-By Warner Todd Huston
Politics might make strange bedfellows, but this one really takes the cake. In California Elizabeth Emken is running for the 7th District U.S. House seat in an attempt to unseat Democrat Ami Bera. But even though Emken was a lobbyist for Obamacare, she is strangely running as a Republican and using Bera’s support for Obamacare as a weapon against him.
A recent fundraising email that Emken sent out, for instance, states: “As you pay your federal taxes today, I thought you’d like to know how much more Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Ami Bera have signed you up to pay over the next 10 years. Obamacare alone will cost the federal government $1.4 trillion to expand and subsidize health insurance coverage.”
“And to add insult to injury, the IRS is in charge of enforcing it,” her email continues. It ends saying, “I don’t know about you, but I believe we are taxed enough already. We need leaders who are willing to stand up for the taxpayers and help create a tax environment that encourages growth and productivity, not a government that punishes you for success.”
This is all good stuff and the standard GOP line against Obamacare. So, why is this so odd coming from Emken?
As it happens, Emken worked as a lobbyist pushing Obamacare for years before wanting to run for office.
Before her political ambitions were manifest, Emken was the Vice President for Government Relations of a group called Autism Speaks. The group supported Obamacare because they felt it would help fund research and support for autistic children and as VP of Gov’t Relations, Emken worked to help Obamacare get passed.
There is even a photo of Emken standing proudly with Obama:
In 2010, she ran for U.S. Senate, and she also ran for 11th Congressional district covering the Stockton area. She finished last amongst 4 candidates in a Republican primary. Emken ran for U.S. Senate against Diane Feinstein for the 2012 election cycle and lost pretty badly. Though, that is a pretty tough state for any Republican, granted.
But the California primary is on June 3 and two other Republicans are vying to be the GOP nominee for the 7th District. The one with the most buzz seems to be Doug Ose, 58, who was once the Republican Congressman for California’s 3rd District (1999-2005). Tea Party-allied former Congressional chief of staff Igor Birman is also in the hunt for the GOP nomination.
The race is now rated a toss up as to whether or not the Democrats will be able to keep this seat and with Bera’s big support of Obamacare, that will likely hurt his re-election chances like it is hurting every Democrat across the country.
But, in a race where Obamacare is the top albatross around every Democrat’s neck, one would think it would be foolish for the GOP to nominate a person like Emken who actually lobbied for the law!
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–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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