Posted on 11/03/2010 12:13:39 PM PDT by Libloather
Arizona and Oklahoma vote to reject insurance mandate
By SARAH KLIFF | 11/3/10 4:11 AM EDT
Voters in Oklahoma and Arizona resoundingly supported ballot initiatives to opt-out of the federal health reform law, while Colorado voters appeared headed to rejecting a similar measure.
Strong support for the anti-health reform ballot initiatives, which push back against the health law’s mandated purchase of insurance, echoed a national swing in favor of the Republicans, who reclaimed the House and picked up at least a half dozen Senate seats Tuesday night.
Oklahoma approved an opt-out ballot initiative by a 2-to-1 margin. Proposition 106 in Arizona gained 55 percent of the vote while Colorado’s Amendment 63 was trailing early Wednesday morning.
Missouri voters approved a similar measure, Proposition C, with 71 percent support on a primary ballot in August.
All three ballot initiatives on Tuesday would amend state constitutions specifically to outlaw the mandated purchase of health insurance. The winning Arizona and Oklahoma ballot initiatives were based off of model language from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that promotes limited federal government.
Health reform advocates have written off the ballot efforts as little more than symbolic gestures that have no effect on the implementation of the health reform law, given that federal law supersedes state regulations.
But the ballot initiative supporters say their efforts do more than send a signal about voter opposition to the health reform law, laying the foundation for future legal challenges.
I don’t think it’s symbolic at all,” says Eric Novack, the orthopedic surgeon who directs Arizonans for Health Care Freedom, the group that backed Proposition 106. “It becomes, in some ways, a foundation for rational health care reform that can protect the rights of the individuals, increase access and encourage innovation.”
Mike Krause, campaign coordinator for Colorado’s Amendment 63, said his side struggled against strong liberal organization and tight campaign races. While Arizona and Oklahoma had longtime Republican senators, John McCain and Tom Coburn, to help solidify report, Colorado had a tight race between incumbent Democrat Michael Bennett and challenger Ken Buck.
“Democrats and the left have built a very impressive capacity to get out the vote that flipped the state blue in 2008,” Krause told POLITICO. “I think that capacity, which is quite impressive, is still in place.”
Krause also notes that the health reform opt-out amendment fared much better than other conservative issues on the Colorado ballot. An anti-abortion measure that would have declared life as beginning at conception, for example, only received 25 percent of the vote.
The ballot initiative campaigns ranged greatly in size and scope. Arizonans for Health Care Freedom raised and spent about $2 million, running television ads and distributing 700,000 flyers over the weekend. The backers of Amendment 63 in Colorado ran a much smaller-scale operation, relying on about 7 to 10 volunteers driving 3,000 signs around the state and using Facebook advertising to get their message out.
“With $2 million we would have won,” says Krause. “We’d be lucky if we even spent 15 percent of that.”
Exit polls indicated that health reform was an important issue at the polls, albeit dwarfed by concerns over jobs and the economy. Nineteen percent of voters named health care reform as their top concern, a distant second to the 61 percent of voters most concerned about the economy, according to early CNN exit polls.
Public opinion on health reform has remained staunchly divided since the law passed in March.
A - AMENDMENT 63 -- 3,154 of 3,246 precincts reporting (97%)
No
848,301
53%
Yes
752,520
47%
Colorado thinks of Commie-care the same as it thinks of t*rds or the president (same thing).
The problem was that the lib-commies spent millions saying to reject the amendment without saying what it was - just that it was tres bad.
Typical lib lie. Just wait till the results keep arising (like flies from White House briefings)...things’ll change.
It has long ceased to be Colorado, we now prefer newcalifornia.
“It has long ceased to be Colorado, we now prefer newcalifornia”
True. I remember the first wave of losers from Californicatia during the 80s. It produced a wave of bumper stickers; “Don’t Californicate Colorado”.
Well, they screwed us, all right, but we’ll get our revenge.
Two CD's switched, giving us a majority Republican delegation again. Looks like the state House is ours too.
The only reason we didn't elect a Governor was Dan Maes sneaking in before anybody knew how utterly awful he was. IMHO he was the worst candidate in the country even though the national media never picked up on him.
Now, about this measure. The problem is it got no advertising and no publicity beyond some talk radio attention. OTOH, three other measures had millions spent on negative ads as "business killers." I think a lot of people just voted no on all the initiatives. The fact this one got as close as it did is actually pretty amazing.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
I guess people in Colorado would have loved Auschwitz too.
Thirty five years ago, the best selling bumper sticker was...
DON’T CALIFORNICATE COLORADO!
I see they have.
From the election results it is obvious that Florida too would have rejected Obamacare had its Supreme Court allowed the question to remain on the ballot. Over 400,000 voters expressed their displeasure by voting NO on the retention question for at least one justice who joined the decision to remove the question. We need to do better than that next time.
“The problem is it got no advertising and no publicity beyond some talk radio attention”
You are correct in that there was absolutely no advertising whatsoever as to what this bill was. And if I’m correct it was also grouped with the tax bills and if the voters don’t read for comprehension prior to going to the polls, it could’ve easily been confused as one of those poorly written tax bills.
Maybe because I live in El Paso county and we are taken for granted to vote conservative, the only political advertising I heard on a consistent basis was the negative Buck ads run by the NEA and the doom and gloom of tax/limited government initiatives. I never heard a response from the GOP or other committees addressing the bald face lies from the out of state leftist groups that flooded the state
I think that's exactly what happened. They threw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
the only political advertising I heard on a consistent basis was the negative Buck ads run by the NEA and the doom and gloom of tax/limited government initiatives. I never heard a response from the GOP
There were a few Buck ads up here but not many. It was nonstop negative ads on Buck that were not being adequately answered. It looks like not spending more in this race to counter those ads really hurt. It also hurt that Buck couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth. If the media try to bait you with a question about gays stay on message and talk about the economy fer krisake.
I had to look to see the numbers on the bills:)
proposition 60...property tax reduction
proposition 61...reduce government’s ability to borrow
proposition 62...personhood
proposition 63...healthcare
Hopefully, in the next round of battles, whomever is writing these propositions takes a careful look at the numbering and how many propositions are on one ballot. And I admit, I have no idea how numbers are assigned. I felt like there were a gazillion items on this ballot and so none were throughly campaigned for or against by the GOP or conservatives.
Also, I read somewhere the spending against 60, 61, and 101 was 17 million and spending for was somewhere around 17k
Unfortunately the numbers get assigned in the order that issues qualify for the ballot.
Yep, there were yard signs all over the place and ads on TV.
Heck, the only reason I even knew the health care issue was on the ballot was I heard Caldara talk about it once on KOA.
I voted yes... this state may have a lot of dumb blue voters but we still ejected all the Rats outside Boulder and Denver and flipped the statehouse.
Eliminating Colorado’s Californification is a decades long process.
How are they going to get around the parts of the Stimulus bill that handcuffs and jails doctors?
REPEAL OBAMACARE and the parts of the Stimulus bill that handcuff our doctors.
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs
Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research Membership
Recovery Act Allocates $1.1 Billion for Comparative Effectiveness Research
http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/os/cerbios.html
OBAMACARE’S LETHAL THIRD RAIL SHOCK TO COME
Dr. David Janda explains rationing and why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ&NR=1
Obamacare Endgame: Doctors Will be Fined or Jailed if they Put Patients First
by Dr. Elaina George
In Colorado, almost NO money went into publicizing this (I never saw a single ad or piece of literature on 63. Most of the voters did not know it was on the ballot, and when faced with a ballot measure they are unfamiliar with, most voters will just say “no.”
People spend money getting initiatives on the ballot, and then they go home. Crazy.
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