Senator John Kerry canceled his Tuesday visit to UNM to vote in favor of a bill amendment in the U.S. Senate.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was scheduled to speak to a capacity crowd in UNM's Continuing Education Auditorium Tuesday morning. He instead returned to Washington, D.C. to vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, a more than $400 billion bill that sets national military appropriations annually. Kerry was to announce a new policy and strategy to create job growth, according to a news release.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., offered the amendment, which would "assure that funding is provided for veterans' health care each fiscal year to cover increases in population and inflation," according to the bill.
Kerry, himself a Vietnam veteran, has expressed firm support for the amendment.
"I have met thousands of veterans as I travel across this country, who fought with pride and honor, but still don't have the quality health care they need,"ˇKerry said in a news release. "I will return to Washington to fight for them."
Kerry spokesman Ruben Pulido Jr. sees foul play behind Kerry's canceled talk.
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"The reason John Kerry is not in New Mexico today is because Senate Republicans decided to play politics with veterans' health care," Pulido said. "They scheduled a vote when (Kerry) was going to be here in New Mexico. He went back to vote on it, and now they've decided that they're not going to call it up to vote."
Pulido said Senate Republicans scheduled the vote to disrupt Kerry's campaigning in New Mexico, because it is a swing state, and suspended the amendment vote upon Kerry's arrival in the Capitol to prevent him from voting on it. Gore received 366 more votes in New Mexico than Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign. According to a story that appeared in Wednesday's Albuquerque Journal, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., denied the vote was scheduled to throw Kerry off track.
Calls to Frist and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for comment were not returned.
Republican Party of New Mexico Spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire said it is highly unlikely Senate Republicans would time amendment votes to interrupt Kerry's campaign.
"I think the bigger issue here is that Kerry's missed about 70 percent of the votes in the 108th Congress because he's been out campaigning," she said. "So for him to turn around now and say that it was the Republicans' fault that he had to come back for a vote that didn't happen is a bit disingenuous."
Pulido said he does not know when Kerry will return to Albuquerque.
