Five Candidates Hope To Oust Bradley

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The first Congressional District stretches across the east side of New Hampshire and includes the Seacoast, the Lakes Region and Manchester.
Republican Congressman Jeb Bradley has held the seat through two terms, and seems confident he will get re-elected.
There’s good reason – the last time a Democrat won the district was more than 30 years ago.
But New Hampshire House Minority Leader Jim Craig, who hopes to win the Democratic primary, says its beginning feel a lot like 1974.

1101 :36 This is the year I really do believe this is the year that a democrat can take this seat, Norm D’Amours took it in 1974, and he agreed with me this feels like 1974.

Craig, a lawyer who grew up in the state’s largest city, Manchester, touts his experience in the legislature.
He says that sets him apart from the other candidates.
1096 :52 I’ve been the democratic leader in the house for two years and you learn a lot and there’s no substitute for actually going through the process, I have that under my belt 1:02

He also has a good sized war chest – having received more than 260 thousand dollars in donations so far.
Craig has the backing from the teamsters’ union and the state’s largest teachers’ union.
But more notably, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has endorsed Craig – a little unusual in a primary race.
Democratic opponents say the D-triple C’s early endorsement of Craig is a bit tactless.
Democrat Gary Dodds, an entrepreneur from Rye, says it’s inappropriate because voters haven’t had their say yet.
1120 there’s a lot of people who are not happy with what happened because it really circumvents the system because they feel like, why are they having this person as the front runner?

Dodds, who once owned Accent Magazine and currently runs a real estate restoration company, also gained a lot of attention during this race – but he says for the wrong reasons.
He was involved in an April car crash on the Spaulding Turnpike that set off a state police search.
Dodd’s left his car and was found in the woods 27 hours later.
He says he suffered from a concussion.
Police say parts of his story don’t add up.
But Dodds says only the media cares about the accident, not the voters.
1113 :44 they don’t ask me about the accident, they want to know what am I going to do to represent them in Congress, they find that is the most important thing, they understand I’m going to work hard for them

Both Dodds and Craig say getting the current budget deficit under control is one of their top priorities.
They both blame Bradley, who sits on the House Budget Committee, for the current estimated 260 billion dollar deficit.
Craig says the country can’t initiate any important programs until it’s under control.
“1098 :18 we have the four biggest deficits we’ve ever had in this country in the last four years and that means giant interest payments, when you have to spend the money on interest payments, you don’t have the money to do the things that need to be done on the environment, on health care, on everything else.”

Craig and Dodds also say Bradley listens to too many special interest groups.
Those groups include the pharmaceutical industry and big energy companies.
A recent Harpers Magazine article detailed Bradley’s investments in those industries and said he profited financially from his votes on the Hill.
In a statement, Bradley called the article inflammatory.
Regardless of its merit, Bradley opponents are already using the article as a weapon in the race.
Also running in the Democratic Primary is Dave Jarvis, an engineer from Londonderry.
Attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.
Bradley’s only Republican opponent this primary is Eaton stonemason Michael Callis.
Callis says the Harpers article points out that Bradley has a technique of saying one thing and doing another.
4:28 I don’t think that is the kind of person that New Hampshire wants working for them, they want a straight talker, and if anything else, I am a straight talker.

Callis says being honest qualifies him to be a better Congressman.
But he admits he’s only raised two-thousand dollars in his bid against the incumbent.
Democrat Gary Dodds has spent more than 150-thousand dollars in his race, more than any other candidate.
But he says he’s proud that most of it is from his own bank account.
1115 I will be beholden to nobody and that’s the beauty of it, I will not be one of those people who is going to go down to Washington and say well gee you contributed this,I’m going to have to owe you this, I’m going to have to go along with your song and dance, that is not going to happen in my campaign :21

1088 ( I’m Carol Shea Porter, I’m running for Congress and I’m running for the bottom 99-percent of us)
Candidate Carol Shea Porter is running what she says is a different campaign than her Democratic opponents.
1071 :15 we have the grassroots and we have a lot of other people as well, there’s two kinds of power, there’s money power and there’s organizational power, we have excellent organizational power with a lot of workers.

Shea-Porter, chairwoman of the Rochester Democratic Party, says her campaign involves meeting and greeting, as she did at this recent Barbecue sponsored by Belknap County Democrats.
(nat sound)
Shea-Porter volunteered during Hurricane Katrina.
She says what she saw there made her decide to run for the first district seat.
1066 1:17 I realized that the federal government was really missing in action for all the money we had spent in national security, I thought there was something there.

Shea-Porter believes there should be an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
She’s also pushing her plan for a single payer universal health care system.
1067 :43 I’m calling for Medicare for all and people will pay for this, this is not a free system, they’ll pay premiums to the federal government, to Medicare, and then they choose their own health care provider

She argues that money can be saved because Medicare has lower administration costs than insurance companies.
Dodds also believes in a single payer system, but not through Medicare.
Craig says a single-payer system is a laudable goal, but unrealistic.
All the Democratic candidates think one of Bradley’s biggest missteps is his support for Bush’s Medicare Part D prescription program.
They criticize it for being overly complicated, costly and leaving some seniors without prescription coverage.
But Bradley waves off his critics.
8:40 Medicare Part D is saving the average senior citizen 1100 dollars through a drug benefit that never existed in the past, but with any new government program there’s certainly going to be some issues, so I’ve filed legislation that would eliminate the one percent penalty for people that didn’t sign up for whatever reason by May 15th.

Bradley also defends his work on the budget committee.
He says he will continue to fight for reductions in government spending but also ensure there’s economic growth and that priorities are met.

3:50 “I have a long voting record that would indicate that’s exactly what I’ve done, but at the same time when its important to make sure our veterans have the health care system that we need, I’ve proposed amendments to the budget this year alone that added nearly 800 million dollars to the medical health care line of the budget and that’s a major priority”

Bradley also touts his political record for helping New Hampshire citizens.
He says he helped save the Portsmouth Shipyard, the emergency room at the VA Medical Center in Manchester, and helped get federal money for flood victims.
If re-elected he says he’ll continue to work hard for New Hampshire.
And he sounds confident that it’s not 1974.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.

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