The Rookies: Nan Hayworth Makes Strong Push for Congress in New York

Oct. 12, 2010 -- Nan Hayworth says she has spent her career helping New Yorkers see better. Now she's hoping they'll see her as their new representative in Congress.

Hayworth, the former head of an ophthalmology practice, is the Republican candidate in New York's 19th Congressional district north of New York City, running against incumbent Democrat John Hall. Hayworth may be one of the most unlikely candidates this fall, but she is clear about her highest-priority issue: repeal President Obama's health care reform law.

"Health care is the issue of the age, so to speak," she said in an interview with ABC News. "The law passed in March has proven to be unpopular across the country increasingly so and profoundly so in our district. We need more people in Congress with the expertise in understanding what patients need in America."

"It's quite clear that the people who wrote the bill -- not that anybody apparently read it -- they didn't fully understand those factors."

That's not all she wants to repeal -- the new Wall Street reform law should be done away with, too, she says.

"The best watchdog is the prudent and well-informed consumer," she says. "The numerous regulatory bodies that this bill will set up have not proven to be consistently effective."

Democrats in the White House and Congress, she argues, have hurt the economy -- not helped it -- with a series of actions ranging from federal bailouts to new regulations.

"If we were doing so well, unemployment would have improved since they started out and it clearly has not," Hayworth says.

"Their actions have certainly worked against enterprise, against business, and they have been especially punitive towards small businesses," she contends. "They're pro-government. They see central control as a good thing. I don't. I think it's a bad thing."

Reduce the size of government. Cut back federal spending. It's a familiar argument from Republican candidates trying to capitalize on a wave of anti-government sentiment in tough economic times. While Hayworth has not been endorsed by organizers of the Tea Party movement, she says she considers herself part of the "outcry for shrinking the size of the federal government."

Whether that will be enough for this political novice to unseat Hall in a traditionally Democratic district remains to be seen.