Local News

Health-care rallies in Rochester

11/11/2009 9:00:02 PM

Comments (45)

By Heather J. Carlson
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

Both supporters and opponents of health care reform are mobilizing in the wake of last weekend's U.S. House vote, looking to get out their message through rallies, phone calls and ads.

These competing efforts were scheduled to be on display Thursday in Rochester when supporters and opponents of President Obama's health care overhaul will hold dueling rallies during the lunch hour in front of DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office in Rochester.

Liberal political action committee MoveOn.org has planned a rally at 11 a.m. in support of health care reform that includes a public option. At 11:30 a.m., the Rochester Tea Party Patriots plan to kick off their own rally against the plan.

AARP in Minnesota plans to run a full-page advertisement next week in the Post-Bulletin and four to five other Minnesota newspapers thanking 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz for his "yes" vote on health care reform.

Michele Kimball, AARP's senior state director, said the organization has worked hard to mobilize members in support of health care reform. The organization has e-mailed weekly updates about health care reform that reach 30,000 members. The group also has weekly robocall updates that go to 3,200 people statewide. She said the organization believes it is critical that its 700,000 members in Minnesota know how their Congressional delegates vote on the health care bills.

"It is important that we follow up afterwards with not only letting our constituents know how their member of Congress voted, but also thanking those who did vote with us and helped to push important legislation forward, and this is probably the most important legislation ever," Kimball said.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Minnesota is crafting a media blitz attacking Walz for his vote. Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton declined to offer specifics on the campaign, but said it will be aggressive.

"We're going to do a combination of advertising, op-eds, letters to the editor, talk radio. I mean we are really putting the pedal down because we think Congressman Walz is way out of step," Sutton said.

Also jumping into the health care fray is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The organization is part of a coalition called "Employers for a Health Economy" that launched a multimillion dollar ad campaign that ran on national cable stations and in 19 states, including Minnesota, that said the health care bill would result in "crushing taxes" while failing to control rising health care costs.

In Minnesota, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also worked to mobilize its members. Doug Loon, the organization's vice president of regional affairs, said the group sent out 116,000 communications to businesses in Minnesota. He said the organization has 2,400 member businesses that employ 500,000 employees. Before the House vote, Loon said the chamber had urged members to call their congressional representatives and urge them to vote "no." He said the chamber is also making sure to keep members informed about how members of Congress vote.

Without a final Senate health care bill, it is too soon to discuss what the chamber's position and strategy will be, Loon said. When asked whether the chamber planned to target Walz for his vote, Loon said, "we may have something to announce on that later, but we don't have anything to share about that now."

A group called Health Care For America Now has been busy showing its support for members of Congress voting for health care reform. The group -- a coalition of labor, faith-based and progressive organizations -- welcomed Walz and 5th District DFL Rep. Keith Ellison when they arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. The organization also has scheduled a "Thank-you rally" for Thursday evening in St. Paul for the four Minnesota House members who supported the bill.

Take Action Minnesota, which is leading the Health Care for America Now effort in the state, plans to keep up its grassroots efforts to build support for health care reform, said Communications Director Greta Bergstrom.

She added, "We know that the deal is far from over and there is going to be a lot of work ahead."

E-mail Story

Print Story

There are 45 comments - Display All Comments

Hugh_Bric
e
Rocehster, MN

Posted on 11/11/2009 at 9:17:20 PM

>>> AARP in Minnesota plans to run a full-page advertisement next week in the Post-Bulletin and four to five other Minnesota newspapers thanking 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz for his “yes” vote on health care reform.

AARP is a sham. They don’t represent the interests of us old people. Not anymore.

	November 2009					>>
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Username:
Password:	Forgot your password?

Health-care rallies in Rochester

Profile Login

Special Sections