GOP Sen. Heller receives threatening note over health care

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., received a note at his Las Vegas office over the weekend that reportedly threatened the senator if he voted to take away the note writer’s health care.

The note writer said he would die from losing insurance if Heller backed the Republican plan — and that he would take Heller down with him if that happened, according to veteran reporter Jon Ralston at the Nevada Independent.

On Sunday morning, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was notified by an alarm company that Heller’s Las Vegas office had been broken into. The police department said in a statement that while the office was not burglarized, a “threatening note” addressed to Sen. Heller was left near his office’s door. The police said they would not disclose the contents of the note while the investigation was ongoing.

A spokeswoman for Heller, Megan Taylor, said she could not comment.

Heller has been under intense pressure from both conservatives and liberals as he decides whether to back Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to roll back portions of Obamacare and cut more than $700 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. If Heller decides against the bill, it would be effectively dead in its current form, because the bare minimum of 50 Republican senators right now are undecided or supportive of the legislation. Heller came out against an earlier version of the bill, saying its Medicaid cuts hurt his state.

Related slideshow: Protesters across the country oppose GOP’s health care plan >>>

The threatening note is not the first threat of violence against a lawmaker even just this month. A 59-year-old man was arrested in Tucson earlier this month for making a threat at the office of Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. He referenced the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., apparently telling Flake’s staffers that liberals would get “better aim.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have asked for stepped-up security following the Scalise shooting.

Read more from Yahoo News:

• Russian-American lobbyist: I just strolled into Trump Jr. meeting

• Outgoing federal ethics chief: ‘We are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point’

• Gore: Trump ‘tears down America’s standing in the world’ by leaving Paris climate accord

• Trump brushes off record-low approval rating: ‘Not bad at this time’

• Photos: At least 9 dead, 1 still missing in Arizona flash flood