Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) Upset Over Constituent's Ad

A constituent of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) filmed an ad detailing his experiences and concerns with current health care coverage and costs. A small business owner, Michael Snider, then received a phone call from Sen. Nelson which an aide later said was normal for the Senator. The aide said that the Senator often calls constituents who call, write, or email him with concerns. Mr. Snider said after the call,

"To be real honest with you, I don't know if he was just being aggressive or nervous but he just wanted to put out his position on the issue," Snider recalled in an interview with the Huffington Post. "He said he supported the public option but one that wouldn't affect the current plans of 200 million Americans."


"I told him I didn't understand. And he tried to explain it. He put his position out. He said if we went with a full public option -- which he called a government plan -- it would drive the price down and hurt private companies. I said, 'you mean competition.' And he replied that it would force people off the private plan and onto the government plan."

Senator Nelson, however, told aides that the ad made it more likely that he would "blow up the reform process altogether" although the article notes that he was less bombastic with Mr. Snider.

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