BuzzFeed Claims Monica Wehby Plagiarized Health Plan

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

By Shelby Sebens, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Monica Wehby

Oregon's Senate candidate Monica Wehby has plagiarized her health plan from Karl Rove, the website BuzzFeed claims.

BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski alleges Wehby took her health plan from a group on healthcare reform established by former Bush advisor and political strategist Karl Rove. The health plan BuzzFeed links to is no longer on the website. But a screen grab of Wehby's health plan provided by the campaign for her opponent U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, backs up BuzzFeed's claim.

Talking points from Wehby's plan, from allowing health insurance across state lines to eliminating the excise tax on medical devices, mirror sometimes word for word the points in Rove's Crossroads USA Survey.

Wehby's campaign denies the claim. But the issues page of the campaign website is no longer available.

"The suggestion that a pediatric neurosurgeon needs to copy a health careplan from American Crossroads is absurd," Wehby's communications director Dean Petrone said in an email. "She has nearly 30 years of experience in the health care industry and has used that to formulate proposals that most Americans agree are needed to replace the broken system championed by Jeff Merkley."

Merkley's campaign accused Wehby of "blatant plagiarism."

"The entire basis for Monica Wehby's campaign is her so-called expertise on health issues, but today Oregonians are learning that Wehby plagiarized her entire health care plan directly from Karl Rove, the hatchet man behind George W. Bush," Merkley campaign spokeswoman Lindsey O'Brien said in an email. "Monica Wehby copied Mitt Romney's tax plan, plagiarized Karl Rove's health care plan and lifted the rest of her anti-middle class agenda straight from the oil billionaire Koch brothers. There is no question that in the Senate Monica Wehby would be a rubber stamp, voting with Senate Republicans and the billionaire Koch brothers against Oregon's priorities."

A TV ad for the Wehby campaign came under fire Tuesday when GoLocalPDX reported the same-sex marriage champions that star in her TV ad are not legally wed.