Vietnam service.
Some groups are also employing more old-fashioned ways of rallying voters.
The conservative Americans for Prosperity has chartered two buses that traveled to 13 states where the group stages rallies in opposition to the health care plan. “We are looking at specific congressional districts who have members who are on the fence and who need to hear from their constituents,” said spokeswoman Amy Menefee.
Another conservative group, Freedom Works, led by former House Republican leader Dick Armey (1985-2003), is reserving its funds for grass-roots organizing rather than television.
“Everyone just gets drowned out,” said the group’s spokesman, Adam Brandon, referring to the cacophony of television ads on health care. The anti-tax group is organizing a Sept. 12 rally in Washington.
On the other side, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union is spending $6 million in campaign activities supporting the president’s health care initiative.
Chuck Loveless, legislative director of the union, said it has no choice but to step up its efforts this month because the opposition is out in force and lawmakers are returning in September. However, he acknowledged that it can be challenging to get the public engaged in late summer.
“Kids are going back to school. They are on vacation. They have other things on their minds,” he said.
A Message Aimed at Leaders, Not Voters
Some question, though, whether all this activity will make a difference when lawmakers return in September. “These groups are buying into things without any real sense of payoff,” said Stephen Hess, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Hess says there are essentially two debates going on right now — a noisy public debate at town halls and a private debate among lawmakers over how to shape the health care system.
The interest group ads may be stoking some of the town hall activity, but they are really aimed at the latter debate in Washington.
Norman Ornstein, a political scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, cited “a high level of sophistication” in the way the interest groups have targeted their ads and other activities toward congressional leaders, members in swing districts and lawmakers who are central to the debate.
This kind of micro-targeting of ads was perfected by presidential campaign advisers such as Karl Rove, who in turn borrowed from the private sector how to tailor advertising to selected audiences.
This week, for example, the Club For Growth, a fiscally conservative group that opposes the Democrats’ health plans, unveiled spots intended to pressure three Senate Finance Committee Republicans who are involved in bipartisan talks on health care: Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming. The ads are playing in the three states represented by those senators.
Earlier this month a coalition that includes the major drug companies, hospitals and unions launched a $12 million advertising campaign in support of the president’s health overhaul efforts that is playing in dozen states with moderate and conservative Democrats.
Such ads may serve to bolster lawmakers rattled by critical town hall meetings by reassuring them they have allies, including some with deep pockets who can help them in the 2010 midterm elections, according to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication.
And Jamieson agrees that all this noisy — and expensive — activity is aimed at those on Capitol Hill who will be deciding what happens to the nation’s health care system. “This is a fight for the hearts and minds of members,” she said.
Greg Vadala contributed to this story.re
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: