Health Care Battle Shifts From House Floor to the Airwaves

The Democratic National Committee and several groups supporting President Obama are unveiling $5 million in television ads this week to thank lawmakers for voting for the historic health care legislation that passed Sunday and was signed into law Tuesday by the president.

The ads will run in 25 blue congressional districts, thanking lawmakers in 40 House districts across the country and promoting elements of the new law, a Democratic source told Fox News.

Among the most likely recipients of the valuable air time are Reps. Tom Periello of Virginia, Bobby Etheridge of North Carolina, Gerry Connolly of Virginia and Leonard Boswell of Iowa -- lawmakers who are in tough swing districts where the health care legislation was unpopular.

These lawmakers voted for the legislation despite being under intense pressure not to from groups opposing the bill.

"There is no doubt that the midterms are historically tough for the party in power," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan. "That said, we've got something to run on. We are going to be able to tell the American people we got stuff done that is going to help families."

The DNC will only say that it will pitch in more than a $1 million to the effort. The bulk of the remaining $5 million is funded by labor unions like SEIU and AFSCME.

Republicans on the other hand plan to take their message straight to these swing districts as well.

The Republican National Committee rolled out a Web site devoted to firing Nancy Pelosi three days ago and boast that they've raised $1.4 million in that time, which they say will go straight into the effort to defeat House Democrats.

"We'll let their voters know on television. We'll let them know by knocking on their doors," RNC spokesman Doug Heye said. "We'll let them know by ringing their phones. We'll let them know by sending text messages, whatever we can do to communicate with voters to let them know the bad deal that the Democrat members voted for."

Twenty Democrats from districts that John McCain won in 2008 voted for the health care legislation.

Those are the lawmakers that national Democrats are trying to protect with the multi-million dollar ad campaign, and the ones Republicans are spending their money to kick out.

Meanwhile, among the 58 Blue Dog Democrats, 26 voted for the health care legislation, which could leave them in a tough spot in November. The other 32 voted against the legislation, possibly alienating themselves within their own party. 

Click here to view the NRCC ad.

Click here to view the Health Care for America NOW! ad.