Democratic congressional candidate Morgan Carroll said Friday she is opposing Amendment 69, the Colorado ballot measure known as ColoradoCare, saying that problems with health care costs and coverage need solutions at the national level.

The proposal would create universal health care in the state, run by a single insurer financed by payroll taxes, payments for services and state and federal funds.

“I believe that the American people today are paying too much money for too little health care – but I am not supporting Amendment 69,” Carroll told The Colorado Statesman. “The rising cost of drugs is one of the biggest contributors to soaring health care costs and really must be solved at the national level with policies like negotiating drug prices for Medicare.”

Carroll, an Aurora state senator and former state Senate president, is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, an Aurora Republican, in one of the most hotly contested congressional contests in the country.

Her statement arrives two days after a rift emerged over the ballot measure between leading liberal legislators and organizations. At competing press conferences on Wednesday in Denver, ProgressNow Colorado director Ian Silverii and NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado director Karen Middleton said their organizations would be opposing the proposal, and the amendment’s backers swung back, saying the progressive organizations had fallen prey to “the influence of big money in the health care debate.”

The organizations opposed to the ballot measure – accompanied by several Democratic legislators – said they agree “more work is needed to ensure every American is affordably covered” but can’t back a proposal with “significant unintended consequences,” including fiscal shortfalls and the possibility a constitutional conflict would curtail access to abortion in the state.

“The truth is, nothing would make progressives in Colorado happier than taking a bold step toward single-payer health care,” Silverii said. “But there are real policy problems with Amendment 69 that its supporters did not anticipate. When our trusted partners on the issue of protecting reproductive choice tell us that a measure could create serious roadblocks for women who need abortions, we have to take that seriously. When one of the state’s leading health care research organizations tells us this is a plan that doesn’t work fiscally, we have to take that seriously.”

“Everybody says this is an unusual election year, but Colorado politics took a bizarre turn today, because a group of people who said they always favored universal health care are coming out against it,” said author T.R. Reid, one of the architects of ColoradoCare. “These so-called ‘progressives’ are siding with the Koch brothers and the far right fringe of the Republican Party to oppose the only plan in Colorado that would provide care for everybody.”

Reid said the campaign’s polls show Amendment 69 is winning and blamed some opposition on “terrified” insurance companies worried about losing profits in Colorado and willing to spend millions of dollars to keep the market.

“This is the political establishment squashing the voice of the people,” said state Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, at the press conference.  “Whose interests are they pursuing, yours or their own? Follow the money.” She suggested checking donations to Democrats opposed to the ballot measure, adding, “You’ll find no shortage of Big Pharma and Big Medicine lining up to fill the coffers of candidates across party lines as a proven investment in buying influence.”

Right-leaning opponents of the measure pounced on the dispute between the leftists while crowing about their new allies.

“Advancing Colorado spearheaded the opposition to ColoradoCare, so our supporters are excited to see more people and more organizations line up to fight ColoradoCare’s deception and destruction,” said Jonathan Lockwood, executive director of Advancing Colorado, a conservative organization. “ColoradoCare is clearly doing everything they can to try and get their agenda through no matter what, they will say anything and do anything to pass this killer tax hike. What we are also seeing is people from every shade of the political spectrum turn red hot against government control over health care.”