By Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor
NJ Today
With election day just weeks away, Dr. Alieta Eck knows it’s time to kick her campaign into high gear.
The physician from Somerset knows the polls show she’s way behind her opponent, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.
“He’s run several times and he’s lost. For some reason that voters chose someone else and perhaps they’ll do the same this time,” Eck said.
Eck told members of the Monroe Township Republican club she’s pro-life and supports school vouchers and second amendment rights. And she’s opposed to gay marriage. But she says her view of the poor is completely different than her opponent.
“I’ve heard his surrogate talk about things like welfare and kind of looking at it in one broad brush — these people need to get jobs and work,” she said. “I know that everybody who is poor is poor for a reason and if we can find that reason as a community and let the neighbors help neighbors to help lift them out of poverty, it’s a better way to take care of the poor.”
Eck and her husband, who is also a physician, have been taking care of the poor for years. They run a free health clinic in Somerset. On site is a thrift store and food pantry.
“We can provide care for the poor at a cost of only $13 per patient visit. When the government does it, it’s at least 10 times more than that,” she said.
Eck says this is a better alternative to Obamacare, a program she’d fight to repeal if she’s elected to the Senate.
“I agree with her 100 percent, absolutely. We need to get rid of this Obamacare,” said one supporter.
“Steve Lonegan, he’s more like a career politician,” said Priscilla Pomasam of Monroe Township. “Dr. Eck is someone new, and right now I am more inclined to support her.”
But Tom Nothstein says Eck lacks experience. “I’m not just looking at the best person. I’m also looking at who can beat probably Cory Booker,” he said.
“One opponent is the mayor of the Detroit of New Jersey and while he was out making $1.3 million in speaking fees, I was seeing people from Newark coming to my clinic for no pay because they couldn’t find a doctor,” Eck said.
Eck says she’s prepared to debate any of the Senate candidates. She’s already agreed to attend a forum the NAACP is holding in Newark in the coming weeks.