Obamacare might not be this year’s biggest election topic, but a top group funded by the Koch brothers is trying to swing a key Senate race using President Obama’s healthcare law.
Americans for Prosperity says its staff and volunteers in Nevada are micro-targeting swing and undecided voters with a new mailer blasting Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto for supporting the Affordable Care Act.
The aim of the group, which says it has 20 full- and part-time staff working out of three field offices around Nevada, is to replace departing Sen. Harry Reid with Republican Rep. Joe Heck instead of Masto, a former attorney general.
AFP’s mailer says 24,000 Nevadans lost their health insurance because of the law — a statement that may be true on its face, although some Nevadans have since regained coverage through the law’s marketplaces. The state’s uninsured rate fell from 20 percent to 15.7 percent after the law’s main provisions were rolled out.
The mailer notes that Cortez Masto has said she would have voted for the healthcare law had she been given the chance. It also mentions that she didn’t join more than two dozen state attorneys general, all Republican, to sue the federal government over various components of the healthcare law right after it was passed in 2010.
Like many Democrats, Cortez Masto says she supports the healthcare law but wants to improve it.
“I don’t think it’s perfect, but I think you need to start somewhere … so we should be working towards improving it,” she said on a Las Vegas PBS show last year.
The Nevada race is among about seven toss-up Senate contests around the country, which will decide whether Democrats can take back Senate majority from the Republicans. Most of the races have revolved around non-healthcare topics, such as national security and defense, but in a few races Republicans have tried to blame Democrats for rising Obamacare premiums.
Nevada is among the states with the smallest price increases for plans sold in the marketplaces, but premiums there are still rising by 15 percent on average, according to independent analyst Charles Gaba.
AFP Nevada Director Adam Jones said Cortez Masto’s statements supporting the law contradict the experiences of families and businesses.
“It’s time for her to explain why she supports this mess and what her plan would be to fix it,” he said.
