The Heck with it

Having beaten Joe Heck once before with smears and distortions, Democrats and their union masters are using the same playbook in their efforts to derail the Republican's run against unpopular Democratic Rep. Dina Titus.

As a state senator, Mr. Heck voted in 2007 against requiring health insurance companies to cover Gardasil, the vaccine against the human papilloma virus, which can lead to cervical cancer. Mandates like this one drive up health insurance costs for everyone and can actually push more people into the ranks of the uninsured. It was a vote to require people to pay for the vaccine out of pocket -- as most plans require for well care.

But during Mr. Heck's 2008 Senate re-election campaign against Democrat Shirley Breeden, the state Democratic Party launched an all-out blitz against Mr. Heck, claiming the physician was against cancer prevention. The ads helped the unimpressive Ms. Breeden ride the Democratic tidal wave into office.

Undaunted, Mr. Heck is back on the ballot this year, challenging Rep. Titus in a decidenly anti-incumbent climate. Polls show the two in a dead heat, with Rep. Titus burdened by her votes for bailouts, the failed federal stimulus and the ObamaCare disaster, as well as her long-standing support for quality-of-life crushing cap-and-trade legislation and ever higher taxes.

Enter the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the dozens of public employee unions that hand Rep. Titus her marching orders -- and campaign funds. AFSCME has resurrected the 2008 anti-Heck ad, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a TV spot that calls Mr. Heck "dangerous to women." It claims Mr. Heck testified that women wouldn't need the vaccine if "they didn't engage in risky behavior," when he merely referenced risk factors associated with cervical cancer -- medical facts.

AFSCME also aims to scare senior citizens by saying Mr. Heck wants to privatize Social Security, when he actually supports allowing workers to opt out of the entitlement and assume all the risk of investing their withholdings themselves, while keeping employer contributions in the system.

If it were up to Mr. Heck, the ad says, "women's retirement would be privatized, gambled away on Wall Street."

It's incredible that government employee unions, whose pension funds are invested in various financial instruments with the help of Wall Street, insist taxpayers be denied the ability to realize the kinds of gains and benefits the public is compelled to provide the public sector. Big Labor's hypocrisy -- and willingness to lie -- knows no bounds.

It's telling that Rep. Titus and so many of her party's members know they'll lose in November if they simply run on their liberal voting records. They're all too happy to let their union sugar daddies all but take over their campaigns.