Alieta Eck In Uphill Battle For U.S. Senate

She trails in every benchmark known to political campaigns, but Alieta Eck, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, doesn’t appear to be down for the count.

The Somerset County physician this week released a radio ad – the first and only in support of her campaign for the GOP nomination to run for the Senate seat of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg – taking aim at the Affordable Care Act.

Repealing the so-called "ObamaCare" act is a cornerstone of Eck's platform in her first foray into politics. She has said she'd replace it with a plan that mixes charity and doctors' protection from malpractice suits.

Eck in a recent interview with a radio station said she sees about 300 patients a month at a free clinic she founded and runs with her husband. The facility, Zarephath Health Center, operates just 12 hours a week and is staffed by volunteers. It's a model that could be expanded, she says.

"I have a plan that is better than ObamaCare," Eck says in the ad. "It'll provide good care for those in need and take a huge burden off of hard-working taxpayers."

Her plan, Eck has said, involves giving physicians some protection from malpractice lawsuits in exchange for at least four hours a week of volunteer work at a free clinic.

"There's just so much better ways to handle the problems that plague the medical system, without adding a huge amount of bureaucracy," Eck said in a WBGO-FM radio interview Thursday.

Eck's message has gotten through to at least some in the conservative movement. This week Eck picked up the endorsement the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC — which represents New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

"Our PAC Board is very familiar with both Steve Lonegan and Alieta Eck," PAC president Don Adams said in a release. "While we respect Mr. Lonegan, we greatly appreciate the intelligence and temperament of Dr. Eck."

For Eck, 62, the nod could be seen as a coup over Lonegan, the frontrunner in the upcoming Republican primary and a longtime champion of Tea Party causes. Lonegan has spent a good amount of time looking past Eck during the campaign, focusing instead on Democratic nomination frontrunner Cory Booker.

That's fine with Eck.

"He's doing a lot of the legwork for me if I win the primary," she said. "It's his choice if he wants to ignore me."

But Eck is fighting an uphill battle.

Eck trails Lonegan by a wide margin in recent polling. A Quinnipiac University poll released this week puts Lonegan ahead 74 to 10 percent. Since Lonegan trails Booker – the Democratic frontrunner –  by a wide margin in a head-to-head matchup, Eck didn’t even figure into an equation beyond the Aug. 13 primary.

Lonegan also has raised $129,766, while Eck has raised just $18,283, according to campaign finance reports. By contrast, Booker has raised more than $8 million.

"It's how much you spend as well as how much you raise," Eck said. "So if you can keep costs down by having lots and lots of good volunteers, you can accomplish much with not as much as some of the other people seem to require."

Eck is also against new gun regulations, against gay marriage and favors school vouchers – all very conservative positions to be running on in a state that hasn't elected a Republican U.S. Senator since Clifford Case in 1972.

That doesn’='t seem to deter Eck.

"If you're satisfied with the way New Jersey is going and the nation is going, then go ahead and pick someone who has been there before and just continue the same old thing," she said. "But if you want something new and you want somebody can take a fresh look at this and say 'This doesn’t make any sense. Let’s change things. Let's do it a better way,' I think you should vote for me."