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Dispatches from public radio's correspondent at the Oregon Legislature. This is a venue for political and policy coverage of the state government in Salem and its impact on the people of Oregon.

Democrat Challenging Walden On Health Care

Campaign photo

Aelea Christofferson, the Democrat taking on Greg Walden, Oregon's only Republican member of Congress, released an attack ad Friday blasting Walden's opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

But it’s a strategy that could work in her opponent’s favor.

Health care could be Christofferson's biggest Achilles Heel. She served on the board of Cover Oregon during that organization's most tumultuous period. But her campaign says she was critical of the health insurance exchange even as she helped govern it.

Now, the central Oregon businesswoman is attacking Walden for repeatedly voting against Obamacare in Congress.

"While I worked to get healthcare coverage for 300,000 Oregonians, he voted more than a dozen times to deny health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions," Christofferson said in a new ad that's appearing online.

A spokesman for Walden said the incumbent does support coverage for pre-existing conditions but he doesn't think the President's health care law is the right way to do it.

Walden is a high-ranking Republican who's served eastern and southern Oregon since 1999.