In a conference call with bloggers this afternoon, Texas senate candidate Ted Cruz said that his opponent, Texas lieutenant governor David Dewhurst, hadn’t signed the pledge to repeal Obamacare sponsored by Independent Women’s Voices and American Majority Action.
“Obamacare underscores the fundamental difference between and David Dewhurst,” Cruz said. “Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst is a dealmaker. He is a conciliator. Notably, he has refused to sign the repeal pledge.”
“Congressional and senate candidates all across the country have signed the repeal pledge,” Cruz continued. “I signed the repeal pledge many, many, many months ago and David Dewhurst won’t sign it, and he’s been called out on it repeatedly. He’s been asked to sign it, he’s been called out on it repeatedly, and he refuses to sign it.”
Asked about whether Dewhurst had signed it, Dewhurst spokesman Matt Hirsch told me, “We signed the pledge electronically online on May 26, 2012. We thought everything was taken care of, and we also had a hard version here at the office that we signed that shows that we signed it on the 26th.”
Hirsch also pointed out that in 2010 Dewhurst had signed the Revere America pledge. That pledge ends with the resolution that the signers “support the repeal and replacement of this law [Obamacare] with responsible reforms to our nation’s health care system.” In a statement responding to the Supreme Court decision today, Dewhurst said, “Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare as constitutional is reason number one why we need a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate to repeal this monstrous law.”
But the IWV says they have no evidence that Dewhurst signed the pledge on May 26.
“We have no record, either on the Repeal Pledge web site or through other electronic means, of Lt. Gov. Dewhurst’s signature on The Repeal Pledge, either on May 26 or any day before or after, until this afternoon,” e-mailed IWV communications director Victoria Coley. “Just a few moments ago, we received a PDF of his signature on The Repeal Pledge, and we will add his name to the list of signers on the web site.”
“On behalf of the citizens of Texas who oppose ObamaCare and want to see it repealed in its entirety,” Coley added, “we thank and congratulate Lt. Gov. Dewhurst for making clear his determination to overturn the federal takeover of health care by signing The Repeal Pledge on 6/28/2012.”
In response, Dewhurst spokesman Hirsch e-mailed, “We stand by signing the pledge on May 26th.”
Cruz, according to the group’s records, signed the citizen version of the repeal pledge in March 2011, and signed the candidate version in May of 2011.
In the call this afternoon, Cruz argued that Dewhurst would be too quick to compromise if elected senator.
“In 2013, the pressure to reach a compromise on Obamacare, to keep some of it, to reject some of it, to be ‘reasonable’ is going to be enormous,” Cruz said. “And nobody looking at David Dewhurst’s record in the Texas legislature can doubt for a moment that he would run, not walk, to the middle to those advocating compromise in the Senate.”