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This is an extended version of a story that appears in the April 26, 2018, issue.

Despite an invitation to speak on senior issues in the most populated city in his congressional district, Rep. Tom McClintock’s seat remained empty at an April 11 town hall hosted by the California Alliance for Retired Americans at Maidu Park in Roseville.

At the forum, candidates running to dethrone the Republican congressman told a crowd of mostly seniors what they plan to do with regard to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. McClintock represents California’s fourth congressional district, which includes parts of 10 counties, encompassing most of the foothills and Sierra Nevada in the central portion of the state.

Jessica Morse, the Democratic front-runner from Pollock Pines, vowed to protect Social Security, broaden Medicare and expand the transportation system for seniors and the disabled if elected to Congress.

“Our health care system is fundamentally broken,” Morse said at the forum. “We need to get to universal health care. [Health care] is not what I want you spending your time thinking and worrying about. … I’d like you to be worrying about when you’re going to see your grandkids next.”

According to the Alliance for Retired Americans, McClintock’s record on senior issues has been abysmal. The ARA gave the Elk Grove Republican a score of 0/100 on senior issues over the last two years and a lifetime score of 3/100.

McClintock has long supported the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Rebecca Guinn, a retiree from Placerville, is worried about what repeal would mean for seniors who desperately need affordable health care.

“He’s [McClintock] always talking about the free market and repealing the ACA,” Guinn said. “There’s no way I could afford health insurance in a free market. If he keeps talking free market and privatizes Medicare, it will literally kill a lot of seniors. If you get cancer, you’ll make a choice: Do I want to deplete everything I have, and still maybe not live, or just deal with it?”

Guinn attended a February 2017 town hall forum in Roseville, where McClintock was escorted out by police due to what he called an “anarchist element.”

“I really, really resented him for calling us anarchists,” Guinn said. “Here we were, most of us over 60, and he was calling us anarchists because we wanted to keep our medical insurance.”