Four candidates have entered the Republican race for Congress in the First Congressional District.
Two are probably long shots. They are Dave Jarvis of Hooksett and Geoff Michael of Merrimack.
The other two candidates are engaging in a rematch of sorts from the Republican race in 2002. Former Congressman Jeb Bradley won that primary among eight candidates, and then went on to serve two terms in the U.S. House. He’s facing off this year against former Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen, who came in second in that race six years ago.
Now the two are facing off again, for the chance to face incumbent Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter in November.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
Former congressman Jeb Bradley speaks at the Republican Party's annual meeting in Alton, May 18, 2008. (Jenna Van Valen, NHPR)
Former Congressman Jeb Bradley geared up his campaign in Rochester this week, rallying at a VFW Post with about 30 veterans who support him.
Good morning everyone. Good morning. Its great to see you here on bright and early on a Monday morning. Hope you’ve had a cup of coffee, a couple of doughnuts because I need your energy, I need your enthusiasm to make this campaign happen…..
Bradley is trying to win the GOP nomination in September’s primary so that he can get a rematch with Democratic incumbent Carol Shea Porter.
She beat Bradley in 2006 when voters in the first district elected a Democrat for the first time in more than 20 years.
At his rally, Bradley told the veterans that he hasn’t changed his stance on supporting the military during his two years out of office.
I make no apologies for the fact that I’ve supported our troops 100 percent of the time and if you give me the honor of going back to Washington that’s precisely what I’ll do again. (cheers)
Former Health and Human Services commissioner John Stephen speaks at the Republican Party's annual meeting in Alton, May 18, 2008. (Jenna Van Valen, NHPR)
The message coming from John Stephen when he campaigns is less focused on the military.
The former HHS head was in Stratham recently, talking to the folks who run a restaurant called Screamers that features a child activity center.
Stephen spent some time quizzing owner Lesley Blaney about her business.
Are people that come here mostly from the local Stratham area or anywhere? They’re from Newfields I get moms from Dover from Durham beautiful because there’s not a lot of places moms can go. So this is a place they can come communicate. The kids can go play. They’re out of their chair but they’re not disruptive. And everyone just kind of talks among themselves. We don’t really have a downtown in Stratham, so this has got to be it.
Stephen also took a few minutes to talk to about a dozen supporters about why he’s running for Congress.
He repeatedly attacked Representative Carol Shea Porter and her predecessor Jeb Bradley for driving up the nation’s growing deficits.
And when we have representatives of this district in Stratham, in the first district, that continue to vote over the last six years 2 trillion dollars in deficit spending, not even able to say ‘no’. you all live within your means. You’re expected that you’ll make the best decisions for your family in terms of your own spending habits. But the folks in Washington just don’t get it.
Stephen’s charge of fiscal irresponsibility is not going unanswered.
Former Congressman Jeb Bradley says the former Health and Human Services Commissioner claims to have saved 143 million dollars for taxpayers when he was in charge.
But Bradley says Stephen may have left the state open to a possible claw back of funds that New Hampshire may have wrongly received.
We have an audit now that the federal government has done, because under john Stephen there was overbilling for Medicaid. We may owe back as a state 35 million dollars and it could be nearly a hundred million dollars because of this overbilling.
Both Bradley and Stephen are going to have to work hard to get people out to the polls on Primary Day in September.
They can’t take advantage of being carried on coattails because neither the U.S. Senate race nor the Governor’s race has a contested primary.
Charlie Arlinghaus, a former executive director of the state GOP, says each candidate needs to take advantage of where they live to build up a base of voters.
I think you would look at Stephen’s campaign and say he would do very well in Manchester. And what he needs to do is improve his performance in the seacoast area. And in bradley’s case he’s going to do very well up north, isn’t going to do as well as Stephen in Manchester and again is going to need to do well in the seacoast. So I think the seacoast emerges as the real battleground in that race.
Both candidates are also racing to fill their campaign’s coffers this summer.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that at the end of March, Bradley had accumulated more to spend, about 516,000 dollars.
But the Center’s data say Bradley gave himself about a quarter of that amount.
John Stephen had substantially less, about 257,000 dollars on hand.
And Stephen has spent some of that money on a television ad that has been running on WMUR-TV and some cable stations.
Our lives our complicated. Gas prices are out of control. The price of groceries is skyrocketing. The politicians in Washington don’t get it…..
It’s hard to tell if the ad is helping Stephen gain name recognition among first district voters.
Dave Carney, a Republican political consultant in Hancock says he thinks Stephen has made a mistake by putting a television ad on the air so far from the primary date.
People are not focusing on politics at this moment and they are going to be focusing on politics until really close to the election time. So a lot of people say oh go on tv and build up your name id and you know before people check out for the summer before the 4th of july recess or vacation time. In reality, that’s wasted time.
Carney and some other operatives advise candidates to save their money for big media buys with 3 or 4 weeks to go.
They say that’s when voters really do tune in.
In the meantime, the candidates have a chance to get some exposure on Friday.
The Strafford County Republican Committee is holding a debate in the evening.
And there will likely be more debates for the Republicans in the weeks to come.
