Democratic senators in red states could easily become casualties of the law. | AP Photos Senate Dems to W.H.: Fix Obamacare

Democratic senators have a warning for the White House: Fix Obamacare’s problems or put Senate seats at risk next year.

In interviews, Democratic senators running in 2014, party elders and Senate leaders said the Obama administration must rescue the law from its rocky start before it emerges as a bigger political liability next year.


Democratic senators from red states — the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection next year — voted for Obamacare and have been among the law’s biggest champions, believing that voters would embrace it once they experienced its benefits. They could end up being some of the law’s most prominent casualties if its unpopularity continues to grow.

If voters continue experiencing problems like a balky website, canceled policies and higher premiums, the fallout could be brutal next November, Democrats acknowledge.

( Understanding Obamacare: POLITICO’s guide to the ACA)

For that reason, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) issued some blunt advice to the administration: “Fix it.”

Asked how it would affect Senate Democratic candidates in 2014, the No. 2 Senate Democrat said: “If it’s fixed, and when it’s fixed, that will decide whether the issue is a big issue next year.”

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, added this when asked whether the law would be a problem for his candidates next year: “It all depends on the implementation.”

Democrats are clearly anxious to see the issue resolved because their most at-risk senators in 2014 voted for the measure on Christmas Eve 2009. Those Democrats — Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina — all have defended the law in the face of GOP attacks. But their frustration with the White House is showing, whether it’s Pryor and Hagan backing an extension of Obamacare’s enrollment period, Landrieu proposing legislation to ensure insurance policyholders won’t lose their existing coverage or Begich voicing his fury with the White House.

( PHOTOS: 10 Sebelius quotes about Obamacare website)

Asked whether the White House’s credibility had been shot through this latest episode, one Democratic senator said: “You got to have it, to lose it.”

Even publicly, some aren’t afraid to vent.

“Very high,” Begich said when asked about his frustration with the White House over Obamacare. “Personally, I spend time going to this website, going on it — giving criticism — trying to push the envelope on some of these issues and yelling at them more than once. It’s frustrating because we should be able to get through this. I really do believe we will.”

Asked how it could affect his bid for a second term next year, Begich said: “We’re a year out. … I’ve always said this: ‘This bill needs work, has always needed work.’”

( PHOTOS: House hearing on Obamacare website)

While acknowledging problems, the White House says it is making an enormous push to ensure that the law’s hangups will soon be fixed and that millions of uninsured Americans will eventually be able to receive low-cost, quality health care coverage.

Senior administration officials argue that Democrats will be able to sell a positive story to the public over the insurance reforms enacted in the landmark law — and that the hiccups now being experienced will be largely forgotten by next year. At a private meeting last week between Senate Democrats and senior administration officials, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough reiterated that message: The law is fundamentally sound and the administration is working overtime to fix the problems, attendees said.

But administration sources acknowledge that if the problems grow, vulnerable Democrats could increasingly join the GOP’s call to delay major portions of the law, such as the unpopular mandate to purchase health insurance, putting major pressure on the White House to follow suit. For now, many Democrats are putting their faith in the administration to fix the problems, whether they’d like to or not.

“I would vote again for the Affordable Care Act. I’m for the Affordable Care Act. Period. End,” Landrieu said in a recent interview.

Stepping up his efforts for Senate Democrats, President Barack Obama will also travel to Dallas and Miami this week to fundraise for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, something that was in short order in the 2012 election cycle.

Democrats hope that the president and his team will help their case next year. Senate Republicans still have an uphill climb to the majority — they will need to gain a net of six seats to take back the chamber — and they have an upper hand in seats where Democrats are retiring, like West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana. If Republicans successfully defend contested seats in Georgia and Kentucky, and take three of the four seats from red-state Democratic senators who voted for Obamacare, they would return to the majority for the first time since 2006.

“Obamacare is a huge problem because it’s the vehicle that drives home a crisis of credibility and competence for Democratic candidates,” said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Every Democratic candidate promised that people could keep their health care plans if they like them. They aren’t credible.”

Recognizing that issue as a vulnerability, Landrieu proposed legislation last week that would allow all insurance holders to keep their policies, even though the Affordable Care Act has prompted insurers to issue hundreds of thousands of cancellation notices to consumers on the individual market. The White House says this amounts to about 5 percent of insurance holders in the individual market and that those consumers will get even better policies through the exchanges, even though the president repeatedly promised voters that no one would be forced off their existing plans.

Asked about GOP criticism she was simply moving on this new bill to protect her standing back home, Landrieu was defiant: “Mark Twain said, ‘A lie can get halfway around the world before truth gets out of bed and puts its boots on.’ These guys will say anything. Always have, and I beat them every time. And I intend to do it again.”

Indeed, Democrats believe that after the GOP failed to win back the Senate and White House despite running against Obamacare in the last elections, 2014 will turn on a whole set of different issues. Namely, Republicans have their own problems — that their party’s standing is disastrous right now in the aftermath of the 16-day government shutdown.

White House spokesman Jay Carney alluded to that on Friday.

“They’re tired of the kind of dysfunction that we saw during the shutdown; they’re tired of the blame game that they see people engage in here in Washington,” Carney said of voters in the 2014 midterms. “[Obama] wants [the economy] to create more and better jobs for the middle class. So that’ll be the message he carries in the midterm elections, when that time comes. That time is still some ways off.”

Democrats hope the White House makes the most of that time — and doesn’t give away its party’s advantages by continuing to bungle the health care law, making the issue detrimental to Democrats in 2014.

Pryor, perhaps the most vulnerable Democratic senator in the country, advocated patience, saying the administration needs a little more time to iron out the problems.

“You just got to give it a little time and see how it plays out over the next few days,” Pryor said. “Just give it some time.”