Health vote puts Matheson in tight spot

By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 03/19/2010 09:56:52 AM MDT

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_14703189?source=most_viewed

Washington » Republicans warn Rep. Jim Matheson that Utahns will revolt if he backs health reform, while Democrats urge their conservative colleague to put the good of the party ahead of his own political needs.


Now, he even faces a discredited but persistent accusation that he struck a dirty deal with the president.

As the clock ticks down, Matheson remains undecided on what could be the biggest vote of his five-term congressional career. He says he will base his decision solely on the policy details of a compromise bill released Thursday, but Utah insiders say Matheson's stand will have serious political ramifications that will last far past the climactic health-reform vote now slated for Sunday.

The core dilemma, explains University of Utah political scientist Matthew Burbank, is that Matheson is a "fairly well-established incumbent, but in a district that is leaning Republican."

The GOP almost universally opposes the Democrats' bill, considering it a massive expansion of government power. Matheson voted against the House version last year, lamenting the vote's partisan nature and using many of the same criticisms leveled by Utah's GOP lawmakers.

But Democrats now are hunting for every vote they can find as they push for final passage of a retooled Senate version. If health reform fails, the ruling party would have to face voters this November without a major policy victory.

So the party is looking to Matheson for help.


Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen says it's "irritating" that Matheson hasn't made up his mind yet, and he doesn't buy the congressman's argument that he wants to review the details before deciding.

"Everybody knows what is going to be in the bill - 420 members of the House have been able to make a decision on it, why can't he?" Hansen said, before he tried to answer his own question.

Hansen believes Matheson is stalling until Utah's campaign filing deadline ends Friday. That way if he votes against the bill, an angry Democrat cannot jump into the race, and, if he votes for the bill, a high-profile Republican cannot quickly file.

"He is basically trying to walk the tight rope until filing is over," Hansen said.

Joe Hatch, a longtime liberal Democrat who serves on the Salt Lake County Council, says Hansen may have a point, though he doubts the congressman would face a big-name intraparty challenger - regardless of his decision.

Burbank doesn't buy this argument. He says if a Democrat was going to stand up to Matheson, he or she probably would have surfaced already and that Republicans have tried and failed to attract other candidates into the race.

"The reality is Matheson does well precisely because he adapted to his district," Burbank said, which is why the U. professor is a bit surprised Matheson hasn't already announced his ongoing opposition to the Democrats' health-reform bills. "I haven't heard anything from him that indicates he is even leaning toward it."

While Matheson has remained largely quiet about the looming vote, the little he has said hasn't been positive. He has criticized the bill's overall cost and the lack of medical-malpractice reform.

He has remained silent on other issues that are important to him, and that's why Joe Hatch says it wouldn't be inconsistent if Matheson switches to a health-reform supporter this weekend.

The House bill included a government-run insurance plan that Matheson disliked, while this version does not. That House measure also reduced the deficit by a smaller amount and did less to control medical inflation over the long term, issues of great concern to Matheson.

"He won," Hatch said. "He could declare victory and vote yes."

That said, Hatch, a former Salt Lake County Democratic chairman, understands the politics and knows that Republicans would try to use the vote as a weapon come November, arguing it proves Matheson is really a big-government liberal.

Hatch hopes Matheson bucks the politics and takes "a vote of courage."

"I want to know what votes he casts that he is willing to lose an election over," Hatch said. "If it is not this vote, then what is it?"

Television ads and national pundits repeatedly have accused President Barack Obama of attempting to buy Matheson's vote by extending a judicial nomination to his older brother, Scott Matheson. Every major Utah political player, in either party, including Hansen, has dismissed the rumor as unfounded, saying Scott Matheson's nomination has been in the works for months.

But Hansen warns the rumors would persist throughout the campaign if Matheson votes for the bill, just part of a larger political backlash that could result in a defeat for Utah's lone congressional Democrat.

"That question," Hansen said, "is going to be raised in a lot of people's mind: Why did he all of a sudden switch?"

Hatch called the claims "utter and complete nonsense," and he doubted Matheson would even consider it as he weighs his vote.

"If you play to that kind of perception," Hatch said, "then you are a very weak leader."

Burbank also downplayed the importance of this rumor, especially in Utah, where the Matheson family is well-respected and many know Scott Matheson for his own accomplishments (he was dean of the U. law school, U.S. attorney for Utah and a gubernatorial candidate).

While Burbank expects Matheson to once again vote against health reform, Hatch says he has "no clue" which way the congressman will go, but his gut feeling is that it may come down to the political needs of party leaders.

"If they need his vote, he will be there," he said. "If they don't, he won't be."

mcanham@sltrib.com