Montana governor backs Jill Derby for Congress

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Friday urged Nevadans to send Democrat Jill Derby to Congress, saying she would work for all Nevadans to fix things like the nation's health-care system.

Schweitzer gained notoriety in 1999 when he protested out-of-control prescription drug costs by personally driving busloads of senior citizens to Canada to get cheaper drugs. He said he has made numerous trips, helping seniors get drugs for as much as two-thirds less than they cost in the United States.

He said it makes no sense that the National Institute of Health funds research which drug companies later turn into medicines "then they charge three times what they charge people in Canada and Mexico for them."

He said the core of the problem is that the drug companies and insurance companies wrote the legislation creating the Medicare prescription drug plan. He said Nevadans need representatives like Derby to help to fix that.

"People shouldn't have to be rich to afford prescription drugs," Derby said. "They shouldn't not be able to buy food to afford prescription drugs."

Derby, the only Democrat in the race to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said cost isn't the only problem, and that the Medicare plan is riddled with problems and needs to be thrown out.

"I've been talking to people around the state and I have yet to find any senior who can understand the current system."

She said, however, the system can be fixed if Congress will set aside partisan fights and work together.

"We need to take the current bill that has so confused people everywhere and start all over," she said.

Schweitzer said the thing that makes the least sense is the ban in the Medicare drug plan on negotiating drug prices.

"I'm pretty sure most people in Nevada are like most people in Montana - they don't want to hear this baloney. You need to elect somebody to go represent the people of Nevada, not the Republican party," he said.

Schweitzer will be in western Nevada this weekend helping Derby campaign for the congressional seat.

While Derby is alone thus far in the Democratic primary, three Republicans are running: Secretary of State Dean Heller and former Assemblywomen Sharron Angle and Dawn Gibbons, wife of the current office holder, Jim Gibbons.

-- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.