Letter: District 10, heal thyself

Graphic by Lori Deaton

If I offered you $820,000, would you expect me to want something in return?

Hold on. I don’t really have that kind of money to toss around. But if I did, it’s reasonable to assume I’d want something for my money.

So, let’s consider Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-District 10. [For the 2018 election cycle], Rep. McHenry accepted $235,200 from Big Pharma, $188,380 from health professionals and $401,100 from lobbyists [according to The Center for Responsive Politics’ website, opensecrets.org]. (Plus another $501,000 from the insurance industry, but we’ll leave that out so as not to appear to be piling on.)

I don’t know what Big Pharma, health professionals and lobbyists asked of McHenry for their $824,680. But reasonable people can assume it wasn’t to reduce the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs, improve the Affordable Care Act or expand Medicaid.

Those are things, however, that Gina Collias wants to do. You may remember her as the progressive-minded mother, attorney and businesswoman who primaried McHenry last year, coming in second. As the North Carolina GOP became ever more extreme, Collias joined the Democratic Party. Now she’s running for the right to oppose McHenry as the Democratic nominee in 2020.

Thanks to her moderate roots and progressive values, Collias is uniquely positioned to build the crossover coalition of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters that’s so critical for victory in gerrymandered District 10.
To learn more about her, visit www.ginacolliasforcongress.com. No charge!

Then consider: When it comes to health care, maybe it’s time District 10 got a new prescription.

— Stephen Advokat
Asheville

Editor’s note: Advokat reports that he is a volunteer for Gina Collias for Congress.

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One thought on “Letter: District 10, heal thyself

  1. Enlightened Enigma

    ‘progressive’ values are detrimental to her strategy… people are sick of ‘progressives’ who offer NOTHING but more problems.

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