Political handouts for Congressional candidate Kathy Dahlkemper at the Jamestown Fair. Photograph by Peter van Agtmael- Magnum for TIME
West Middlesex, Pa.
Traveling companions: None.
Event: Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper speaks to the Shenango Valley chapter of the American Business Women’s Association
One of the few provisions in the Obama health care reform that has actually gone into effect enables families to include their children, up to the age of 26, in their health coverage–and Kathy Dahlkemper is the author of that provision. “You know, they talk about how wonderful our Congressional health coverage is–and it is,” Dahlkemper told me before her speech, “but I have a 22-year-old daughter and we received notice a year ago that she was being cut off our plan.” So it was enlightened self-interest–hers and mine (we have an analogous daughter) and maybe yours, too. It is amazing to me–part of a continuing string of huh? moments–that the Obama Administration hasn’t made every American aware of this nugget of popular governance.
From Katy: Dahlkemper’s bill to allow dependent children to stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26 was proudly announced as part of the package in early October 2009. Although some states have provisions allowing kids to keep that coverage even longer–Pennsylvania goes up to 30, for example–the cutoff age is typically around 18. It remains to be seen if there will be extra costs associated with extending that privilege.
Aside from that, Dahlkemper’s in trouble. She’s a Democrat in a district that sent Republicans to Congress for 32 years before she managed to win in the Obama landslide of 2008. And she’s running against herself, sort of: “It’s hysterical,” she says. “I’d never run for anything, but two years ago I was like a lot of people are now: fed up. What couldn’t Washington get anything done? So now, I’ve been there all of 20 months…and I’m an incumbent!” In other words, she’s part of the problem in many people’s minds. “I understand how they feel. I felt that way. I’ve learned a lot since then, about how complicated everything is, about how long it takes to get things done.”
And now, she has to defend her votes on health care reform and the stimulus package, and the auto bailout. (She opposed the bank bailout because she didn’t think there were enough strings attached to the money, thereby dodging a pretty serious bullet–the bank bailout is perhaps the annoying action taken by Congress in the minds of many voters). Dahlkemper defends her other votes with enthusiasm: the auto bailout is working, she says, and really helped her district, which includes many auto industry sub-contractors. The stimulus package is working, too–a bit too well, to my point of view, given the constant construction delays I experienced on I-80 today. (Pennsylvania is an old-fashioned state, full of people who just love public works programs–its politicians, people like the late John Murtha and the defeated Arlen Specter, tend to be mortal porkers.) And she is not in the least defensive about the health care reform, especially since she authored one of the bill’s most popular measures.
She isn’t defensive about the President or Nancy Pelosi, either. She voted against cap-and-trade (a coal country requirement) and is dismayed by the White House’s inability to tout its accomplishments, but she understands the President is in a tough place: “People are skeptical about him because things haven’t changed as much as they wanted.” As for Pelosi, “When was the last time we had a popular Speaker?” Fair point…but evasive. And Dahlkemper later admits her frustration with the partisan atmosphere: “One of the best experiences I had came at the very beginning, when all the freshmen went on a retreat together. We started talking, sharing ideas, we were making good connections, getting to know each other–but then as soon as we got to Washington, the leadership started pulling us in our separate directions.”
The Jamestown, Pennsylvania fair. Photograph by Peter van Agtmael- Magnum for TIME
Can she hold on? Who knows? Her speech to the women’s group ran late, so I wasn’t able to meet her opponent, Mike Kelly, who was shaking hands at the county fair. And the speech was interesting: she talked about how she was only the 7th woman to serve in Congress from Pennsylvania, how there’d never been a woman Senator–and how she thought that if there were more women in Congress, there’d be less partisanship and fighting. (Wait a minute, I’m thinking: what about Michele Bachmann?)
From Katy: It’s true that Dahlkemper is the 7th female representative from Pennsylvania, the first three coming between 1942-1956. Then women were completely absent from the lower chamber until 1993, after which the past four have served. Some states still haven’t broken the gender barrier in the chambers. Alaska and North Dakota have never sent any females to the House, while more than half the states have never sent a woman to the Senate.
But the speech seemed to click with the businesswomen–and women tend to vote a bit more assiduously than men. A secret weapon for Dahlkemper, perhaps? And then, there’s always the fact the she actually accomplished something–an absolutely noncontroversial and popular provision of a very murky health care bill.
Tomorrow: Should be fascinating. I’m seeing both candidates for governor of Ohio. The Republican, John Kasich, is meeting with business leaders. The Democratic incumbent, Ted Strickland, is meeting with displaced workers. Perfect.
This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.