Pat Dollard

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Two Republicans running for the Senate are backing away from calls to repeal the healthcare law.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who is running for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, was forced to reassert his desire for repeal after refusing to say whether he supported it.

Separately, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who is up for reelection this year, told a local radio host “it may not be repeal at the end of the day; it may be a series of fixes over the course of this bill getting enacted that enable us to possibly change and bend that cost curve down.”

To be sure, Burr still said he supports repeal. But he also noted that there are “many good things” in the bill.

Conservatives have made it clear they want a full repeal, so even Burr’s amended statement is unlikely to completely satisfy them.

Kirk, who is knkown as a centrist, knows what it’s like to face heat from his right. He quickly corrected himself when the Club for Growth spoke out about his initial statement.

Kirk’s Democratic opponent is trying to make the healthcare law an issue in the campaign by highlighting Kirk’s opposition to it.

Democrats have insisted since before that healthcare vote that the GOP’s strategy of calling for repeal is fraught with peril. And Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), predicted Friday that Republicans would soon back away from the idea.