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Mailer ads and signs are part of a pricey Nevada State Democratic Party effort opposing the reelection of Republican state Sen. Joe Heck. The mailers and signs do not contain the name of his opponent in the race, former Clark Count School District administrator Shirley Breeden. The above sign is on Las Vegas Boulevard South.
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
, Brian Eckhouse
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Sun Topics
Beyond the Sun
Nevada Democrats have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a series of attack mail pieces aimed at state Sen. Joe Heck, intensifying a battle to control the upper chamber of the Legislature currently held by Republicans.
The ads are tough — and misleading, with a series of images depicting suffering cancer patients. The glossy mailings say Heck, a physician, voted against requiring insurance companies to include cervical cancer screenings in their basic coverage, even as he accepted campaign donations from insurance companies.
“Dr. Joe Heck took money from insurance lobbyists and voted ‘no’ to cervical cancer screenings,” one ad said.
That statement, and at least one other in the mailings, appears to be incorrect. Insurance companies have been required by the state to cover screenings for cervical cancer since 1989, according to the Legislative Counsel Bureau, the research arm of the Legislature. The ads don’t have citations, but seem to refer to legislation from 2007, though the bill had nothing to do with cervical cancer screening. The 2007 Legislature passed a law authored by state Sen. Dina Titus requiring some insurance companies to cover Gardasil, the vaccine for the human papilloma virus, a precursor to cervical cancer.
In an interview Wednesday, Heck said: “What bothered me is that my career has been as patient advocate. I work at the county hospital, and to see them take a couple votes and distort them, and attack me because they’re so desperate to take control of the Senate and too embarrassed to put their own candidate out there, it showed how low the Democrats are willing to go.”
The District 5 Republican did vote against requiring the vaccine for sexually transmitted HPV and has been criticized for doing so in other venues. Heck said he opposes new mandates on insurance companies because they increase the cost of coverage.
The Democrats have sent out at least three separate mailers showing scenes of medical distress, including bald women apparently undergoing chemotherapy, a woman in a hospital bed, an empty wheelchair and the obligatory grainy picture of the physician Heck looking like anything but a caregiver.
The Nevada State Democratic Party paid for the mail pieces.
Gary Gray, a Democratic consultant who specializes in mail pieces but did not create these, estimated the cost at more than $20,000 each.
The mailings never mention the name of Heck’s opponent, retired Clark County School District administrator Shirley Breeden.
Robert Uithoven, Heck’s campaign manager, said: “Why is the state Democrat Party spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and haven’t even mentioned the name of the candidate?”
The answer is that the Democrats want to demonize Heck in hopes voters will choose his opponent, regardless of whether they know anything about her, party insiders say.
The stakes in the race are high. Republicans hold an 11-10 advantage in the state Senate, with incumbents Heck and Republican state Sen. Bob Beers, of District 6, in some danger of defeat in what appears to be a Democratic year. Democrats are eager to control the upper chamber because they then could dominate the 2009 legislative agenda in tandem with the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
Also, the Legislature will redraw congressional and legislative maps after the 2010 census, including a potential extra congressional seat.
Travis Brock, executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party, wouldn’t say how much the mailings cost or where the money came from. Nevada public disclosure laws don’t require the party to reveal anything until October.
Brock said the ads are intended to “educate voters in the district” but wouldn’t say anything about their substance.
Other Democratic Party sources suggested the ads might be the handiwork of state Sen. Steven Horsford, the newly elected Senate minority leader.
Horsford, however, said he was “not involved in the creation or approval of it.” He added: “I’m supporting the Democratic Party to make sure they have the resources to support Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.”
Breeden also had little to say about the ads. “The tone, to me, is exactly how he voted. Times are tough and people want a change.”
Breeden also could be a piece in a larger political chess match. Not only do Democrats salivate about controlling the state Senate, but they’re also concerned about Heck’s role in the 2010 election.
Allies of Sen. Harry Reid say they are most concerned about a challenge from Heck, who in addition to being a physician is a colonel in the Army Reserve.
Heck is also frequently mentioned as a candidate for governor. In that case, he could wind up facing another Reid — Harry’s son Rory Reid, the chairman of the Clark County Commission.
The Reids’ allies have a firm hand on the state party.
Nevada has 49 insurance mandates, one of the highest mandate requirements in the country.
Each mandate pushes up the cost of insurance so it is no wonder Nevada also has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country.
Each time the Democrats and Republicans vote to include another mandated coverage they price more people out of the insurance market.
If I remember correctly, Joe Heck portrayed Ann O'Connell, his predecessor, as a big spender because she voted for Governor Kenny Guinn's tax plan. O'Connell was one of the most anti-tax, conservative state senators Nevada ever has had. And NOW he's concerned with inaccuracy?
Don't feel sorry or these corrupt insuance companies.They continue to make record profits while denying basic coverage for their insured. If an insured can not recieve appropriate treatment for health issues, why have insurance? You will notice insurance companies cherry pick the people they chose to insure thus leaving out people with preexisting conditions. Remember they have to come up with those executive saleries and golden parachutes somehow. To say a mandate is pricing people out of the insurance market is ludicrous. Why do you think insurance companies lose so many court battles on these subjects? GREED.
Does anyone but me every wonder when Prof. Green has time to either teach a class or to perform someother state funded academic stuff.
Am I the only one that thinks all these signs are really ugly and should be removed? I mean look at St. Rose beside St. Rose hospital. There are tons of huge ugly rusty fallen over signs that have been there for months!
Every time there is a empty construction space there are tons of signs. I wish the city would do something and fine them or remove them. In a time of Internet and other media outlets, these eye sores should not be allowed.
If I had a truck I'd take them all away!
- Henderson resident
Oh my God - leave it to the pre-pubescent kids presently running the state Democratic party to screw up the story behind one of the most important health initiatives for women in this state for a decade.
The cervical cancer vaccine not only prevents cervical cancer, but also cervical dysplasia (the pre-cursor to cervical cancer) which afflicts 1 million women a year and is treated in a painful way. 80% of American women will acquire genital HPV before the age of 50. Not even the Christian Right is protesting wide-spread vaccination.
The insurance industry has Heck cow-towing to them. Heck should be ashamed, very ashamed of this record.
Why, why, why couldn't the Democrats have contacted Titus, Planned Parenthood or NOW to get this very important story straight?!?
AAAahaaaaahaaah!
Shameful. The left wants control so badly they will do anything to gain. A doctor that still practices and is a Lt. Col. in the reserves sounds like the kind of common sense we need in the capitol. I don't see a need for someone that spent their life as a school administrator as a leader. Our schools are failing now, why destroy the entire state.
Heck is a tool for insurance companies. There is no other way to look at his vote against requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of a cancer vaccine.
Heck should be ashamed to call himself a representative let alone to call himself a doctor.
On his website he refers to himself as a "small business owner." Apparently he doesn't really practice medicine all that much, but sells "medical training" to government employees. Which is it Heck? Are you a doctor, or just another schmuck in the pockets of government and insurance companies? It's becoming clearer to me that Heck is just another self-serving schmuck who doesn't care one iota for Nevada's women - unless his hand it in their till.
Actually, bremskraft, elements of the Christian Right ARE opposing the vaccine against cervical cancer. A Christianist group in Texas has filed a lawsuit against mandatory vaccination there, and I think a Christianist group in southern California has even filed suit against a vaccination that allowed students to OPT OUT.
And please note the correct spelling of "kowtow."
I'm happy the Democratic party is starting to grow a backbone. If the Republicans can lie, the Dems can fight back with their own spin. The public doesn't expect the spin to be accurate. For example, McSame is criticizing Obama for voting for a bill regarding reproduction education in schools because the bill covered all levels of education. Seems fair in Heck's case that the Dems can spin his vote against requiring insurance to cover a vaccine to prevent cancer anyway they want. Turnabout is fair play.
Until there's a truce on both sides, let the mudslinging flow.
kotow
What I meant to say is that Christian-Right groups aren't opposing the vaccine in Nevada.
NeoConChristianDr, I take 5-10 minute breaks from the three books I'm writing on my computer to see what is going on in today's world. Then I return to history, which with all its horrors somehow ends up seeming much less disgusting than what Neo-Cons have done and are trying to do to this country. And now, back to work--which, by the way, if I calculate my salary in relation to how many hours I work, puts me so far below the minimum that I may want your address so I can show up and beg for food.
Anyone who has read any of my postings on various blogs will know that I am NOT a fan of the NSDP staff, but I say tough to the whining from supporters of the Republic Party. Your kind has been slinging bull for so long. Get over it.
Sarah Palin is a major-league flip-flopper on the bridge to "know"-where. She said no thanks after she said thanks, but then said thanks when she got the money anyway.
Enough BS from the Republic Party. Boo-fraking-Hoo!!!