Former Democratic Representative Kathy Dahlkemper of Pennsylvania told the Erie Times-News she is considering a run to reclaim her Congressional seat from pro-life freshman Republican Rep. Mike Kelly.
According to Dahlkemper, she has had discussions with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about a potential rematch. With President Obama at the top of the ticket, Dahlkemper hopes the odds will be in her favor. However, pro-life voters will not soon forget Dahlkemper’s sell-out on abortion funding in Obamacare.
Dahlkemper, like so many other self-described pro-life Democrats, lost her seat in 2010 largely due to her vote for the pro-abortion Obama healthcare law. Dahlkemper had been a member of Rep. Bart Stupak’s group of Democrats who held out on supporting Obamacare until President Obama offered them political cover in the form of an executive order to supposedly prevent the law from covering abortions. The phony executive order was virtually unanimously blasted by pro-life organizations and even Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards recognized the executive order as just a “symbolic gesture.”
Rep. Dahlkemper made her Obamacare vote a cornerstone of her 2010 campaign. Along the campaign trail, Dahlkemper both bashed pro-life groups and desperately tried to convince pro-life Pennsylvanians that her vote for the largest expansion of abortion since Roe vs. Wade did not taint her record. The pro-life grassroots, however, were not buying it. Pro-life organizations like the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, the National Right to Life Committee and the Susan B. Anthony List rallied behind pro-life Republican Mike Kelly, and in November, voters ousted Dahlkemper by an eleven-point margin.
Democrats for Life of America (DFLA), which has been criticized by many pro-life groups over its Obamacare support, spent considerable time and effort to defend once pro-life Democrats who betrayed their pro-life positions to vote for Obamacare. Today on Twitter, DFLA tweeted in response to the Roll Call story that Kathy Dahlkemper may run again: “We support you, Kathy!”
DFLA maintains Obamacare does not permit funding for abortion, despite their president Kristen Day admitting the contrary during the healthcare debate.
Doug Johnson, Legislative Director for the National Right to Life Committee remarked at the time:
“In January, February, and early March, Day herself told others that she was working to persuade as many Democratic House members as possible to continue to oppose the bill, precisely because of the multiple abortion problems.
Nothing changed in the bill after that –yet now, Day wants to rewrite history and pretend that there was never an abortion problem with the bill at all.
Worse, Day now insists that anybody who didn’t flip flop like she did is “lying.” So Day’s credibility on these matters at this point is somewhere near absolute zero.”
Pro-life Pennsylvanians know better than to fall for Dahlkemper and Democrats for Life’s myth that Obamacare doesn’t allow abortion funding. In a resounding rejection of the pro-abortion law, Pennsylvania voters elected five new pro-life congressmen in 2010. With provisions of Obamacare not fully going into effect until 2014, Dahlkemper better believe her vote will not be forgotten.
