(AMES) – As Christie Vilsack holds another out of state fundraiser with old friends from the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, the King for Congress campaign is calling on Vilsack to take a stand on the issue of ObamaCare and the individual mandate – issues she supported as Hillary Clinton’s Iowa Co-Chair in 2007.
“After over a year of running for office, it’s time for Christie Vilsack’s political pandering to come to an end,” said King for Congress Campaign Manager Jake Ketzner. “She supported government-run healthcare in 2007. The simple truth is Christie Vilsack continues to duck questions on ObamaCare because she knows 4th District Iowans won’t support a candidate who stands behind a government takeover of healthcare.”
A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows only a third of Americans favor ObamaCare. Congressman King’s language to repeal ObamaCare passed the House last year. Vilsack repeatedly ducked questions on ObamaCare during a recent taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press.”
Background:
Vilsack Campaign Manager says the race is “about the issues.” Vilsack won’t take a stance on the issues.
In a story in the Des Moines Register, Vilsack’s Campaign Manager Jessica Vanden Berg said this campaign was “about the issues” – issues her candidate ducks question on.
“Look, we acknowledge this is not a Democratic district, but this election isn’t necessarily about partisanship, it’s about the issues,” Vanden Berg said.
Christie Vilsack supported government-run healthcare and a mandate in 2007
The Iowa City Press Citizen reported on September 21, 2007 that “Clinton’s ‘American Health Choices Plan’ for universal health care coverage includes an ‘individual mandate,’ which requires everyone to have health insurance.” Christie Vilsack was stumping for Hillary’s plan and the mandate on that day in Iowa City. (Lee Hermiston, “Making the rounds,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, Sept. 21, 2007)
Now that Christie Vilsack is a candidate she ducks questions on ObamaCare
From Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press”
The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich: “If the Supreme Court does happen to uphold the law, do you think that is the end of the story? Or are there things that you would seek to change in that health care law?”
Christie Vilsack: “Well, I think it’s always better to have a bill than no bill and we have a bill and we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks. But there are a lot of great things in that bill and there are things we need to change, obviously.”
Obradovich: “Like what?”
Vilsack: “But the good things — I think we need to focus on what we would want to keep regardless of what happens…”
Obradovich: “I’ll ask you one more time — is there anything in particular that you would change? Anything you have in mind that you would want to change no matter what happens with the Supreme Court?”
Vilsack: “Well, I think there are probably a lot of small things.”
Obradovich: “But no one big –“
Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson: So you support the mandate?
Vilsack: “No, I think there are a lot of — I think there are a lot of different ways that we can go about this creatively…”
Obradovich: “Are you saying you don’t support the mandate then?”
Vilsack: “I think that we’re going to see a lot of different ways that we can make sure that everybody has access. So, it might be the mandate, it might not be the mandate.”
Henderson: “We’re journalists, though, we like black and white. Are you for the mandate or are you against it?”
Vilsack: “I don’t — I’m not for it or against it.”