Will Jerry McNerney throw his superdelegate support to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama while the race is still on, or will he stay mum?

Sure, I’m picking on him a bit. He’s not the only East Bay Congressman who has not yet made the choice – Pete Stark hasn’t, either – but McNerney’s the one with the most to lose.

Stark, D-Fremont, was elected to the House in 1972 and has been there ever since; he now chairs the powerful Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. His 13th Congressional District is registered 53.6 percent Democrat, 18.5 percent Republican. In his past four re-elections, he won with 70.5 percent in 2000, 71.1 percent in 2002, 71.7 percent in 2004 and 74.9 percent in 2006 – stronger each time.

In February’s presidential primary, Democrats in Stark’s district went 57.3 percent for Clinton, 38.3 percent for Obama. But although Stark’s temper and (ahem) plain speech sometimes get him into hot water, he clearly has little to lose in endorsing either candidate.

On the other hand, McNerney, D-Pleasanton, is a freshman who’s among the National Republican Congressional Committee’s top targets for unseating this year.

In 2006 he toppled House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, in a 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent race. Pombo was beset with accusations of ethics problems, and McNerney was buoyed by a flood of grassroots activists who came in from outside the district to knock doors, work the phones, etc.

Today, McNerney’s 11th Congressional District – mostly in San Joaquin County, but with swaths of Alameda, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties – is registered 41.3 percent Republican; 38.5 percent Democrat; and 16.6 percent decline-to-state. As of March 31, he had more campaign money in the bank – $1,153,586 – than his Republican challenger, Dean Andal – $531,817 – but the race is young and nobody expects a Stark-style cakewalk in McNerney’s district.

Democrats in McNerney’s district in February voted 54.1 percent for Clinton, 39.9 percent for Obama. McNerney in early March told the San Francisco Chronicle he would “make a decision when I have to… I’m going to let the voters decide for themselves.

Surely he has formed his own opinion by now, right? It’s hard to believe that any member of Congress hasn’t by now, after all that’s been said and done. It’s easy to believe, however, that McNerney doesn’t want to make a choice now which could put him at odds either with a majority of his district’s voters, or with the activists who helped him win that seat, or with the eventual nominee; it’s easy to believe he doesn’t want his words now to show up in Andal’s ads this fall.

But the time may be drawing nigh.

The latest Associated Press figures show Clinton still leads Obama in superdelegate endorsements (268 to 248) but Obama leads in overall delegates (pledged and the officially unpledged superdelegates), 1,736 to 1,602; a candidate needs 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination. The superdelegate contest has gotten hot in recent days; much is being made of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew’s superdelegate defection from Clinton to Obama, yet poll numbers show Clinton resurgent.

So, Congressman McNerney – will you play it safe and wait until the nomination is a fait accompli, or will you speak out about who you believe should be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States?

The House today failed to override President Bush’s December veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization and expansion. The vote was 260-152 in favor, but a veto override requires a two-thirds majority (290 votes).

Here’s what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, had to say in urging her colleagues to override the veto:

For the past year we’ve been talking about the subject of how we make America healthier, how we bring many more children who are eligible to be enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. We’ve had the debates, we’ve had the outside advocacy of the March of Dimes, of the Easter Seals, of the AMA, the AARP, of the Families USA, the YWCA, of the Catholic Hospitals Association, almost any organization that you can name, that has anything to do with the health of the American people, has endorsed the legislation that we have before us. That is important to the children, their families, to their communities, to the economic stability of their states, who have to provide health insurance for these children.

In the last few days, we’ve all been working together in a bipartisan way to come up with an economic stimulus package. The recognition that we need a stimulus package points to the need further for this SCHIP legislation to become law. Let’s make us working in a bipartisan way on the stimulus package a model for how we approach other issues as well.

This SCHIP package has had strong bipartisan support from the start, in the House and in the Senate. In fact, the Senate has a veto-proof majority. Senator Hatch and Senator Grassley have been major architects of this legislation, two very distinguished Republican leaders in the United States Senate.

The issue comes down to what is happening in America’s households today. Unemployment is up, housing starts are down. The price of gasoline and food and health care is up, the stock market is down. So the indicators that some that are felt very closely and intimately by America’s working families and some that are felt by our economy, all point to the need for us to take a new direction. And that new direction says, ‘What can we do that is fiscally sound, that meets the needs of the children, that has bipartisan support? And strengthens our country by improving the health of our people?’

One of the things that we can do is take the lead. Many children have come here to advocate on behalf of all children in our country, whether it was through the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, or other organizations. And that is to vote to override the President’s veto. Let’s remove all doubt in anyone’s mind that this Congress of the United States understands our responsibility to the children, understands our responsibility to the future.

We’ve had the debate. We know the facts, we know the figures. It’s just a decision that people have to make about what is inside of them, about what their priorities are. And I hope the message from this Congress will be that that we care about the children and we care about enough about them that we will vote to override this veto.

Said House Minority Leader John Boehner, D-Ohio, after the vote:

After two failures to override the President’s vetoes of their flawed SCHIP bill, I hope congressional Democrats finally end the political games that have dominated this debate and work with Republicans to focus on low-income children first. The Majority’s bill would shortchange low-income children and expand SCHIP coverage to illegal immigrants, adults, and those who already have private health insurance. This is particularly irresponsible at a time when our economy is slowing down and American families are feeling the strain from rising costs of living.

Democrats and Republicans alike established SCHIP a decade ago to ensure our nation’s low-income children have access to high-quality health care. Likewise, just a month ago, both parties overwhelmingly voted to extend SCHIP into 2009 and cover the program’s funding shortfall. Unfortunately, that spirit of cooperation has consistently taken a back seat to the Majority’s ongoing efforts to politicize this issue in order to move more Americans from private insurance to government-run health care. As we have been for the past year, Republicans are ready to work in a bipartisan way to reauthorize SCHIP and keep its focus on low-income children. After this latest failed attempt to enact its flawed legislation, I hope the Majority is finally ready to do the same.

You say “poh-TAY-toe,” I say “poh-TAH-toe.” More after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »