Senator Gatsas Faces a Tougher Challenger This Year

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DD1: The Bob Backus for Senate field operation is leaving no stone unturned as it tries to reach voters.

Volunteers go door to door nearly every evening and make hundreds of phone calls each day.

They've sent out hundreds of mailers to folks who’d voted by absentee ballot in the past: :15

(ambi sound of mailing) :05

DD2: The democratic candidate is challenging Ted Gatsas, a strong three term incumbent Republican who's also the Senate President.

Born in Goffstown, Bob Backus has lived in Manchester nearly 40 years.

He's an attorney who specializes in environmental and energy issues.

“I want to take that commitment that I’ve had to that sort of agenda to the state senate…because I think that’s a place where I could make a difference…perhaps more now than I could as a private lawyer.” :10

DD3: So… how does a fairly liberal political newcomer defeat a popular incumbent who has won by substantial margins in the past?

Dante Scala is with St Anselm College's Institute of Politics.

He credits Backus with being a strong candidate, who's lucky enough to have an extremely popular man at the top of the ticket: :20

“You have Governor Lynch, who’s somewhere around 65-70% in the polls…and there’s the potential, when you have a Dem who’s so popular, for some surprises down ticket…just like there were four years ago when a Republican, Craig Benson, defeated Mark Fernald about 60-40%. And during that year several seats changed hands in the state Senate. So there’s the potential there that has to concern an incumbent…that you can get washed away by the tide.” :27

DD4: In fact that potential was strong enough to cause Republican Ted Gatsas to point out how well he gets along with Governor Lynch: :04

“I think it’s very clear that the governor and I work on a very close basis. We meet once a week, we discuss situations…and again, I think the governor runs on a very good platform – being bi-partisan. And being bi-partisan doesn’t mean that you have 24 Democrats in the Senate.” :15

DD5: It wasn't until several days after Gatsas made a similar comment to the Union Leader that he retracted somewhat.

He announced that despite working well with the Governor, he would support the republican ticket.

Among the issues that Gatsas and Backus disagree, near the top is, of course, education funding.

The Republican says he was among the first to back a constitutional amendment that would have taken the courts out of the funding debate.

The Democrat does not favor such an amendment.

And in fact, he blasts Gatsas for pushing an education funding bill that was ultimately struck down by the State Supreme Court: :20

“Mr. Gatsas insisted on going forward with his plan rather than the plan the governor was working on…and proceeding to have it struck down. So that cost us a lot of time, and it was foolish and unnecessary. I’m supporting Gov. Lynch’s approach. I think ultimately we can fashion a system that can work – a targeted aid system – and it can be done without a general income or sales tax.” :24

DD6: Gatsas bristles at this: :02

“He needs to understand the facts before he makes statements. So I can only tell you that we have an education funding formula that’s in place; the court’s never talked about the formula, the distribution of funds. They merely said we haven’t defined adequacy.” :11

DD7: Education is far from the only issue on which the two candidates disagree.

Backus supports a statewide smoking ban for restaurants and bars.

Backus: “Wherever I go, that’s been enormously popular. Even with people who call themselves conservatives, even with those people. The overwhelming number of people just don’t understand why we didn’t ban this public health hazard in public places.” :19

DD8: Gatsas ridicules the idea.

Gatsas: “If we truly are going to talk about a health issue with smoking, then let’s make sure we go down that road correctly…and let’s ban the sale of cigarettes in the state of NH. Because if you are truly talking about a health issue, then let’s do that. However, as soon as we do that, let’s make sure we find another 74-million-dollar revenue source.” :17

DD9: And the two also differ greatly on LCHIP – the state’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Progam.

Backus would like to fund the conservation program at greater levels than its current 1.5 million dollars.
Gatsas says the program is not among his priorities.

As he puts it, he would rather spend the money on medicare and Medicaid than on trees.

As different as these two candidates are on many issues, Political Scientist Dante Scala doesn't believe the incumbent can rely on being in a safe district.

“I think he’s gotta be concerned, because the district itself that he represents is not an especially Republican District. If it wasn’t Gatsas running, and if it was an open seat, we’d probably label it a toss-up or a leaning Republican district. So when you have a Democratic competitor in this district who is willing to spend significant amounts of money, then an incumbent has to take that seriously, no two ways about it.” :27

DD 10: And the Democratic challenger is willing to spend significant amounts of money.

The latest reports show Bob Backus has combined his own money and supporters contributions to raise some 83 thousand dollars in this race.

Gatsas has reported raising only about 43 thousand dollars.

In fact, most of that has come since a fundraiser Gatsas held a few weeks ago.

(bring in ambi sound of fundraiser) :05

DD11: It was his first ever.

This self-made businessman has, until this race, always financed his own campaigns saying he doesn't want to be beholden to contributors..

But Senator Gatsas insists this “fundraiser” was more of a Thank You Party:

“To the hundreds of people that have put up signs, because they got complimentary invitations. The hundreds of people who held signs. I think it’s important to thank those people…and there are certainly people here who have called me and wanted to contribute to the campaign.” :13

DD12: Yet Gatsas admits that, even though he has returned donations in the past, this year he is accepting them: :05

But I think it’s important that when people want to participate, we allow them to participate, and I think this is the time.” :09

(fade out fundraiser sound)

DD13: So far the campaign has been relatively polite.

But that could change as the election draws closer:

Dante Scala, at the Institute of Politics predicts Democrat Backus will attempt to target the Gatsas education plan….calling it a failure.

And the Incumbent Gatsas will try to paint Backus as too liberal for the district.

But says Scala, voters will get an idea how close the race is by looking at the mailers.

“And if Gatsas goes after Backus, especially in direct mail, then we’ll know that he’s especially worried. If he decides to get off the high road, so to speak, and go after his opponent, and that’s a cardinal rule.” :12

DD14: Voters will have a chance to hear the two face off in the coming days.

One debate is scheduled for this evening at Bow High School at 7:30.

The next debate is at St Anselm on Thursday at 5pm.

FOR NHPR NEWS, THIS IS DEBRA DAIGLE IN MANCHESTER.