Arguments over earmarks and county nursing homes have been the theme of the campaign between the two main Republicans competing in the First Congressional District.
Jeb Bradley and John Stephen brought their positions on these issues to a televised debate Thursday on WMUR-TV.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
The two candidates seeking the GOP nomination in CD-1 have been debating for months over who is more conservative, and who would be a better steward of finances in Congress.
Former Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen has said he’d more carefully guard taxpayer money.
But former Congressman Jeb Bradley claimed Stephen didn’t do that when he had the chance, running the state’s HHS department.
I don’t know how anyone can call themselves conservative when they shifted costs from one entity of government to another, made his budget look good, but property taxes across our state have increased and elected officials, all republicans are saying commissioner Stephen was responsible for that.
What those Republicans say is Commissioner Stephen shifted state Medicare costs to county nursing homes, and that increased property taxes.
John Stephen accused Bradley of lying about his record.
Stephen said he actually tried to help seniors in their time of need and actually saved taxpayers 143 million dollars.
You know I did everything I could to keep seniors in the community. If I can have home care, and have seniors stay in their homes rather than nursing homes which we were so successful on, which saved so much for the taxpayer.
At almost every turn in the debate, the Manchester Republican brought up his signature issue in this campaign.
Stephen railed against earmarks, the multi million dollar projects that members can’t debate because they’re tucked into bigger spending measures.
I’ve asked you to take the pledge against these wasteful earmarks. You won’t stand with john mccain and governor palin and you won’t stand with me and tell the voters no more wasteful spending. Those are republican values.
Stephen has criticized Bradley of voting for earmarks funding a teapot museum in North Carolina and a million dollar study of snakes in Guam.
Stephen’s criticism has been so persistent that Bradley actually brought it up on his own.
The defense of our nation is critically important, and you keep criticizing me for having voted for the defense bill. How can you be critical of me for voting for the bill that defends our nation, that provides the new aircraft that we need, the ships that we need, the missile defense that we need. I mean, we have the Russians in Georgia right now. Are you suggesting that I should have voted against missile defense because of one earmark?
Stephen says he would have voted for the defense bill, but also would have offered a bill to strip out the earmarks the next day.
The Manchester Republican also criticized Bradley of flip flopping on oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and at offshore sites around the country.
That issue was hot at the Republican Convention in Minnesota.
Bradley admits his position has evolved as oil and gasoline prices have risen.
Commissioner I’ve made it very clear that conditions have changed in our country, the price of energy is up. Small businesses, working Americans, families are struggling to put oil in their furnace this winter and I will vote to drill in anwr, I will vote for coastal drilling. You know that, I’ve talked about it a lot. We’ve had this discussion many times.
Both candidates also support constructing new nuclear plants, developing clean coal technology, and also further developing solar, and biomass technologies.
Both also support making permanent President Bush’s tax cuts.
First district voters will go to the polls in the primary on Tuesday.
The winner of the GOP race will face the incumbent, Democrat Carol Shea Porter in November.
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