A Fellow Doctor Takes on Dave Weldon in FL-15

by: Progressive Florida

Thu Nov 01, 2007 at 22:46:00 PM EDT

There is a battle of two doctors going on right now in the 15th district of Florida. Currently the only Democrat in this race is Dr. Stephen Blythe.

Here's Blythe:

"I am as different from Dave Weldon as night and day," says Blythe. "I am an environmentalist, I am against this administration's abuses of our constitutional rights, and against the war in Iraq. I am also against government interference in a family's private end-of-life decision-making." It was Dave Weldon who brought the full weight of the U.S. Government to bear in the Terri Schiavo controversy in Florida in 2005.

Blythe is right on here, taking on Weldon's extremist voting record. Democrats will have a great shot of picking up this district, because Weldon's voting record is crazy right-wing.

Here are some of those votes, mostly from just this Congress:

Against 

Minimum Wage Increase

Stem Cell Research

SCHIP Children’s Health Care Program

9/11 Commission Recommendations

Allowing Prescription Drugs from Canada  

For 

Iraq War – Time and Time Again

Tax Cuts for the Most Wealthy 

Interfering with Terry Schiavo Case

FISA

Dave Weldon votes to continue the war in Iraq at the costs of solders' lives and at the cost of billions on taxpayers, but he won't vote for children's health care or a raise in the minimum wage. That says something about his priorities and his values.

And let me remind you of the 2006 election results, when Weldon faced 9/11 Conspiracy theorist, Bob Bowman, in the election.

15th District  

Weldon: 56%   Bowman: 44%

If he didn't do well in 2006 against a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, who spent very little money, I don't think he's going to do very well against a real Democrat. It's time Florida Democrats start giving this race a lot of attention. It's one I've been particularly interested in, because Weldon is so extreme that I think we have a good shot of winning it and how big of a win would that be. Bottom line, we have a huge opportunity of wiping out a Bush rubberstamp in the 15th district and Steve Blythe is sounding like a good progressive choice right now.

US House FL-15