Category: Fall 2002 Newswire
Sununu Sr. Keeping Busy: Still Anxious Watching Son Campaign
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 02, 2002–John H. Sununu says watching one of his eight sons try to climb up the political ladder is a lot harder than when he was doing it himself.
Sununu did his climbing a long time ago, first in his three terms as governor of New Hampshire and then as chief of staff in the first Bush administration.
So the elder Sununu knows what it’s like to work in positions that provide a white-hot national and state spotlight.
But Sununu also says it is tougher watching his son Rep. John E. Sununu (NH-01) campaign against Granite State Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in one of the most closely watched contests for a seat in a narrowly divided Senate.
“It is ten times worse being the father of a candidate,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “The anxiety level is much worse.”
Though he’s been in the private sector since 1992, the attention Sununu garnered while in office clearly still bothers him. He refers to the “talking heads of TV” as “biased” and “ignorant.”
But the elder Sununu’s worries haven’t compelled him to interfere with his son’s campaign, he said.
“I learned a long time ago the only advice ever taken is advice asked for,” the former governor said. “There is some asking,” he said, “but I wait until he calls.”
In the meantime, he still isn’t shy about offering his opinions on other issues.
Sununu has his own lobbying and consulting business, JHS Associates, sits on several boards and is a trustee for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.
Sununu says he is “loving it” in the private sector, and clearly his political connections have come in handy along the way.
This week, American International Airports – an airport concessions firm that currently manages 33 airports in Latin America and one in Armenia – announced that Sununu has been appointed its chairman.
AIA CEO John H. Tonelli, who attended a speech Sununu gave here Wednesday, said that former president George Bush referred Sununu.
Tonelli said Sununu understands the political systems of the Latin American countries the firm currently works with, and the Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania where AIA is in negotiations.
Moreover, Tonelli said, Sununu “knows a lot of people” and “has a Rolodex of people he can call.”
Tonelli said his original thought was that Sununu would serve mostly as an important “figurehead” for the company. But it turns out, he said, that the former governor wants to play an active role.
Tonelli added he chose Sununu, who is fluent in Spanish, over the likes of a former Secretary of State or a national security adviser – Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft were two he had in mind – because of his “innovative ideas” and experience in the business world.
Sununu’s background in business and management has served him well since leaving politics: He was once a partner in Trinity International Partners, a private financial firm.
Sununu also has a background in engineering – like his son, he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and was associate dean and associate professor at Tufts University engineering school until 1973.
Despite his own work in the press – he co-hosted CNN’s “Crossfire” after leaving the White House in 1992 until 1998 – Sununu reserved his harshest comments for the news media Wednesday while speaking at a Latin American investment summit that had partly coincided with the IMF and World Bank meetings.
He said the American “liberal press” was “dumb” and that it “miscommunicates” with the American public.
During his speech to the Latin American investors, Sununu reminisced about his days in the White House at the end of the Cold War.
“In 1991, when Gorbachev came to the White House and asked President Bush [to explain to him] the differences in governing in a democracy or a dictatorship, I had the CIA translate the Federalist Papers into Russian.” Those 18th-century exchanges of views on the newly drafted U.S. Constitution were early evidence, he said, that “one of the greatest strengths of the [American] system…[is] called checks and balances.”
Sununu said that the Bush administration’s foreign policy had been “distracted” by the events of Sept. 11 and was focusing less on important economic issues in Latin America.
Outlining his prescription for societal success in Latin America, Sununu said “followership” was key. (Countries, he said need a “society that is confident enough in its leaders that they will… choose to follow its leaders when a decision is made,” Sununu said.
He acknowledged in the interview after the speech that, for him, the responsibility for making those decisions had passed, and that he was “leaving the politics to the next generation.”
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Smith Speaks for Helms
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 02, 2002--Sen. Bob Smith was among a collection of senators who honored retiring Sen. Jesse Helms Wednesday on the Senate floor.
Smith called Helms (R-NC) a "treasured friend, a confidant and a great senator" and added that Helms was a role model.
Smith, who will be leaving the Senate as well after losing the GOP primary last month to Rep. John Sununu (NH-01), spoke passionately of the long-serving Helms.
"You are an irresistible force for liberty," Smith said. "You are an immovable object against big spending and morality."
Helms has served in the Senate since winning election in 1972. He is the senior minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee and is a member of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Rules and Administration Committees.
A staunch conservative leader, Helms was recognized by Smith for his dedication to a variety of issues, specifically his advocacy of school prayer, his opposition to abortion and his support for lower taxes. Smith even evoked a comparison to famed New Hampshire Senator Daniel Webster.
"I'm standing now at the desk of Daniel Webster, and there are going to be a lot of people following the senator from North Carolina that are going to be proud to stand at the desk of Senator Helms," Smith said. "You don't worry about the opponents or distorted reports by the news media. You follow your heart."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
N.H. Turns Out Highest Increase in Primary Voters in Nation
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 02, 2002--Voter turnout in last month's New Hampshire primary election jumped dramatically from the 1998 midterm elections, recording the highest increase in any state this year and helping to keep the national turnout from dropping to an all-time low.
Both national and state experts say the spike in New Hampshire was largely because of heightened interest in the Republican Senate primary.
But while it is unclear if and how the increase in turnout will affect the Nov. 5 general election, the Granite State historically has been one of the most politically active states in turnout in the country, particularly in congressional and presidential elections. That was not the case four years ago, however, during the last midterm elections.
Nearly 24 percent of the Granite State's voting-age population cast a ballot in this year's midterm primary, more than 11 percentage points higher than in the 1998 elections, according to a report last week by the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate (CSAE)..
Nationally, turnout in states holding primary elections this year increased since 1998 by two-tenths of a percentage point, to 17 percent.
New Hampshire's turnout was the eighth-highest in the nation, a bright contrast to 1998, when only Colorado and New Jersey produced lower primary turnouts.
A highly competitive GOP Senate primary race between incumbent Bob Smith and Rep. John Sununu, along with a variety of other races on the Republican ticket, accounted for 8 of the 11 percentage points, said CSAE director Curtis Gans, an expert in voter turnout. In a phone interview Tuesday, Gans added that the increase "essentially had to do with the intensity of feelings in the Republican Senate race."
But New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner said in a phone interview Wednesday there was more than a Senate race motivating GOP voters.
"There were a lot of contests further down on the ballot," Gardner said. "In the state House of Representatives half of the districts had a Republican primary."
He added that there also were 11 state Senate GOP contests, the congressional seat that Sununu will vacate and a gubernatorial nomination.
That was a huge difference from 1998-the lowest-ever mid-term primary turnout nationally-- when unchallenged incumbents in the Senate, House and the governor's office hurt any real competition in the New Hampshire primary elections, Gardner said.
Gans predicted that this year's Senate election between Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Sununu will produce a "reasonably good turnout" and that turnout could get even better if some of Smith's supporters go ahead with the write-in campaign for Smith that they announced this week.
And while Gardner said that a high primary turnout does not make a high general election turnout "automatic," he thought it was likely.
"It does have some impact because if more people in the primary have more interest, particularly if they are coming out because a neighbor is running for state representative, it's a good sign there will be a high turnout," he said.
Generally, Gardner said, Republicans in New Hampshire have more candidates and therefore more contested primaries than Democrats.
However, it isn't clear which party the higher turnout would help.
Gans said that historically, the number of people turning out to vote lends no advantage to either party.
But whether any turnout increase would help or hurt either party this year depends more on current events than on how many people decided to vote in the primary, Gardner said.
Republicans rank slightly higher than independents in the Granite State's voting base, with Democrats a distant third.
According to numbers from 2001 that Gardner's office made public, there are 233,363 Republicans, 232,805 independents and 167,062 Democrats registered in the Granite State.
Because New Hampshire lets people register to vote on Election Day, national events that happen within a week of the election could be critical to the turnout, Gardner said.
"(For) those that make up their minds the last week or weekend, it depends if something provides the passion for these voters who sometimes they vote, sometimes they don't, or aren't registered, and something happens that motivates them to come out," Gardner said.
On a national level, it is somewhat rare for voter turnout to increase as dramatically as it did in New Hampshire this year. There are a few other recent examples of it, however, particularly when "the heart of a party is at stake," Gans said.
The Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial primary this year in which former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell defeated state auditor Bob Casey produced a similar increase in turnout, Gans said.
Overall though, Gans said, the outlook is pretty bleak for heightened political participation.
"It is obvious that nothing has fundamentally changed in the pattern of very low voter participation in American political life," Gans said in a news release. "The events of Sept. 11, 2001, or the rekindling of those sentiments in 2002 may have helped boost patriotic fervor, but that did not carry over into political participation."
However, Gans also noted in the phone interview that "democracy tends to be healthier in New Hampshire than many states."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Kennedy Hears Testimony on INS Detentions
WASHINGTON, Oct. 01, 2002--Witnesses testifying Tuesday before Sen. Edward Kennedy's Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration called for the repeal of an Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) directive that has left hundreds of Haitian asylum seekers detained indefinitely in U.S. prisons.
The directive, which mandates that regional INS officials may parole no Haitian from detention without explicit approval from Washington, was issued last December. The Justice Department, which oversees the INS, said last week that the directive would avoid "a potential mass migration [from Haiti] to the United States." The order was issued on the heels of an incident in which a refugee boat carrying 187 Haitians ran aground off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard rescued 167 persons from the wreck, though as of last week only 16 of those rescued had been granted asylum by the United States.
As of Sept. 25 - -10 months after their rescue- - approximately 112 of the 167 originally detained were still being held at INS facilities in Miami and in Berks County, Pa.
At the hearing, Kennedy, D-Mass., called the treatment of Haitian asylum seekers by the U.S. government "absolutely despicable." His comment followed testimony by Marie Jocelyn Ocean, a former INS detainee from Haiti, one of the 16 refugees granted asylum here. She described being rescued by the Coast Guard last December only to be confined in a Miami hotel room for over two months with four other women and a seven-year-old girl.
"No one could come to see us there, and we felt terribly isolated and alone, also because we could not communicate with most of the guards because they did not speak Creole," Ocean said in her prepared testimony. "In all that time I was only able to breathe fresh air on four days…. Sometimes I felt as though I was suffocating, and my heart would begin to race because we were locked in that small space together for so long."
"No one should have to undergo that kind of treatment here in the United States," said Kennedy, who questioned both the nature of the directive, which singles out Haitians among asylum seekers, and its possible violation of international refugee standards.
"Most of the Haitians in question have demonstrated a credible fear of persecution, have family or community contacts willing to sponsor them, do not pose a flight risk and would not pose a danger to the community," Kennedy said. "These factors would normally have resulted in grants of parole from detention, and are the same factors currently used to parole other nationals from detention."
Supporting Kennedy's position was testimony given by Stephen C. Johnson, policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, and Dina Paul Parks, executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. Both Johnson and Parks described the situation in Haiti as violent and chaotic, characterized by vigilante justice and police brutality. They also said that harassment by groups supporting the governing Lavalas party was common. Ocean recalled the death of her father and brother at the hands of Lavalas members.
Kennedy expressed his disappointment that the Justice Department declined to send a representative to participate in the hearing to shed light on such a controversial policy.
"These are serious cases. These are serious problems," Kennedy said. "We're going to try to keep after this until we get something done. At least I am."
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
New Britain to Get $3 Million for Low-Income Families
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Oct. 01, 2002--New Britain will receive a $3.15 million grant for low-income families from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the department announced Tuesday.
New Britain receives grants from the department on an annual basis. The money is used for construction of affordable housing and beautification of the city, among other things.
"It's something people don't necessarily know about, but it funds a lot of things," Mayor Lucian Pawlak said. "It's money that goes a long ways."
The $3.15 million is divided into three areas: $2.3 million for a community block grant, $751,000 to aid low-income families in purchasing homes and $80,000 for homeless and special-needs residents.
Community block grants are usually used for construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing, but also for things like parks and economic development.
The grant is part of $10 million that HUD has awarded to Connecticut. Norwalk, Meriden, Bristol and Waterbury also received grants. Waterbury received the most, at $4 million.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Bush’s Textile Policies Are Amiss, Frank Charges
WASHINGTON, Oct. 01, 2002--U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a member of the Congressional Textile Caucus, has torn into the Bush administration's plans for aiding in the recovery of the domestic textile industry.
In response to the Caucus's request to President Bush for an urgent remedy for the critical industry, Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans released a report to Congress two weeks ago in which he gave an account of how the administration has worked to improve the condition of the industry so far.
But Frank, while welcoming the Bush administration's attention to the issue, said in an e-mail statement that the administration's efforts were "still grossly inadequate to the challenge." In some sense, he said, the policies simply represent either the enforcement of existing law or efforts that will take time to implement and even more time to benefit Americans. "The administration continues to resist what I and many others believe is one of the most important things we can do - adopt a policy that says that people wishing to export goods to the U.S. should follow appropriate labor and environmental standards."
For almost 22 years, Frank has been representing the 4th District of Massachusetts, which includes Fall River and New Bedford, where the textile and apparel industries have historically flourished. Though the industries are not as thriving as they used to be, they provided jobs to 23,196 people in Massachusetts in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That put the state 13th in the nation in textile industry employment.
"The current economic plight of the American textile industry is the worst since the Great Depression," said Charles Bremer, vice president of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute's international trade division. "Textile firms that survived the Great Depression, some of them over 100 years old, have ceased to exist in the last three years."
Last year, 116 textile mills closed and about 67,000 workers were laid off nationwide, a 13 percent loss for the textile industry. The industry's crisis began in 1997, when the U.S. dollar's value rose against the major Asian currencies. Since then, 177,000 domestic textile jobs have been lost and cheaper Asian merchandise has spread in the U.S. market, according to the institute.
Frank, along with 30 other congressmen who are mostly from southern states with a long history in the textile industry, petitioned President Bush last August, requesting the administration's assistance in coping with the crisis. Six months later, Evans formed a Textile Working Group to ensure that the administration would address the concerns.
That interagency group's report, released two weeks ago, mainly emphasized tightening international trade regulations to the benefit of the U.S. industry by pressing its demands before the World Trade Organization. The WTO administers the rules of international trade among its 144 member nations.
In addition, the administration has already denied requests for additional import levels sought by countries it considered to be harboring terrorists, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
But Frank said those steps do not seem effective. Given the disparity between the economies of the United States and many poor nations, he said, it is cheaper for those nations than it is for America to make a variety of goods and that we should not propose a total ban on imports of their products.
On the other hand, he said, it is also true that some countries can produce more cheaply "because they exploit child labor, pay people a few cents an hour for 60, 70 and 80-hour weeks, pay no attention to occupational safety, refuse to allow workers to organize to bargain collectively for their own protection and pay no attention to environmental standards. Competitive advantage that comes from different economic circumstances in general is a reasonable factor. Additional competitive advantage that comes from exploitation of workers and the environment is not legitimate."
Poor countries are not always to blame, Bremer said. Many top American brand apparel products are made abroad and imported back to the domestic market. "Companies should be free to make goods wherever they want," he said. "What they should not be free to do is exploit and abuse workers, use child labor, slave labor, etc. But they do."
Though a head wind keeps blowing hard on the U.S. textile and apparel industries, there has been and will be hope to survive, said Larry Liebenow, president and CEO of Quaker Fabric Corp, the largest single employer in Fall River. The company has been hiring more and more employees during the "textile depression"-about 3,000 people are working at Quaker, compared to 1,000 in 1990.
"The key to success is to become a global company that knows how to design and sell the products to the global markets," said Liebenow, whose company has shifted to specializing in original design, technology, quality and delivery that are too unique and exceptional for the low-cost countries to emulate or compete.
At the same time, Cliftex Corp., once the leading manufacturer of men's custom-made clothing in New Bedford, went out of business last summer for the most part because the company lost to not only foreign but also domestic rivals amid the low price competition, said Harvey Mickelson, a company's lawyer for 35 years.
Concerned about his district's economy, Frank said it is impractical to allow virtually unlimited imports. "I do note the hypocrisy of many who claim to be for free trade when it affects textiles but in fact follow very anti-free trade policies with regard to agriculture, where America heavily subsidizes our own production and in fact undercuts the economies of these poor nations."
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
It’s All Homeland Security, All of the Time
By Andrew Kosow
WASHINGTON, Oct. 01, 2002--Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D - Conn.) and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D - S.D.) blasted Republicans at a Tuesday afternoon press conference for letting politics delay the passage of a homeland security bill.
"There has been no movement at all from the White House or my Republican colleagues," said Lieberman, the main sponsor of the bill in the Senate. "This intransigence makes me wonder if politics is involved."
Democrats have complained that the Republicans don't want to pass a homeland security bill because the continuing debate over provisions of the bill keeps the focus off the sluggish economy and on national security, traditionally an issue on which voters trust Republicans more than Democrats.
"They have blocked the vote on cloture (which would end debate on the various amendments and bring the bill to a vote a) five times," Daschle said at the press conference.
President Bush has said it is Democrats who are playing election-year politics by kowtowing to labor unions that oppose a key provision of the President's bill. "The Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people," Bush said last week.
The Democrats control the Senate by a one-vote margin. The Washington Post reported recently that unions have given Democrats $50 million in donations in this election cycle.
The major sticking point in the homeland security debate may actually have little to do with security.
The issue involves an amendment, sponsored by Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Zell Miller (D-Ga.), which would grant the president the authority he has insisted on to remove the collective bargaining rights of federal workers in the proposed Department of Homeland Security who are involved primarily in antiterrorism activities.
Lieberman has said the Democrats are willing to compromise, and have offered to grant Bush what he seeks when it comes to the workers in the new department who deal directly with terrorism, but would require him to negotiate the changes with the unions. But Republicans will not compromise, he added.
"Even our most fervent antagonist, Phil Gramm, says that our two bills are 95 percent similar," Lieberman said. "[Bush] will have the executive authority in an emergency."
Whatever the merits of the two camps' arguments, House Republicans like Rep. Chris Shays (R - 4th) are clearly fed up.
"The House did its job, and now both the Democrats and Republicans [in the Senate] need to work together, and they are not," Shays said in a phone interview Tuesday, referring to House passage of its version of the homeland security bill in July. "I am not happy, because this does not speak well of the process."
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Allen Speaks Out Against Medicare Cuts
WASHINGTON, Oct. 09, 2002--Medicare cuts that will amount to about $12 million in lost revenues for Maine's 125 skilled nursing facilities took effect Tuesday, the first day of the federal government's new fiscal year.
But if Democratic Rep. Tom Allen has his way, payments for skilled nursing facility services will stay untouched for the next three years.
Allen, whose father lives in a nursing home in Maine, spoke Monday at a rally here, joining the American Health Care Association and others who oppose cuts in the Medicare skilled nursing care benefits.
"To those who argue that skilled nursing care is too expensive, I say the consequences of these cuts are much more costly," Allen said.
On Sept. 19, Allen and Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia introduced bipartisan legislation, the Medicare Beneficiary Skilled Nursing Protection Act, to prevent a $1.7 billion cut in reimbursements to skilled nursing care providers nationally. The Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees are reviewing the bill. It has 37 co-sponsors, including Democratic Rep. John Baldacci.
The cuts are the unanticipated side effect of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, designed to bring the federal budget into balance. Congress acted twice before to prevent cuts to skilled nursing care that would otherwise have taken place under the budget act. The latest cuts took effect Tuesday morning, because Monday was the end of the 2002 fiscal year and Congress hadn't passed a bill to stop the cuts for the new year, said Allen press secretary Mark Sullivan. Allen's bill would freeze spending at current levels for three years.
Dr. Charles Roadman II, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, said he believes the message is clear: Save our seniors. Fix Medicare now.
"We're talking about residents and patients, not just the providers and facilities, but the people," Roadman said.
Roadman said Congress has had increased expectations of the quality of skilled nursing care but has allowed a reduction in resources to bring that quality down.
"It's illogical," Roadman said, surrounded by advocates of all ages wearing T-shirts with red stop signs saying "Stop Medicare Cuts."
Allen mentioned Bob Pelletier, a 70 year-old native of Brunswick, Maine, who has an amputated leg, a bone infection in his other foot and a spinal infection that nearly cost him his life. Medicare enabled Pelletier to receive care at the Seaside Skilled Nursing Care Center in Portland. He receives physical therapy to teach him to walk with a prosthesis.
"Bob Pelletier is only one of hundreds of thousands of Medicare-funded skilled nursing care success stories each year," Allen said. "Tragically, unless Congress acts soon, the promise of skilled nursing care could disappear for millions of Americans."
With Tuesday's cuts, federal reimbursements for nursing homes would be reduced by 10 percent, or $ 36 per day per patient. By 2003, they would be reduced by $73 per patient per day, according to the 2000 Nursing Home Statistical Yearbook, published by the Cowles Research Group.
"Many facilities could be at risk, potentially leaving thousands of patients, especially in rural states like Maine, with no place to go," Allen said.
Monday's event was the conclusion of the AHCA's "Driving for Quality Care"
petition drive, which visited nursing care facilities in 44 states to highlight the impact budget cuts would have on Medicare recipients.
Other members of the Maine delegation also are fighting the cuts. Republican Sen. Susan Collins urged Congress last April to pass a bill that would temporarily increase the federal Medicare assistance percentage for the Medicaid program, but the bill did not make progress through the Senate. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe also has dealt with Medicare issues in the past, focusing on seniors and prescription drugs, and has worked with senators from both parties to try to pass a Medicare prescription drug benefit this year. While Snowe thinks it's important to help the providers, she also wants to help the elderly, said Dave Lackey, Snowe's press secretary.
"We are working to bridge partisan differences on Medicare issues, and while she is addressing provider issues, Senator Snowe also wants to help the seniors with such areas as prescription drugs," Lackey said.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
N.H. Unemployment Continues to Rise
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002--Hard times in New Hampshire are continuing, with close to 3,700 people in the state losing their jobs in August, according to studies released this month by federal and state agencies.
The seasonally adjusted state unemployment rate leapt half a percentage point to 4.7 percent last month, the reports said. New Hampshire's rate remains below the 5.7 percent national unemployment rate, however.
The biggest losses in the state came from manufacturing, which saw 1,000 jobs cut in August, according to a recent study by the New Hampshire Employment Security's Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau (ELMIB).
So far this year, 3,900 New Hampshire manufacturing workers have been laid off, the study said.
High-tech jobs also have been hit hard, said Don Sheffield, research analyst for ELMIB. Regionally, Sheffield said, the hits to this industry mean that the Nashua and Manchester areas have seen the highest unemployment rate increases.
Unemployment in the Nashua area went up 18 percent, from 5,790 to 6,830. In Manchester it climbed 13.7 percent, from 4,540 to 5,160, according to an ELMIB regional report, which does not include seasonal adjustments such as jobs lost when the summer tourism season ends.
Sheffield pointed to several regions that do not seem badly affected by the nation's economic downturn or that appear to be on the road to improvement.
Lebanon, because of stable employment at Dartmouth University and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, has retained unemployment rates of about 1.4 percent for the past year, he said.
Berlin, Sheffield said, has seen its economy improve substantially since May, when Nexfor, a Toronto, Ontario-based company, bought a local paper mill that had closed in August 2001 and started rehiring workers.
Unemployment rates that were about 14 percent in Berlin in January, Sheffield said, have now decreased to about 6.9 percent.
"While the rate may look high," he said, "it's an improving picture up there."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sununu and Shaheen Accuse Each Other of Partisanship
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002--In the latest battle in New Hampshire's Senate race, Republican Rep. John Sununu and Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen accused each other Thursday of following their party's national leadership over the interests of Granite State voters.
"Jeanne Shaheen has campaigned on the rhetoric that she has an independent mind," Sununu said in a telephone press conference. "But the fact is, when asked on national television to name an issue where she disagrees with the Democratic national leadership, she could not name one," he said, referring to Shaheen's Sept. 21 appearance on CNN's Novak, Hunt and Shields show.
And with the Senate stalled over homeland security and appropriations bills, New Hampshire cannot afford to strengthen the Democrats' control of the Senate by electing Shaheen, said Sununu, who was joined by National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
But Shaheen aide Colin Van Ostern said the governor has a long record of bipartisanship. He pointed to the 2002 Clean Power Act, which established fossil fuel pollution standards, and the 2000 HMO Accountability Act, which set up an independent review board to which patients who are refused coverage can appeal their cases.
"She's not a lock-step partisan like John Sununu," he said. "John Sununu is a rubber stamp for the Republican party leadership."
Shaheen supports President Bush's tax cut and "strongly supports" his military budget, Van Ostern said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
