{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140220234320/http://southerland.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=7A228D8D-4D92-460F-912B-CCED0509BBC0", "Steve Southerland says he's reaching across party lines", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Steve Southerland", "S001186", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Written by Bill Cotterell (Tallahassee Democrat)\nPresident Obama\u2019s sputtering national health care plan \u201clooms large\u201d in the 2014 congressional races, U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland said Thursday.\nSoutherland, a Panama City Republican targeted by the Democratic Party in his Big Bend district, also said the bad public image of Congress hurts him personally as well as politically. In a wide-ranging interview with the Tallahassee Democrat editorial board on Thursday, Southerland said he has avoided labeling in Washington \u2014 even turning down national TV interviews when asked to represent the Tea Party point of view \u2014 and has lately started reaching out to liberal Democrats in Congress.\n\u201cThis is a city that\u2019s a mile wide and an inch deep,\u201d Southerland mused. \u201cWe run so fast, we run right past each other.\u201d\nAs the GOP point person on food-stamp legislation, Southerland said he failed to even consult Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., the leading House Democrat on the issue. When his daughter pointed out that he and McGovern had not had so much as a phone call, Southerland said he made a point of looking him up on the House floor and arranging a dinner meeting in which they talked mainly about their families and careers \u2014 not politics.\nSimilarly, he said, he recently hosted a reception at his Washington apartment for members of the Congressional black caucus \u2014 \u201cno staff, no media\u201d \u2014 along with a dozen Republicans, just to get acquainted.\n\u201cIn Congress, you will have a government of 535 individuals and probably 15,000 different sets of values,\u201d he said. \u201cThe trouble is that all 535 were class presidents. They\u2019ve all been told how smart they are, so they are not good at listening.\u201d\nSoutherland\u2019s bid for a third term in the House has been challenged by Gwen Graham, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who has been aggressively depicting Southerland as part of the problem with congressional gridlock.\nHe said the low public esteem for Congress is discouraging, but something incumbents just have to run with.\n\u201cWho doesn\u2019t want to be approved? That\u2019s natural,\u201d said Southerland.\nThe Bay County funeral home owner beat former Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, in 2010 in the Tea Party \u201cwave\u201d election. Boyd had voted against the national health care plan initially in the House, then supported the revised version that came back from the Senate. Southerland has consistently voted with the Republicans who control the House, against the health care plan.\nThe botched rollout of the sign-up system, along with controversy over delays in coverage mandates and some exemptions, has made the health care plan politically painful for Democrats. Obama\u2019s failed promise that citizens could keep their old insurance, and see their current doctors, has driven his approval numbers to record lows in some polls \u2014 causing some congressional Democrats to distance themselves.\n\u201cIt looms large,\u201d Southerland said of his race with Graham. \u201cThe party that ushered the bill in and the party that fought against it are the parties we belong to.\u201d\nAfter the system kicks in next year, he predicted \u201cyou\u2019re going start seeing restricted access\u201d to doctors and hospitals, so \u201cI just don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to bode well for those who are speaking for it.\u201d\nSoutherland said 53 percent of Americans in one recent poll favored total repeal of the system. He said Obama has \u201clost the under-30 voters\u201d who were crucial to his 2008 election.\nBut Republicans have to counter with their own plan, he said. Southerland said health care replacement legislation will be a topic at the GOP congressional retreat next month.\n\u201cWe can\u2019t just fight and say no,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to provide a solution, a positive solution that provides access and is fair.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140220234320/http://southerland.house.gov/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=7A228D8D-4D92-460F-912B-CCED0509BBC0"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.509560039266944, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}