Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, allegedly pro-life Democrat, looks set to abandon Stupak and vote “yes.”* (You can courteously and warmly tell his staff what you think of the decision at (202) 225-3611, (810) 239-1437 in Bay City, (989) 755-8904 in Saginaw, and (989) 891-0990 in Flint.)

The 80-year-old Kildee has been in Congress since 1976.

As mentioned, his district includes Bay City, where the unemployment rate is a mild 13.7 percent, Saginaw, where it stands at a modest 14 percent, and Flint, where the unemployment rate is a cheery 16.6 percent.

Rick Wilson is running against him on the GOP side. It’s a pretty Democratic district, but one wonders how this vote will play among some demographics in this heavily Catholic region.

* I originally had him “flipping” but because the old version had the pro-life Stupak language, he was a yes and is sticking to the ‘yes’.

UPDATE: One of my Michigan politics guys weighs in: “His district is rather pro-life, so flipping on health care is bad enough, but he’ll lose the RTL endorsement here for this. But I’m pretty sure that Kildee no longer actually serves in Congress and he’s been replaced by one of the creations from the wax museum. Have you seen him lately?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: This would be a fairly glaring change of events:

Linsey Beck, Kildee’s legislative staffer, told us that the media reports were inaccurate, and that the representative has not decided to vote for the Senate language bill.

Funny how “I’ll probably vote for the bill” can be interpreted as meaning that Kildee will probably vote for the bill. But if this latest word from Beck means Kildee is standing with Stupak, it’s good news.