Report: Losing GOP Candidate Now Wants To Lead O-Care Agency

Dr. Monica Wehby greets supporters at the headquarters in Oregon City, Oregon after winning the Oregon Republican Primary race for Senate on Tuesday, May. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes)
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On Election Day, Republican Monica Wehby lost her bid to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate. The very next day, according to The Oregonian, she called the state’s governor to ask about the open job to lead the state agency responsible for implementing the Affordable Care Act.

The newspaper reported that Wehby, who like most Republican candidates campaigned against Obamacare, called Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and inquired about the unfilled position of director of the Oregon Health Authority.

As The Oregonian put it, that position is “the state’s top official in charge of implementing Obamacare.” It cited “multiple sources” for its depiction of the call.

Kitzhaber’s office would only confirm that Wehby had called, not that she had asked about the director opening. Wehby herself was curiously opaque about her intentions when asked by the newspaper.

“Honestly, I’m looking at all sorts of options. I want to stay involved,” she said. On the Oregon Health Authority specifically, she said: “Clearly that’s where the health care decisions are being made.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for darcy darcy says:

    As it is said, “she has issues”.

  2. Avatar for wtf1 wtf1 says:

    Ah, that would be NO! You don’t get to lead a department you tried to destroy!

  3. You mighta’ thought she’d at least take down her campaign website before calling. But no:

    Monica was a prominent opponent of the ACA in 2009, when Obamacare was rolling down the legislative track. She was enlisted to be in a television commercial that ran nationwide, warning people about the dangers of that bill. Monica got a lot of hate mail for that ad campaign and had to change her home phone number, but her warnings have come to
    pass. . . .

    Premiums have increased. Medicare Advantage benefits for our state’s seniors have been cut. The Obama administration is constantly changing the rules and delaying its own mandates. But, worst of all, Oregonians have been made to suffer the failures of “Cover Oregon”, which has been labeled the worst state-ran health exchange in the nation.

    As one person Monica met on the campaign trail told her, “The Affordable Care Act has made my health insurance un-affordable.” This system is so flawed that it needs to be replaced entirely. We need a patient-centered, market-based methodology that puts healthcare in the hands of people rather than politicians – one that is actually affordable, one that is radically different than the one President Obama and Jeff Merkley forced through on a partisan basis.

  4. Fox guarding henhouse? Or maybe she thinks that she can educate people who attempt to enroll on the “dangers” of government helping out constituents.

  5. This dingbat ran her whole campaign promising to repeal Obamacare?

    Keep your GOPaws of my health insurance.

    What a douche bag.

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