Last night the leading gubernatorial candidates from both parties occupied the same stage at St. Anselm College, but Democrats and Republicans shared little common ground on what all candidates agree are the central election issues: taxes and education funding.
With less than two weeks until the primary, all the candidates stuck to long familiar themes. Democrats Mark Fernald and Bev Hollingworth preached the virtues of the income tax.
'It not because I love taxes, it's because I've looked at the options and this is the fairest and the one that works the best.
The only thing that will work is the income tax.'
And GOP hopefuls Craig Benson Bruce Keough and Gordon Humphrey, displayed a united front against tax increases of any kind.
'What we need is real leadership and a vision to solve New Hampshire�s problem without an income tax or a sales tax, it means no increase in the business profits tax or business enterprise tax.'
The republicans did, however, differ slightly on how best to achieve that goal. For Bruce Keough, the key to a better NH is to get the courts out of school funding by a constutional amendment and to target state education aid. He says until that happens, all government programs, be they health initiatives designed to fight tobacco use, or conservation measures such as the land and community heritage program, or will have to do without additional state funding. And the former UNH trustee promised to pursue his vision without compromise.
'All kinds of people come up with lots of excuses to settle for something less than what we want, but as someone running for governor I�m not going to go down that path.'
Fellow republican Craig Benson also promised to bring greater fiscal discipline to state government. But the high tech multimillionaire carried Keough�s road less traveled theme even farther. When asked how he would improve state mental health services, Benson offered a vision of government free of all precedent.
'We need to start with a clean sheet of paper and more forward on that basis. And if we had that clean sheet of paper we have different practices and the principles and priorities would be completely different than they are now.'
Those different �practices, principles and priorities� seemed to hinge on harnessing technology and market forces to streamline government functions. Such concepts were also embraced by former US Senator Gordon Humphrey. Humphrey however, placed greater stress on the notion that competition is the best way to improve public schools.
'Tuition tax credits, parental choice and competition will at long last beging to bring down costs but not only that will drive up quality, which is what we all want. Surely we can all agree that we want the best education we can afford. Those two qualifiers are equally important.'
But according to the democrat Bev Hollingworth educational quality is not an inevitable byproduct of school choice. The Hampton state senator also said NH must do more to help failings school through stiffer accountability standards� noting that a particularly prominent member of the GOP is in full agreement.
'That�s clearly the way George bush has gone � he�s saying if there�s not a consequence for failure than there�s not a reason to do a better job. And I believe he�s right in this case.'
Hollingworth�s fellow democrat Mark Fernald proved less inclined towards complimenting republicans. And in the Sharon state senator used his final speech of the night to stress his conviction that voting a republican for any of the republican candidates is a vote for more school funding gridlock.
'We have an obligation to educate our children and an obligation to tax fairly. The republicans on this stage find that terrible inconvenient. If you want a resolution to this problem don�t vote for one of these republican candidates.'
According to audience questionnaire prepared by debate sponsor, leadership NH, Mark Fernald was the nights most successful candidate��His favorability rose by seven points�..while Bev Hollingworth, Craig Benson and Gordon Humphrey each picked up 4 points��.Meanwhile Bruce Keough, saw his favorability drop by two points.
