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THURSDAY UPDATE: Coverage of this story in today's Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News wasn't very good for Udall. Although his side of the story did make it in, the articles as written focused overwhelmingly on Dick Wadhams' gloating over the 'missed' vote, with Rocky correspondent Ed Sealover adding helpfully that "there are some political promises [Udall] shouldn't make." Do tell, Ed.
We think Udall's best option at this point is to try to get yesterday's motion to adjourn reconsidered some way, although success there isn't likely--his own Democratic leadership was by all accounts responsible for unexpectedly rescheduling the vote. But the more noise he makes about being 'thrown under the bus,' and quickly, the better this will ultimately shake out for him. Unfortunately for Udall, though, the sound bite (spelled 527 TV spot) version of this incident doesn't read charitably.
UPDATE: The Udall campaign just circulated copies of a letter he wrote to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi protesting her refusal to extend voting time, and a statement he read on the floor afterwards. Clearly written more politely than he would have preferred, you can almost hear the clenched teeth.
As the Denver Post reports:
Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall missed a critical vote today that might have kept Congress from going into summer recess until it passed an energy bill, breaking a vow he made in a recent debate.
Udall spokeswoman Taylor West said the Boulder County lawmaker was on his way back to Washington at the time and that the vote was called with only 10 minutes' notice. Udall asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to delay the vote without success, and the resolution passed by one vote, 213-212.
With gas prices the No. 1 financial worry of voters, promising to try to keep lawmakers in session until they took action was a bold stroke, but missing that vote could be an equally costly political mistake by the five-term congressman.
Udall's staff said the Democrat stayed in Colorado to attend several campaign-related events, including a meeting with business leaders and a fundraising event - which Udall's Republican opponent quickly jumped on.
"While Coloradans are paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, I guess it wasn't important enough for (Udall) to show up for work this week," said Dick Wadhams, the campaign manager for Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer. "He made a commitment Monday, he didn't even show up for work Tuesday and then he missed the vote today."
West said that her boss would send a letter to Pelosi today objecting to the fact that the vote wasn't delayed long enough for him to make it from the Washington airport to the Capitol.
We hear there's going to be a good deal more than just a letter to Pelosi--the Udall Senate campaign and congressional staff alike are bitterly upset about this, and rightly so. It's quite rare to have one-vote margins like this in the House, and in the context of his debate pledge to Schaffer to oppose adjourning for the summer without an energy bill, this a nasty and ill-timed predicament for Udall. Check out the absolutely giddy press release we got from Camp Schaffer this afternoon if you don't believe us (follows). You can be sure they are going milk this situation for every conceivable drop, and judging from this release they're quite happy to do so entirely devoid of context.
Having said that, it also looks at first glance like it's not Udall's fault. If he's smart he'll absolutely freak out on everyone responsible for pulling/enabling/not stopping this, regardless of party affiliation.
More details to come... |
