It's the latest example of the president and Democrats mounting diverging campaigns. Some Dems buck Obama on taxes

President Barack Obama’s renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: Democrats running for Congress in 2012.

Several Democrats in critical House and Senate races say they prefer raising taxes on people who make more than $1 million, the latest example of how the president and vulnerable Democrats are mounting diverging campaigns just four months from Election Day.


( Also on POLITICO: Obama tries for a tax wedge)

Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s “favored” position is to permanently extend the Bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $1 million, according to his office. Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, the North Dakota Senate candidate, also wants to extend the tax cuts for those making less than $1 million. Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who’s running again in his home state, “believes the $250,000 limit is too low but is evaluating how specific proposals would affect the budget,” his campaign spokesman said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Monday she is “open” to extending all the tax cuts for those who earn up to $1 million if it’s part of a comprehensive deal to rein in the deficit. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) supports extending tax relief for those families earning up to $1 million, though she said she’s also “open” to all middle-class tax relief and backs the president’s latest call.

Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, prefers a $500,000 threshold. Democratic Rep. Kathy Hochul, a top GOP target in her upstate New York House race, wrote to House and Senate leaders on Monday asking for a prompt vote to permanently extend tax rates for the middle class, noting that she, like Kaine, believed it should be set at $500,000.

The clear difference with the White House underscores how Democrats on the front lines of their congressional campaigns are not afraid to buck their party’s leader on even some of the most high-profile issues of the election.

The divergence can be seen on other fronts as well: A handful of vulnerable Democrats are expected to vote in favor of repealing Obama’s health care law when it comes up for a symbolic vote Wednesday in the House. Coal-state Democrats have been openly criticizing the president on energy policy. And several Democratic lawmakers in tough races are bowing out of their party’s three-day convention in September, believing that physical distance from the president during the convention may help them politically.

The mixed messages also represent a sharp shift in the tax debate in recent months. While Obama has consistently called for tax increases on those earning more than $250,000 dating to his 2008 campaign, Democrats in Congress have focused on raising taxes on families earning more than $1 million.

Proponents of the so-called millionaires’ tax — led in part by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer — believe it’s an easier pitch to make to swing voters, especially near major cities where a $250,000 income may not stretch as far as in other parts of the country. The argument, they argued, has effectively blunted the GOP attack that the tax increases would hurt small businesses, though Schumer dropped his objection to the president’s latest proposal, sources said Monday.

Obama has embraced the millionaires’ tax as well, agreeing to include it as a way to pay for his American Jobs Act last fall and pushing the so-called Buffett rule that would impose a minimum 30 percent tax on those earning more than $1 million.

But by renewing his call Monday to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 for one year, Obama risks reopening party divisions that appeared to be smoothed over.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who supports the Buffett rule but voted in 2010 against letting the tax cuts expire for those earning more than $250,000, said people from his state are “tired of temporary solutions to our long-term problems.”

“While I haven’t reviewed the administration’s proposal, it’s time for both sides to stop playing political games and instead do what the people sent us here to do: Put our financial house in order and leave America better off for the next generation.”

Kaine, who’s in a tossup race against former Republican Sen. George Allen, is trying to thread the needle between Obama and Republicans.

“I disagree with those Republicans who argue that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent in their entirety,” Kaine said Monday. “I also disagree with the president on the level at which we should allow them to expire. If everyone sets partisanship aside, we can find the right balance between helping families and businesses and making progress toward reducing the deficit.”

Senior White House officials on Monday downplayed the intraparty disagreements, saying that a vast majority of Democrats were behind the effort to extend the tax rates to all but the top 2 percent in the country. They argue raising taxes on those earning more than $250,000 would go further in reducing the deficit and that all but 3 percent of small businesses would be affected.

Moreover, the Republicans have already demonstrated they are opposed to tax hikes on millionaires, so Democratic Party leaders and White House officials say the GOP’s latest opposition makes them seem all the more recalcitrant.

“It’s another line in the sand between him and [Mitt] Romney and forces Romney to talk about taxes and not solely on jobs and the economy,” a Senate Democratic aide said. “Besides, the White House isn’t stupid. [The White House] sees an opening here or he wouldn’t be out there leaning into the tax issue.”

Obama, who said Monday that “poll after poll” demonstrated public support for his plan , has worked to get Democratic leaders on board.

In a private mid-June meeting at the White House, the president and his top aides — David Plouffe, Jack Lew and Pete Rouse — laid out the position to Democratic leaders. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced their support of the president’s plan on Monday.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Monday encapsulated the Democrats’ strategy: “The million dollars, I think, will be a metaphor for how our Republican colleagues won’t support increasing revenues on any persons in America, no matter how much they make.”

Some liberal Democrats said they were firmly in Obama’s corner. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) backs the president’s proposal, as does Connecticut Senate candidate Chris Murphy and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who is locked in a tough race with GOP incumbent Sen. Scott Brown.

“We celebrate success in America, but the people who have been the most successful should pay their fair share and help future generations succeed too,” said Warren campaign spokeswoman Alethea Harney.

Still, there has been more unanimity among congressional Democrats when the threshold was targeted at those earning more than $1 million.

Some moderate members of the Senate Democratic Caucus were still mulling over Obama’s latest idea. Retiring Sen. Ben Nelson, the Nebraska Democrat who bucked his party and backed the original Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, called the president’s proposal a “starting point.”

“My druthers are to extend all of the tax cuts to continue the economic recovery,” he said in a statement. “But if this leads to a compromise, Congress should at least extend the tax cuts for everyone under $1 million.”

Similarly, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is “undecided” by the latest effort, an aide said.

Other Senate candidates were cautious Monday. A spokesman for Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said the first-term senator is “still looking at the proposals.” And a spokesman for Democratic candidate Richard Carmona declined to say whether the former U.S. surgeon general agreed with Obama’s tax proposal, calling instead for a full-blown tax system overhaul.

Darren Samuelsohn, Glenn Thrush and Tomer Ovadia contributed to this report.