Democratic Candidate for Congress Dr. Kathie Allen rallied supporters in Helper Saturday as part of her “Corner-2-Corner Tour” of the 3rd Congressional District. Dr. Allen is running for the seat in Congress formerly held by Rep. Jason Chafffetz, who resigned.
The tour started at the extreme southern corner of the district– the Four Corners Monument where the borders of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah abut and continued to the northern corner of Salt Lake County.
Allen met with local supporters at the Happiness Within Coffee Shop on Main Street for an informal discussion as part of the all-day tour which also included stops in Bluff, Moab, Provo, Heber and the Salt Lake area.
As a physician, Dr. Allen has made health care a central point of her campaign. She said she is the first candidate to run for a major office in Utah that has come out for universal health care. “I’m a doctor and I know a lot about health care issues,” she asserted. “To me, it’s the only thing that makes sense in a long-range view that also makes economic sense.”
Dr. Allen said universal health care focuses on prevention and early detection of disease and early intervention. “It simply costs less to prevent disease than to treat it in its end stages,” she stated.
Allen noted her opponents in the race think the free market is going to fix health care. “No,” she said, “the free market can’t fix health care because health care is not a free market commodity.”
Allen faces at least five other candidates in the race to represent Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. They include Republican John Curtis, United Utah Party candidate Jim Bennett, Libertarian Joe Buchman, Independent American Party candidate Jason Christensen and Sean Whalen who is listed as unaffiliated on the official ballot.
Early voting is underway now at the Carbon County Administration Building, and the General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 7.
Kathie Allen’s long drive for Congress is … a long drive
Kathie Allen was at the Happiness Within coffee house in Helper. Rick Sherman, Sun Advocate Reporter