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Will health care haunt Dahlkemper?

As a pro-life Democrat lauded for her role in shaping the abortion compromises in the new health care reform law, Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper (D-3) would seem to have more at stake than many incumbents in the continuing political debate over health care.

And while Dahlkemper will surely be pressed on the issue in the coming months, one area political scientist watching the race thinks health care is the wrong place for Republican Mike Kelly to start his campaign against the freshman congresswoman.

“Kelly and Republicans could try and paint Dahlkemper as a flying liberal, but I don’t think it will work,” Daniel Shea, director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College, told pa2010.com in a recent interview. “Erie voters know Dahlkemper well, and they’re probably not going to believe that she’s pro-choice. She won as a Catholic pro-life candidate two years ago, and I’d bet that’s how voters still see her.”

It was partly her pro-life credentials that helped her knock off incumbent Republican Phil English in 2008. But for months, Republicans have salivated at the photographs taken of Dahlkemper standing with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the House passed the first version of the reform law. Pelosi praised Dahlkemper that day, and GOP operatives have talked about making blown-up copies of the photograph and just carrying them around the northwest Pennsylvania district.

Kelly, for his part, says he’s not sure yet what role Dahlkemper’s support for the law will play in the race.

“We’re going to look closely at her record,” Kelly said. “I look at this District and I see that most of us, even the Democrats in Erie, are conservative in our thinking, both socially and fiscally. We’ll see if she has voted along with her party or her constituents, especially on health care and abortion.”

Dahlkemper’s campaign says she won’t be shying away from her votes.

“Kathy stands behind her vote and the health care measures,” campaign spokesman Bryan Oberle said. “She held out for President Obama’s assurance that no federal funding would go towards abortion. We think voters understand that, and how necessary the health care vote was.

“We expect abortion to be an issue nonetheless,” Oberle added. “She was pro-life two years ago and she is pro-life now.”

June 8, 2010 at 4:43 pm

--John Manganaro

Tags: Kathy Dahlkemper, Mike Kelly, PA-3

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