Candidates In District 2 Congressional Race Argue Over Healthcare Positions

With a run-off election coming up in August, one Oklahoma race is heating up, and a candidate is throwing fuel on the fire with negative ads.

There's a face-off in Oklahoma's district two, where one Republican claims another supports government-run healthcare, like President Obama.

Candidate Markwayne Mullin said his opponent, State Representative George Faught, is falsely accusing him.

Neither of them are backing off from their explanations.

The television ad released by George Faught's Campaign states, "When it comes to supporting government-run, single-payer healthcare, Markwayne Mullin and Barack Obama agree."

It goes on to quote Mulling saying, "I think a single-payer, single-pay system would be the best."

That's followed by President Obama saying, "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare plan."

Faught's ad says Faught led the fight that killed the first incarnation of President Obama's healthcare proposal in Oklahoma.

"We need to repeal Obamacare, not elect Republicans like Mullin, who support single-payer healthcare," the ad says.

Mullin made the statements in the ad last August, while talking with a voter.

6/26/2012 Related Story: Race For District 2 U.S. Representative Headed Into Run-Off

But Thursday, Mullin said, "For my opponent to say that we're for it is absurd."

The Broken Arrow businessman said Faught took Mullin's words out of context, and that he didn't know that "single-payer" was a specific healthcare system.

"We were talking about Obamacare, and what I was referring to was that everyone should have skin in the game. I was referring to it, personally," Mullin said. "I should be a single-payer. As a single person, I should be responsible for my healthcare."

A single-payer healthcare system collects fees, then pays for healthcare services from one, government-run source. In the context of the national healthcare debate, "single-payer" usually refers to a type of universal healthcare plan.

Medicare is a single-payer system, but it's only for seniors.

Mullin says he's against national healthcare, and that's why he joined the race in the first place.

"If he thought it was a big deal, he would have used it during the regular election. He was looking for anything. He's desperate," Mullin said.

Mullin got 42% of the vote in the Primary and Faught got 23%, which sent them into a run-off election, since neither of them got 50% of the vote.

Faught released a statement saying, "Oklahomans deserve to know the truth about why Markwayne Mullin is on record supporting single-payer, government-run healthcare. It would be worse for Oklahoma than Obamacare."

You can see the ad Faught's camp released here and compare it with audio from the conversation Mullin had with a voter, provided by Mullin's campaign in this web extra video.

The run-off is August 23.