LAC: How can the house of emergency medicine be more supportive of emergency physicians who are interested in the political arena?

MP: First, I hope that all emergency physicians realize what a tremendous opportunity we have with Joe Heck running for the U.S. Senate. I believe that Joe will win that race and admire the fact that when Joe first ran for the Nevada State Senate, he took on a 20-year incumbent. My race this year is against a 10-year incumbent; I can only hope to have the same success that Joe did in his first race. EM docs also need to know that it does take money to run a campaign. I would hope that every EM doc would make even a small contribution to the campaigns of EM docs that are running for office. The other thing that EM docs need to do is get more involved with organized medicine at the state and national level. Being involved in your state ACEP chapter or national ACEP is a great way to start being more comfortable with understanding politics. EM docs can’t be afraid of the political process. For crying out loud, if we can learn medicine, then we can learn the process of how laws are made. You don’t have to be a lawyer.

LAC: What do you see as potential solutions to the hyper-partisanship that exists within Congress?

MP: The problem with Congress today is that too many people in Congress are career politicians, including my opponent. My opponent has voted with his party leadership 99.8 percent of the time because he wants to stay in good standing with his party. But that means that he cares more about his political party than he does about making good policy. At the age of 64, I am not running for Congress to have another career. I have plenty of real-world experience, which many members of Congress don’t have. I’m running in order to fix problems and, if I can be successful in Congress, would be happy to put myself out of a job.

LAC: How do you believe EM doc candidates like yourself can work more closely with ACEP?

MP: ACEP has real potential for developing political leaders through its advocacy programs. I am embarrassed that I wasn’t more involved in ACEP leadership in my career, although as a locum doc and traveling for over 25 years, it was tough for me to get involved. I know that the ACEP Leadership and Advocacy Conference is a great program, and EM docs need to take advantage of that and ACEP’s other educational opportunities to understand the issues. In addition to knowing the issues, docs need to get to know the people involved in politics. It isn’t enough to just know the issues, you have to reach out to elected officials and make sure your voice is heard.