White House Press Secretary: Obamacare Not a Factor in Florida Loss - East Idaho News
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White House Press Secretary: Obamacare Not a Factor in Florida Loss

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Getty 031214 JayCarney?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1394666970642Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Democrats may have lost the first congressional election of 2014, but the White House insists the Democratic loss has nothing to do with Obamacare.

“Any fair assessment of the role that the debate about the Affordable Care Act played reaches the conclusion that at best for the Republicans, it was a draw,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney of the special election to replace Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., who died last year.

So why did the better-known, better-funded Democratic candidate, Alex Sink, lose to an unimpressive Republican candidate who constantly hammered her over her support for the president’s Affordable Care Act?

“It’s a race where, again, Republicans held the seat for 58 years, where they routinely won that seat by 30 or more points,” Carney said. “And last night, they won by less than two points. So it is what it is.”

Left unsaid: It was also a district that Barack Obama carried in both 2008 and 2012. It was also a race Democrats expected to win.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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