SCHIP Votes Now, SCHIP Votes in '08

Voting records in an election year are a tough issue. It's hard, this far out, to see what will be the key questions and who will be held accountable for what. OK, Iraq is a given, but moves are afoot to keep the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) congressional vote and presidential veto an issue.

Americans United for Change has launched a TV campaign targeting a bunch of Republican members of congress, in an attempt to get them to vote for the anticipated veto override on October 18. Originally, they were going to target eight GOPers from around the nation. Now that number has swelled to 22 names, plus radio ads for a couple more. On that extended TV target list is U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who gets an ad all of her own.

As a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, she's often regarded as a "small government" conservative, rather than a social conservative. That could make getting her to go for a veto override tough, because SCHIP kinda involves government spending. But if the tactic is to make her SCHIP veto vote an issue for November '08, it could be a lot more effective.