Opinion

John Milne: Stephen hopes spendthrift Congress will spark voter anger


Published: July 18, 2008

John Milne

In an interview that lasted an hour and nine minutes, Republican congressional hopeful John Stephen never once uttered the name of George W. Bush, the Republican president of the United States.

The closest Stephen came was his backing of the president's Monday decision to encourage offshore oil drilling. "The immediate answer and response is going to be, lower the gas prices," he said. "OPEC will immediately put more supply in the market." (Offshore drilling will stay banned unless Congress lifts a separate prohibition, and the GOP sees an election issue here.)

Stephen denounced one of the president's signature domestic initiatives, referencing the experience of his wife, Jenny, working in the Londonderry schools: "I don't believe No Child Left Behind is an act that has accomplished its purpose."

Stephen echoed the probable GOP presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, when he attacked earmarks, those special giveaways inserted slyly by members of Congress into appropriations bills. "I want to say 'no' to wasteful earmark spending," he said. "We're going to go from business as usual to real change."

But when it came to the war against terror, Stephen differed from both Republican leaders: "I'm a strong supporter of what our troops are doing. We have to be able to root out terrorism," he said.

"Once Iraq is stabilized, we ought to be looking at removing troops from Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan."

Stephen, 45, of Manchester proclaimed an inflexible fiscal conservatism in a conversation with The Eagle-Tribune editorial board. He's running against the Republican who beat him in the 2002 primary, former Congressman Jeb Bradley. Whoever wins the Sept. 9 primary will face Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat who is seeking re-election. Pollsters currently give Shea-Porter an eyelash-thin edge, citing voter disgust with Bush, war and recession.

The campaign is likely to reveal how New Hampshire is changing. Shea-Porter offers a version of the Democratic Party's future. She's moderate-to-liberal, and firmly opposed to the war. She blasted the president's approval of offshore drilling as "incredibly shortsighted" and ineffective. "For eight years we've had two oil men in the White House," Shea-Porter said Monday. "Enough is enough."

While Shea-Porter generally votes with the Democrats' leadership, the former social worker from Rochester campaigned by shunning consultants and lavish television advertising. She raised money via the Internet and defeated Bradley in the upset of 2006 through effective grass-roots politicking.

Shea-Porter's victory enhanced New Hampshire's Democratic deluge, reflecting the increasing numbers of well-educated, higher-income Democrats pouring into the central part of the state.

And in the GOP, Stephen and Bradley represent diverging views of the Republican future.

Stephen comes from working-class, populist Manchester; his father served for a decade as a Democratic state senator. The new Republicans in the state share his roots; they earn less money and struggle to hang on to blue-collar jobs. Bradley is allied with establishment GOP conservatives whose ranks are dwindling. Stephen seeks to portray Bradley, a pragmatic state legislator and moderately conservative congressman, as part of the problem.

"Jeb Bradley had his chance," Stephen said. "He lost to Carol Shea-Porter because he is not a fiscal conservative. Jeb Bradley does not represent New Hampshire values."

Stephen glares at earmarks that Bradley voted for while the Republicans were in power, earmarks the president accepted until Democrats took over Congress, such as $50 million for a tropical rain forest in Iowa. The list is obscene.

New Hampshire's earmark champion is, of course, Sen. Judd Gregg, an establishment Republican who exploited his seniority and clout to bring research funds to the University of New Hampshire and protection for environmentally endangered areas. Stephen expresses no anger at Gregg, suggesting, somewhat naively, that the same appropriations could be won through traditional grant competitions.

But Stephen stokes voters' anger about being left behind by the political system. His harping about a wasteful Congress may attract votes from people who forget the biggest recent wastrels were Republicans. He must hope the forgetting includes the way Republicans in the White House and Congress reduced the effectiveness of government programs aimed at less wealthy, working citizens.

Stephen cut costs considerably as commissioner of health and human services under Gov. Craig Benson, revealing that he always kept about 300 job slots empty to save money for taxpayers. Stephen reduced the nursing home population in exchange for expanded home care, calling it "the right thing to do" to help the elderly.

"I saw such an institutional bias in New Hampshire," Stephen said. "It just wasn't right."

The primary will reveal whether Stephen is on to something with his angry denunciations of a spendthrift Congress. If he's nominated, there will be two angry candidates. Shea-Porter is angry at President Bush and even angrier at the war.

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John Milne is a veteran New Hampshire political reporter and analyst. Reach him at jmilne@mcttelecom.com.