GOP Governor Brian Sandoval's Big Gamble Is Paying Off-- For Nevada's Working Families

Out of place among the crackpots, Brian Sandoval, bottom row, #3

I doubt many Republicans are worried that Colin Powell has been talking up universal, single-payer health care-- something considerably more progressive than the Obamacare compromise conservatives forced on a naive Obama.

Powell told the audience that countries in Europe, Canada and South Korea offer universal, single-payer health care and said he often asks why the United States has not implemented the same system.

"Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care," Powell said. "As long as we get it done."

Powell, a retired four-star general, was diagnosed with prostate cancer and credits his survival to the universal health care provided by the United States military.

…"We are a wealthy enough country," Powell said, "with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care."

Perhaps, though, Republicans are more concerned that one of their most popular governors, Nevada's Brian Sandoval-- polling-wise on another planet from detested GOP governors like Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Corbett (R-PA), Scott Walker (R-WI), Rick Snyder (R-MI), Paul LePage (R-ME), Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Nathan Deal (R-GA), Rick Perry (R-TX), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Nikki Haley (R-SC), John Kasich (R-OH) and Pat McCrory (R-NC).

Unlike this long list of despised GOP governors, Sandoval has been working across the aisle as a moderate who is not driven by ideology or by fear of teabaggers. Democrats don't even have an opponent against him for next year. (In contrast, Corbett, for example, is so unpopular that Republican legislators want to replace him as their nominee so that he doesn't drag the whole party down to defeat. There are 9 Democrats vying to get their party's nomination.) And then there's the whole question of health care. The unpopular Republican governors oppose it and are refusing to expand Medicaid or to cooperate with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Sandoval is doing everything in his power to bring health care to Nevada residents and watching his record on ObamaCare is not very different from watching that of any of the Democratic governors who have championed it.

Sandoval is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He’s arguably doing more to put the Democrats’ signature law into place than any other Republican.

But in fully implementing Obamacare, Sandoval faces a double-edged sword: He’s helping bring health care coverage to a state with the second highest uninsured rate in the country, while he may be hurting his national ambitions because he’s not actively blocking the president’s law.

…“Sandoval’s approval numbers are stratospheric, so it’s a very small group of folks who are concerned about it,” said Jon Ralston, the state’s leading political analyst. The objections came from those on the far right who “seized on that because they don’t believe Sandoval is conservative enough.”

On health care, Democrats laud him too.

“I don’t know what the politics are from his standpoint but I think it’s the right decision,” said Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, whose Nevada district has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country. “People are signing up, fortunately, in Nevada and the website is working pretty well. We’ve been very aggressive.”

Politically, it helps that Nevada is a “purple” swing state with the second highest uninsured rate in the country and especially high uninsured rates among Hispanics, a key constituency that Republicans hope to attract. That makes it easier for the Republican governor to carry out President Barack Obama’s law.

But Sandoval, 50, is also seen as a GOP up-and-comer, and Obamacare implementation could crimp any national ambitions if the health law remains as unpopular with Republicans as it is today. There’s a hint of early 2016 vice presidential buzz around Sandoval, and Obamacare implementation could be a big negative.

…States were supposed to run their own insurance exchanges but most GOP governors refused, forcing the feds to take on the job. Nevada is the only GOP-governed state running an exchange, although New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Idaho’s Butch Otter are partnering with the feds this year and plan to run their own next year.

And once the Supreme Court made Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion optional at the state level, GOP governors split. Some high-profile ones like Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have resisted. But at least eight Republican governors have also expanded Medicaid, including New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Ohio’s John Kasich.

If ObamaCare is successful before the Republican convention, Sandoval will be sitting in the cat bird's seat when they start looking to balance out the ticket. And then there's 2020 or 2024, which might be even more propitious for a moderate Hispanic Republican from a purple state. Of course, Sandoval is being hit from the far right. Even if no Democrat wants to take Sandoval on for governor, a mentally-deranged, neo-Nazi Mormon conspiracy-theorist, David Lory Vanderbeek, is already running against him… at least on YouTube: