As she kicked off her campaign as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate yesterday, former Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton promised to stand up to the "big spenders in both parties."

But big spenders in the Republican Party have certainly stood up for Jane Norton before. In fact, they helped her get her post in Bill Owens's first cabinet as head of the state health department -- after a transition team heavily weighted in favor of the nursing-home lobby forwarded their final picks to the governor. Read all about it in Stuart Steers's "Nursing a Grudge," initially published by Westword in January 1999.

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