Victoria Wulsin



Dr. Victoria Wells "Vic" Wulsin is the Democratic candidate in the 2008 congressional elections for the 2nd Congressional District (map) of Ohio. On March 4, 2008 she won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio). Wulsin was also the Democratic nominee in the the 2006 congressional elections, but was defeated.

Bio
Wulsin was born in Elyria, Ohio, the daughter of a teacher and a social worker. She attended high school in Ohio and earned a scholarship to Harvard University, where she did her undergraduate coursework. After college, she returned to Ohio and earned a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, on May 28, 1980. She received her masters in Public Health (1982) and her doctorate in Epidemiolgy (1985), both from the Harvard University's School of Public Health. Wulsin has obtained medical licenses in Massachusetts (1981) and Ohio (March 7, 1989). From 1989-1995, she was Director of Epidemiology in the City of Cincinnati's Health Department. From 1986-2001, she worked in various capacities for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her husband, Lawson Reed Wulsin, is a psychiatrist on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati.

In April 2003, Wulsin founded a non-profit organization, SOTENI International which has its headquarters in Cincinnati and an office in Kenya. SOTENI has been "mainly aimed towards women and orphans who were most affected by the AIDS pandemic." Soteni is a Swahili word which translates as "all of us."

Malariotherapy Controversy
In 2004, Wulsin worked at Cincinnati's Heimlich Institute, analyzing data on "malariotherapy," a controversial AIDS cure which consists of infecting HIV+ patients with malaria. Since the early 1980s, The Heimlich Institute has also promoted "malariotherapy" to treat cancer and Lyme Disease.)

''In 2004, she was approached by (Dr. Henry) Heimlich and the board about becoming the director of the institute. Wulsin felt it would be a good fit for her. "I was very interested in AIDS in Africa, and that was one of the areas that the Heimlich Institute is interested in," she says. But the salary she was offered ($75,000) was low, even for someone accustomed to working in public health. Moreover she felt the salary suggested that she wouldn't really be given the reins. "I'm interested in being a decision-maker, not just an adjunct to Hank," she says. "So I declined the offer." Instead, the board hired her as a consultant. She says that she was asked to do two things: First, to review the literature on malariotherapy as a treatment for AIDS; second, to suggest alternatives to malariotherapy in terms of how the institute could address the AIDS epidemic.''

In December 2004, Wulsin produced a report for the Heimlich Institute entitled "Immunotherapy and Beyond." 

A request for an investigation of Wulsin's work for the Heimlich Institute was filed with the State Medical Board of Ohio on Nov. 3, 2006 by Robert S. Baratz MD PhD DDS of the National Council Against Health Fraud. His letter accused Wulsin of "participation in unsupervised, unapproved, and dangerous experiments." The "medical board will not confirm or comment on any investigation, but reports that as of Feb. 14, it has taken no action against Wulsin. The case apparently remains open."

Political career
Wulsin was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress to replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio in the special primary held June 14, 2005. In the Democratic primary, Wulsin campaigned to reform health care to provide every citizen with coverage, promised to protect Social Security and the environment, said the Iraq War "has not been worth the cost of American service personnel or the dollars we have spent", and said America needed "fair trade" in the proposed CAFTA agreement. She also defended legalized abortion. In the primary election, Wulsin finished second behind Paul Hackett. She received 3,800 votes (27.35%).

In 2006, Wulsin sought the Democratic nomination again. With Hackett having announced he would not run again, she faced health care administrator James John Parker and civil engineer Jeff Sinnard, who both ran in 2005, and newcomers Gabrielle Downey, a high school teacher, and Thor Jacobs, a building contractor. Wulsin won the May 2 primary by nearly 15 percentage points and received the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District. She faced Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) in the general election.

2006 elections
Wulsin was the Demcoratic nominee in the 2006 congressional elections against incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio). Her race against Schmidt was very close, as Schmidt held a 2,323 vote lead after an initial count. The count did not, however, include all of the district's provisional ballots. Eventually Schmidt was officially declared the winner and was reelected.

2008 elections
Wulsin won the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) in the 2008 congressional elections. <

Committees
Wulsin will be assigned committees if and when she is elected to Congress.

Contact
Email: victoria@WulsinForCongress.com Phone: (513)-233-4180 Mail: Wulsin for Congress 1080 Nimitzview Drive Cincinnati, OH 45230 Campaign Office: 1080 Nimitzview Drive Cincinnati, OH 45230

Related SourceWatch articles

 * 2008 U.S. congressional elections
 * 2008 U.S. congressional election dates
 * Portal:Ohio and the U.S. Congress

External resources

 * 2008 Race Tracker page on Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District
 * "Vic Wulsin for Congress," Official Wulsin for Congress Website.
 * Wulsin's FEC filings for the 2007-08 election cycle

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * As Ohio Goes
 * Writes Like She Talks

External articles

 * Klaus Marre, "Wulsin to Challenge Schmidt in 08," The Hill. April 16, 2007.