Just one week after Dr. Bakke's primary loss, Paul Phillips, DC, faced his primary in Washington state. And although a telephone poll only two months ago positioned him ahead of the other candidates, the final vote was sobering.
Dr. Phillips' race was particularly interesting because one of the three other candidates was a medical doctor. In the end, neither health care professional won.
A Washington state senator with four years of political experience and a large advertising budget took the day. Winning the election required four times the spending of Dr. Phillips and the chiropractic profession.
Dr. Phillips ran openly as a doctor of chiropractic. For his constituents, he stood for hard work and family values. During the campaign he often reminded his fellow DCs, "No one will look out for chiropractic like a chiropractor."
"We did everything we could do: rang doorbells, stood out on street corners and wrote letters," said an obviously disappointed Dr. Phillips. "We had everything we needed but money. Only 30 percent of the voters voted.
"With over 50,000 chiropractors, if every chiropractor had given us just $10, we would of had over $500,000 -- more than enough to win. As it was, we only received about $30,000 from the profession.
"Voters were very open to a chiropractor running for Congress. There was some real support for chiropractic. Out of the thousands of people we talked to, there wasn't one that didn't think that people should be able to go to chiropractors. That was one of the big issues, would we support people going to the health care provider of their choice."
Looking at the race, it seemed to come down to money. If the chiropractic profession is going to have a representative in Congress, Dr. Phillips insists that they will "have to step up to the plate and be counted."
References
- Dr. Phillips leads in polls. Dynamic Chiropractic; August 24, 199, p. 26.
- Chiropractic's triple threat. Dynamic Chiropractic; February 9, 1998, p. 1.
