A nationally lauded political-fact checking enterprise has concluded Congressman Cory Gardner’s claim that Sen. Mark Udall cast the deciding vote on Obamacare was “mostly false.”
Republicans for months have hammered Udall on that point, but the attacks stepped up after Gardner unexpectedly jumped into the Senate race in February, turning it into one of the most closely watched contests in the country.
“Mark Udall has voted with the president 99 percent of the time. He lied to us about our health care. He increased our taxes. He voted against the Second Amendment. He cast the deciding vote for Obamacare,” Gardner told Jefferson County Republicans during their assembly in March.
PolitiFact, a Pulitzer-prize winning enterprise of the Tampa Bay Times, checked out the claim. PolitiFact researches statements and rates the accuracy on what it calls its “Truth-O-Meter.” The ratings are True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False and Pants on Fire.
“Because Udall had consistently sided with the Democratic leadership in votes related to the act, he was not among the handful of undecided senators who (Majority Leader Harry) Reid had to wrangle as the vote was approaching,” PolitiFact wrote.
“We rate this claim Mostly False.”
Gardner’s spokesman, Alex Siciliano, refused to back down.
“It looks like Politifact’s pants are on fire this time,” he said. “Without Sen. Udall’s vote, Obamacare would not be the law today.”
Udall is not alone. A number of Democratic senators — including Colorado’s Michael Bennet in 2010 — have been accused of casting the deciding vote for Obamacare.
In researching votes, PolitiFact noted the first Senate vote “relevant to the issue” was Dec. 23, 2009 when votes were needed to overcome a filibuster.
“Senate rules require 60 senators to approve such a motion. This vote received exactly the number of supporters necessary to defeat the filibuster, so having just one fewer vote in support would have indeed been insufficient to pass the Affordable Care Act the next day. Udall voted with the rest of his party to overcome the filibuster,” PolitiFact concluded.
“Still, it’s hard to say that his vote was any more important than those of the other 59 senators who approved the motion, particularly because his vote was not up for grabs until the last moment.”
Udall voted for Obamacare on subsequent votes including the official action in March 2010, but PolitiFact said it was “all but impossible to say whether his was the vote that made the difference.”
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327, lbartels@denverpost.com or twitter.com/lynn_bartels
