Physician Monica Wehby speaks to her supporters Tuesday, May 20, 2014 after winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. She’ll faces incumbent Democrat Jeff Merkley in November. (Photo: AP)
Dr. Monica Wehby was supposed to give the GOP their best chance to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley in the Oregon Senate race. However, even as the national political environment has moved decisively in favor of the Republican Party, Wehby’s campaign has struggled to gain traction amid less-than flattering headlines.
This week a new headline emerged that could be a campaign-ender and is already causing the party — as well as outside groups — to reconsider shifting resources to more winnable contests.
“Monica Wehby says that she is different, but she copied her tax plan from Mitt Romney, plagiarized her health care plan from Karl Rove, her economic plan from a slate of national Republicans and ripped the rest of her anti-middle class agenda straight from the oil billionaire Koch brothers,” said Merkley campaign spokeswoman Lindsey O’Brien.
The latest development Merkley’s spokeswoman is referring to involves revelations the Wehby campaign plagiarized policy plans detailed on the candidate’s website. On the health care survey from Karl Rove’s Crossroads USA, the site copied a line almost verbatim. On taxes, one section of Wehby’s plan copied word-for-word from Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s plan released just a month earlier. The same can be said of whole sections found in other past Republican proposals.
The plagiarism, itself, is no longer in dispute.
Below are a few of the examples, several of which were reported first by BuzzFeed:.
HEALTH CARE
From the Crossroads USA survey via Crossroads GPS:
Allow people to purchase health insurance coverage with pre-tax dollars, so that they can have an insurance policy they own and can keep if they change jobs.
Wehby:
Allow everyone to purchase health insurance with pre-tax dollars so they own the policy and can keep it if they change jobs.
Admittedly, BuzzFeed is one to talk about instances of plagiarism, considering their own record on the topic. But the Merkley campaign is correctly pointing out the irony of how a children’s brain surgeon turned-politician — in a cycle largely focused on ObamaCare — didn’t even take pains to offer original material in a field she is claiming to be an expert in.
“The Wehby campaign is simultaneously claiming Wehby is a health policy expert, but hadn’t read her own health care or economic plans until yesterday,” said Ms. O’Brien.
The ludicrous excuse from the Wehby campaign came only after several days of paralysis on behalf of the response team. As previously stated, Wehby’s campaign has now acknowledged the plagiarism and has since removed entire plans from her campaign website, but only after blaming former campaign manager Charlie Pierce. Unfortunately for Team Wehby, Pierce is now working to elect Republican Rep. Dennis Richardson as governor and, as a result, has refused to fall on his sword. He is vehemently denying he is to blame for the plagiarism.
To be sure, some of their examples are a bit exaggerated, but the examples taken from Portman’s plans on taxes, a balanced budget amendment and spending, are certainly not.
TAXES
Portman:
The U.S. can’t be competitive with the highest business tax rate in the world. We should reform both the individual and corporate tax systems in a comprehensive manner to provide lower rates with fewer deductions and credits and transition towards a territorial system for international businesses. These changes would encourage growth and job creation. For example, reducing corporate and individual tax rates to 25% would create millions of private-sector jobs and increase wages for American workers.
Wehby:
The U.S. is among the highest business tax rate in the world, severely hindering businesses’ ability to grow and invest. We need to reform both the individual and corporate tax systems in a comprehensive manner to provide lower rates with fewer deductions and credits and transition towards a territorial system for international businesses. These changes would encourage growth and job creation. For example, reducing corporate and individual tax rates to 25% would create million of private sector jobs and increase wages for American workers.
BALANCE BUDGET AMENDMENT
Portman:
A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution would limit the ability to raise taxes to pay for runaway spending and codify what every family and small business owner already knows: you can’t spend more than you take in.
Wehby:
A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution would limit the ability to raise taxes to pay for runaway spending and codify what every family and small business owner already knows: you can’t spend more than you take in.
SPENDING
Portman:
Getting spending under control includes better oversight of federal agencies and programs and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, and reforms to our important entitlement programs to strengthen them for future generations.
Wehby:
Getting spending under control includes better oversight of federal agencies and programs and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, and reforms to our important entitlement programs to strengthen them for future generations.
There are others — several others — and they are equally damaging.
Michael Antonopoulos, Wehby’s campaign manager who took over after Pierce left, has refused to respond to a request for a comment, or even offer an explanation. Since taking over the show, Wehby has stumbled over one bad story after another. She became a low-key candidate after troubles with both her ex-husband and former boyfriend surfaced. In two separate instances, the two men called the police on her for troubling behavior — to say the least — though the two men had questionable motives.
Antonopoulos was previously the campaign manager for fourth-place finisher Matt Whitaker, who made a failed run for the GOP Senate nomination in Iowa. Prior, he worked in Republican politics in California, a state the GOP hasn’t dominated since Ronald Reagan.
There is a fundamental problem with the response crafted by Antonopoulos and other members of the Wehby team. She has been touting items in plagiarized bullet points as her own for months.
“I do think that we can replace it, I’ve got a plan out there that I’ve put out there to replace the current plan, including things like health savings accounts that you can put away with pre-taxed dollars,” she said of health care savings plans in an interview with KATU’s “Your Voice Your Vote” back in March, 2014.
And if that is still too vague for skeptics, her comments during the Linn County Candidate Forum that same month spell it out.
“We need to all be able to buy it with pretax dollars so you can move from place to place so I think the answer to this is first we have to take back the Senate and repeal and transition into a free market patient centered approach, and I have it on my website.”
Putting off the blame and responsibility has only become the latest club for Wehby’s opponents to rightfully beat her over the head with. The Republican has now ensured this line of attack will continue right up until Election Day. The possibility Pierce is solely to blame for the plagiarism is outright dismissed by Merkley’s campaign.
“That’s ridiculous, Monica Wehby bears full responsibility for the reckless anti-middle class agenda she’s spent this entire campaign advocating for,” Ms. O’Brien added. “This is her policy platform and it’s the reason she is running.”
The Oregon Senate race is rated “Likely Democrat” on PPD’s 2014 Senate Map Predictions model, for now.
