The labor union AFSCME and one of the nation’s largest health advocacy organizations, HCAN, went up with a huge $800,000 ad buy in eight states urging Blue Dog Democrats to support the passage of health care reform in the House of Representatives.

The Blue Dog Democrats that voted against health care reform in the Education and Labor Committee and the Ways and Means Committee over the past two days were Ross, Tanner, and Altmire. The committee mark-up on Energy and Commerce is still going on, with a lot of obstacles mostly thrown up by the Blue Dog Democrats. We’ll see whether the rest of the Blue Dogs in that committee will pass or block health care reform today. Here’s the list below of the Blue Dogs on that Energy and Commerce Committee:

  1. Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) 
  2. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN)
  3. Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN)
  4. Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)
  5. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA)
  6. Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
  7. Rep. Zachary Space (D-OH)

One of the ads that AFSCME and HCAN put down $800,000 for is targeted at Senator Feinstein, who has been blowing off her Californian constituents, such as Jane Hamsher, Hilda Sarkisyan and her husband, on the issue of health care reform. Over the past week, she has refused to declare her support for the public option in health care reform. She’s not a Blue Dog Democrat but she might as well be acting like one given her actions in the Senate.

Here’s the Youtube ad link of Senator Feinstein’s congressional staff blowing off the Sarkisyans, the parents of an insurance victim, and Jane Hamsher who is a breast cancer survivor. Talk about excellent constituent relations there, Senator Feinstein. It’s why I’m glad to see this HCAN/AFSCME ad targeting Senator Feinstein below:

The rest of the videos at the HCAN Youtube channel are like the Feinstein ad above, but with each ad specifically targeting a Blue Dog Democrat. We’ll see if this broad effort by AFSCME and HCAN will start shifting the Blue Dog Democrats towards supporting the passage of the House Tri-Committee health bill for American families in their districts who can’t afford the high costs of rising insurance premiums, denials of insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and recission policies simply for being sick, having acne, or forgetting to see whether their doctor mailed in that specific form to the insurance company. 

As reported before, not all Blue Dog Democrats are opposing the passage of health care reform. Jane Harman supports the passage of health care reform, so does Loretta Sanchez, and other Blue Dog Democrats. It’s time for the news to report the schism in the Blue Dog Democratic Caucus when it comes to health care reform.