Health care divides some Republican Senate rivals

Republican Senate candidates have to settle an intraparty fight over the problem-plagued federal health care law before they can use the new law to target Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections.

GOP incumbents running for re-election are among virtually all Republican candidates who oppose President Barack Obama’s signature law. The question is what should be done about it. And the differences have become apparent in Senate Republican primaries from Georgia to Nebraska.

Tea party-aligned candidates want to repeal the law completely. Many of them supported House Republicans’ push to defund the law, even though that led to a partial government shutdown that many voters blamed on the GOP. Other Republicans opposed the shutdown and have called for changing the law rather than repealing it.