Mad Max: Progressives Go After Baucus on Health Reform

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 10:34 AM on July 21, 2009.

Meet the winner:
 

Progressive groups are launching a new round of advertising against Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, (D-Mont.), in an effort to persuade him to support a public option.

The Montana Democrat was the (unfortunate) winner of a contest sponsored by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America, in which the groups allowed members to choose which senator to target in an ad campaign. Baucus has, at times, indicated he supports a government run plan but it is not certain if the proposal will make it into the final version of his committee's bill.

For this, 15,000 progressive voters determined that he should get an additional bit of political pressure. The ads being run against the senator, which will air in three media markets in Montana -- Billings, Butte-Bozeman, and Helena - are duplicates of an old PCCC spot. Only it is customized for Baucus, pointing to the $3.9 million he has taken from "health and insurance interests."

Poor Max. I'm sure he's not going to like having his constituents know that he's one of the insurance industry's very special friends. But it's important they know that so that if his committee doesn't manage to get that bill out before before the August recess they can have some nice long visits with him about it while he's back home. Somehow I doubt Montanans are any more fond of health insurance companies than are the rest of us.

Tagged as: max baucus, health reform, insurance industry, insurance lobby

Digby is the proprietor of Hullabaloo.