How the health law played on a big day for primary elections

May 22 2014

Six states voted for candidates Tuesday to run for congressional and Senate seats. Some viewed these contests as important to watch because they highlighted face-offs between the GOP establishment and its tea party wing. All in all, though, the health law still was part of the buzz.  

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Sees Primaries Taming The Tea Party
Mr. Boehner, asked Tuesday whether he believed the tea party's influence was waning, didn't seem tempted to gloat. Instead, he argued that the conflict between the tea party and GOP leaders had been overblown. "The tea party has brought great energy to our political process," he said. There isn't "that big a difference between what you all call the tea party and your average conservative Republican: We're against Obamacare; we think taxes are too high; we think the government's too big" (Hook and O'Connor, 5/21).

Los Angeles Times: GOP Vs. GOP: Key Primary Races In Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho and Oregon
Tuesday marks the biggest day of primary elections so far this year, with voters in six states casting ballots in state and congressional elections that will offer another test of Republican establishment efforts to curtail the influence of outside tea-party-inspired groups. Here are some key races where Tuesday's outcome will help shape the midterm battle for Congress this fall (Memoli and Mascaro, 5/20).

Meanwhile, American Crossroads, a conservative group, unveiled a new anti-Obamacare ad campaign --

Los Angeles Times: $10-Million Ad Campaign Joins 'Avalanche' Of Anti-Obamacare Ads
The big-spending conservative group American Crossroads and its nonprofit arm launched a new offensive Tuesday in the 2014 campaign for control of the U.S. Senate with an ad targeting North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and her support of the Affordable Care Act (Reston, 5/20).

And some ex-senators join forces around a health care issue --

The New York Times: Political Memo: Ex-Senators On Both Sides of Aisle Join Forces On Health Care
As a Republican senator, Trent Lott was among those who successfully dug in against the Clinton-era health overhaul. Tom Daschle, then the Senate Democratic leader, fought Republicans on their prescription drug plan. John B. Breaux, a centrist Democrat who led a blue-ribbon Medicare commission, often found himself at odds with both parties. Now these three retired Senate powers are combining to push an expansion of tele-medicine as a way to improve health care access and cut costs. They say the idea of using the nation's growing digital capacity to provide more health care has significant bipartisan support and could be an solution to the partisan schism over the Affordable Care Act (Hulse, 5/20).