I just called Loretta Sanchez's Orange County district office, because I heard she is still undecided about the health care reform bill. Her staffer confirmed this to me, the argument being that she is concerned that the bill is "not progressive enough" and she wants a public option. I told her that my family and I agree with her in principle, but the bill right now is too important to not vote for at this time. What I should've said is that, if it's progressive enough for Kucinich, it's progressive enough for Sanchez.
While Loretta Sanchez is not my representative, one of the reasons I called her office is that my official representative is John Campbell, the guy who was pwned by Chris Matthews about birtherism. Anyway, I called Campbell's office, too, just to let him know that there are lots of folks in Irvine,CA and CA-48 that do support the health care reform. I got a snide response from the staffer, who said they are favor of reform but not an "Obama-Pelosi takeover." I told him that I didn't think that was the case and that Campbell represents people who don't believe his rhetoric.
I tried to appeal to Sanchez's office by saying I'm an OC Democrat and I can't count on my own actual congressman to do anything to represent my interests. The staffer didn't seem to budge at all on Sanchez being undecided, but didn't go into the specifics as to why not, beyond the not-progressive-enough angle. I haven't really been able to find the real motivation online, so maybe someone else can fill us in.
Remember, too, that Sanchez had been dithering over whether to support the Stupak amendment in November. When news of that came online and people called in, she quickly released a statement that she was against it. (Today, the office claims that she was never for Stupak and it was never an issue!) So it shows that she can be persuaded. And if not, I'm sending her dang Christmas card back to her this year!
Here's her contact info:
DC Office: (202)225-2965
OC Office: (714)621-0102
Website--There's a contact form, where you can leave messages
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