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Doctor challenges wittman
Virginia Democrats offer candidate for congressional 1st District seat
Date published: 5/5/2008
By CHELYEN DAVIS RICHMOND-- A Westmoreland County doctor plans to challenge Rep. Rob Wittman for the 1st District congressional seat.Dr. Keith Hummel, an emergency-room physician, hopes to win the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Wittman for the seat in November's election. No others have filed as candidates. Wittman won the seat just last December in a special election, held after Rep. Jo Ann Davis died of breast cancer. The 1st District extends from Fauquier County to York County. Hummel, 57, who also runs a vineyard and winery, has never run for political office. He said he's running now because his own populist viewpoint isn't being represented.
"I'm running because I have a concern that we are losing our representative form of government. It is my perception that a lot of people in Congress, their ear is held by the lobbyists," Hummel said. "We need someone who is not a professional politician for the 1st Congressional District, who will listen to the people, who will put the interests of the people and the nation ahead of the interests of the lobbyists." Hummel thinks this is the year for a self-described populist to do well because the presidential election campaign has galvanized many people who have felt disenfranchised, and Hummel says they're the kind of people to whom his populism appeals. "Over the last few years, a lot of people have felt a sense of being disenfranchised in the 1st District," Hummel said. "Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have really enfranchised a lot of voters--people who felt they had no say, now feel they do. I think that helps with the turnout." Those voters, Hummel thinks, worry about the same issues he's running on: jobs, health care, security, immigration. For instance, Hummel favors universal health care. "I strongly favor a basic universal health care with a single-party payee with participation by everyone," Hummel said. "This is not socialized medicine. We need to have a single payee because that simplifies the payment process. We need to have it be public rather than private because the profit motive adds a significant amount to the expense." He said health care should be considered a government responsibility the way transportation and schools are.
Date published: 5/5/2008
Whither thou, O Constitution
(posted by
ConcrndCitizen
, May 5, 2008 9:14 am)
Nothing justifies violating the Constitution's restrictions on the Federal Government, not even the establishment of universal health care management/payment. Convenience is not sufficient excuse to abrogate individual liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. I do understand a single-payer system firsthand, and my observation is that the Federal Government in charge is wasteful and actively destroys efficiencies that doctors and hospitals develop. Even the insurance companies are not so awful.
Finally, we have a candidate with a sensible platform!
(posted by
Chiswald
, May 5, 2008 7:55 am)
First Congressional District voters now have a chance to elect a candidate (an emergency room physician) who understands the problems of our health care system and has solutions to fix it! We don't have to continue to be unrepresented by a conservative Republican who puts the about protectininterests of insurance and pharmaceutical companies ahead of his constituents. We don't have to put up with ridiculous dogma about socialism and communism from right wingers who don't understand a single payer system!
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