news-record.com

SEANC, the state employees union, is once again picking a fight with Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Democrat and House majority leader from Lexington. The Davidson County lawmaker is among the leaders who helped rework the state health plan this summer. SEANC cites that work in a news release that says its members will protest outside a fundraiser for Holliman here in Raleigh this evening.

This legislative session, Holliman pushed through Senate Bill 287, which charges state employees and their families an extra $600 in out-of-pocket expenses (and implements tobacco and BMI privacy invasions and reduces benefits for some employees to a 70/30 plan), while asking nothing from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C., the nonprofit health insurance monopoly that made $180 million in profits in 2008.

Click here for the full release.

I wrote a story and blog post earlier this year when SEANC targeted Holliman with a radio ad. You can find that by clicking here.

As I noted at the time, Holliman sits in one of the few true swing districts at the General Assembly, one that the Democrats could most easily lose if things break against them in a general election. In 2008, Holliman won by five percentage points – not a slim margin but slimmer than typical among incumbents and House leaders. (House Speaker Joe Hackney was unopposed in his bid, for example. Rep. Maggie Jeffus from Greensboro had a 29 percentage point margin.)

Of course, Holliman is in a conservative-leaning district and one wonders whether a union group complaining about an effort to cut taxpayer-subsidized health care costs for state employees is likely to lose him many votes there.