Democratic Senate Challenger Calls on Incumbent to Override President’s Veto of SCHIP When Bill Returns to Senate

(CHAPEL HILL) - With the U.S. House set to vote today on overriding the President’s controversial veto of a bi-partisan children’s health bill, Democrat Jim Neal, a businessman and investment banker running for the U.S. Senate, called on his opponent to set aside tax breaks for corporate special interests and vote to reauthorize and extend the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to more than 100,000 uninsured children of working North Carolina parents. The program would still cover less than half of the 271,000 children who are uninsured in this state.

“Ms. Dole has been quick to vote for tax breaks for corporate special interests” Neal said. “I hope that she will now be just as quick to provide health care to the eligible children of working families in our State who fund Liddy Dole’s own taxpayer-funded health insurance.

Dole was one of only 29 Senators who voted against the children’s health measure, which passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming majorities only to be nixed by the President. The bill is expected to be brought up again as early as this week.

Neal said Dole has been a reliable supporter of the Administration’s serial tax breaks for insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and other major contributors to Republican political campaigns. He urged her to reconsider her opposition to the measure and vote to override the presidential veto.

“What kind of North Carolina does Ms. Dole want?” Neal asked. “I know what kind of North Carolina I want — one where every single child can see a doctor when they get sick. She’s living in a bubble if she believes that can happen without passage of legislation which benefits 120,000 children from working families who live here in North Carolina.”

Neal said the SCHIP measure would provide health coverage to children whose parents have jobs but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance, which costs families an average of $12,000 per year.

The grandson of a carpenter, public school teacher and two mill workers, Neal was born in Greensboro in 1956, where he attended public school. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Following graduation he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. He returned to school at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MBA and worked a series of part-time jobs to pay his way through school.

As an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, Neal earned a reputation for leadership and innovative strategies while advising Fortune 500 companies on how to play successful roles in a changing global economy. He also worked as a senior investment banker with E.F Hutton and Bear Stearns, serving clients that ranged from Bank of America and American Express to Lincoln National Corporation and Transamerica.

For the past two decades, Neal has focused his career on information technology and healthcare companies, including serving as chief executive officer of RxMarketplace.com, a start-up firm that helped pharmacists offer patients prescription drugs at more affordable prices. Since 2000, Neal has led several private companies prior to founding The Agema Group, a financial advisory firm based in Chapel Hill.

Neal has continued his active involvement in nonprofit groups and political initiatives. A member of the Board of Governors of the New School from 2002 to 2006, he also served as a national finance committee member for Wes Clark for President and the Kerry-Edwards campaigns, as well as acting as a national fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles in 2004.

Neal has served his community as an overnight volunteer at a homeless shelter, a lay minister to mentally ill residents of an assisted-care facility, and a sponsor of a post-war Vietnamese refugee family in alliance with the International Rescue Committee.

Neal lives in Chapel Hill with the younger of his two sons, Winston. The oldest, James, is currently working in New York City.

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