Congressional candidate Sal Pace (D-Urination) made a major mistake yesterday in trying to skirt The Denver Post's questions about his position on Obamacare. When asked whether he would have voted for Obamacare when it came up for a vote in Congress, Pace was caught flat-footed, saying "I don't know."
On an issue that defined the 2010 elections, and saw his former boss, now former Congressman John Salazar, ousted from office over it, you would think Pace would have thought through his public position. Guess not.
Asked by The Denver Post last week whether he would have supported the bill in 2010, Pace said “I don’t know,” and added that he has concerns with the bill’s mandate that Americans buy health insurance.
“I certainly am a strong advocate of expanding health care access,” said Pace, who has represented Pueblo in the state House since 2008. “I think it’s a moral issue. No one should die in poverty because of one illness. But I think it makes economic sense too.”
Really? He doesn’t know?
The thing is, Pace does know, he just doesn't want to say he would have supported the highly unpopular legislation. With Obama likely to go down by at least double digits in Pace's 3rd Congressional District, Pace can't afford to be associated with anything else that unpopular in the district.
The problem for Pace is he has an extensive record supporting Obamacare and even more left wing health care legislation. In 2009, Pace signed a petition by the Progressive States Network sent to President Obama and Congress that read:
"As leaders in state legislatures across the country, we urgently call on President Obama and the US Congress to take up and pass comprehensive health care reform in 2009."
When Pace signed that petition, urging an even bigger version of Obamacare that included a public (read: government) option, he had no idea he would be running for Congress in 2012. At that point, Congressman Salazar looked safely ensconced in his seat and Pace was happily representing a safe Democrat seat in Pueblo. There was no risk in giving a full-throated endorsement of Obamacare.
As a State Rep in 2009, Pace also co-sponsored left wing legislation, HB1273, to enact what the Rocky Mountain News called "a Canadian-style, single-payer universal health care system in Colorado." The legislation was considered so left wing that even Democrat Governor Bill Ritter went on the record opposing it.
With a formal record on government-run health care like that, "I don't know" not only doesn't cut it, but it's a flat out lie. Pace does know, he just doesn't have the stones to say so.
Well, Sal, just like your extensive criminal record, just because you don't want to talk about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.