Bristol, Pa. – Diana DeGette is sleep-deprived yet animated as she rides in the back seat of a hybrid Ford Escape headed toward suburban Philadelphia on Day One of an endeavor she hopes will help transform her political career.
But she won’t talk about that right now. The Denver Democrat wants to talk about embryonic stem-cell research.
She’s come to this working-class town to throw her support behind a Democrat trying to unseat the Republican incumbent. Patrick Murphy vows he’ll support DeGette’s efforts to expand stem-cell research. GOP Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick voted against those efforts in 2005.
“This could bring cures for millions,” DeGette says of the research. “It is really important. I’m passionate about it.”
DeGette’s bill expanding federal funding for the research passed both chambers of Congress, with several Republicans joining Democrats in voting for it, but in July President Bush struck down the measure with his first presidential veto.
DeGette wants another chance to make the bill law. To that end, she’s spending the month trying to convince voters in swing districts nationwide that electing Democrats could lead to a veto-proof margin for her bill, meaning a chance to find treatments for dreaded diseases.
But there’s also a big political prize at stake. Democrats need to gain 15 seats to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
If that happens, DeGette is likely to win some credit for helping. That would change the path of her career. She’s been in the minority party for all of her 14 years in Congress.
DeGette won’t say what reward she’d want if her efforts succeed.
“I want to pass embryonic stem-cell research, and I’m not going to tell you what my dream job is, because I don’t want to jinx it,” she says, smiling broadly. “And there are too many exigencies.”
DeGette is one of three members of the congressional delegation from Colorado who are in high demand for campaign appearances this year.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., already has campaigned for Democratic senators and Senate candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Missouri and Nebraska.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, fields numerous requests to stump for candidates. So far he’s attended events in Arizona and North Carolina, and he is considering other requests.
Each of the three lawmakers has a symbolic quality – DeGette as the stem-cell bill author, Tancredo as the immigration hard-liner, and Salazar as the well-known Latino moderate, says Ross K. Baker, political science professor at Rutgers University.
“They appeal to distinct, but valuable, constituencies for the candidates they’re visiting,” Baker says.
DeGette is running without a Republican opponent in November and has more time than most lawmakers to travel for other candidates.
In addition to her stop Tuesday in Bristol, DeGette this month is visiting congressional districts in New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Washington state, Oregon and Ohio, and possibly Iowa, Minnesota and New York – all districts where Democrats are believed to have the best chance of grabbing seats.
DeGette is appearing “where the Democrats are trying to paint the Republican candidates as extreme, as out of the mainstream, as too conservative,” says Nathan Gonzales, analyst with the Rothenberg Political Report. “The stem- cell issue is a way to make a clear distinction.”
DeGette fervently believes people will consider candidates’ positions on embryonic stem-cell research when they vote. She cites a recent poll by National Public Radio that asked voters in swing districts whether the stem-cell issue made them more likely to support Republicans or Democrats. Out of 500 people queried, 51 percent said Democrats and 33 percent said Republicans. (Another 16 percent said neither, both or that they didn’t know.)
A spokesman for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, however, says he doubts the stem-cell issue would affect any election.
“That is not the type of issue that moves voters in any type of meaningful way,” says committee spokesman Jonathan Collegio. “Voters are making decisions based on making the tax cuts permanent and securing the borders.”
In Bristol, DeGette meets with Murphy at a medical center in the historic district. Five voters from the district talk about why they want federal funding of stem-cell research.
Murphy shows a TV spot he’s running in which the husband of a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, says he’s a registered Republican voting for Democrat Murphy because he supports embryonic stem-cell research.
Murphy says he believes funding stem-cell research is an issue that will help him win.
The event is small, but DeGette insists events like these make a difference. The local papers will put a U.S. congresswoman coming to town on the front page, and that brings the candidate needed attention. Murphy seems to agree.
“We don’t get a congresswoman walking these parts very often,” Murphy said. “For her to stand next to me is a pretty powerful statement.”
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