Category: Spring 2003 Newswire
War Abroad, Congress Moves Forward On Domestic Agenda
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON – Though on the sidelines as the nation pursues its war against Iraq, Congress has positioned itself on the front lines of the government’s domestic policy effort since war began two weeks ago.
While White House and Pentagon officials concentrate on shaping the U.S. military operation in Iraq, the House and Senate have acted recently on a slew of major issues, only some of which involve the war.
“Congress realistically does not have that much day-to-day engagement in the prosecution of the war, so they are doing what seems to be natural, which is to shift their focus to appropriations and domestic issue matters,” said Jerome F. Climer, president of the Congressional Institute, which keeps track of Congress’s work flow.
With the public and the president looking elsewhere, the pressure has been on Congress to hold down the fort on domestic policy, said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. This week, both chambers are working to churn out next year’s budget resolution, as well as a proposed $74.7 billion wartime budget.
“They’re trying to conduct business as usual, but it’s very hard,” Mr. Ornstein said. “Everybody has been distracted by this.”
On Monday, a day that members rarely spend in Washington, the House put one of President Bush’s key domestic priorities to a vote. House members ultimately killed a bill that would have provided medical workers or their families with federal benefits if they were injured, disabled or killed after receiving smallpox vaccinations.
Republican leaders had hoped to push the bill through the House without debate but were embarrassed when the bill, which needed the support of two-thirds of the House to pass, failed to get a simple majority.
That defeat was the latest in a series of bumps in the road for the Bush administration’s domestic agenda. Last week, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to slice the president’s proposed $726 billion tax cut in half.
And, on the day the president announced the start of the war, the Senate rejected a measure that would have included revenue from prospective Alaska oil drilling in next year’s budget. Several key Republicans sided with Democrats to defeat the Bush-supported measure.
“The war produces a rally effect for the president in public opinion, but it seldom does anything to advance his domestic policy agenda,” said Thomas Mann, a political expert at the Brookings Institution. In this case, with the president holding fast to his domestic goals despite his focus on the war, the administration is coming across some uneasiness within the congressional ranks, he said.
“This president has chosen to stick with an agenda that’s basically a conservative Republican one,” Mr. Mann said. “He’s going to find the going a little tough with moderate Republicans and virtually unanimous dissent from Democrats.”
Still some bills recently on Congress’ menu have been considerably less divisive. Last week, the House overwhelmingly supported a bill designed to curb child abduction and exploitation. That measure rushed through Congress on the heels of the discovery of kidnapped Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart, who was missing for more than nine months.
There was time last week, too, to speed through the House a resolution “recognizing the public need for fasting and prayer” during the war in Iraq.
Mr. Mann said Congress simply is following its natural rhythms and routines. Since the initial bombings of Iraqi government buildings two weeks ago, members of Congress have introduced more than 300 bills and resolutions on scores of subjects.
“There are dozens and dozens of pieces of legislation that will be moving to the floor,” Mr. Mann said. “Just because we’re in a military engagement in Iraq, there’s no reason not to proceed with any of those.”
Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, said that, in fact, there has not been enough debate of domestic issues in the House. He blamed Republican leaders for stifling discussion on matters that may give them trouble, such as the president’s tax cut and Social Security reform proposals.
“They don’t let a lot of issues come to the floor,” he said. “Debate is muffled.”
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
Kerry Raises $7 Million In First Quarter
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign raised about $7 million in the first three months of this year, a figure likely to position him near the top of the Democratic fundraising heap.
Massachusetts was the leading contributor to his campaign, contributing $2.1 million.
Sen. Kerry's $7 million puts him just behind Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who announced on Tuesday that his campaign raised $7.4 million during the first three months of this year. None of the other seven Democratic candidates has yet released figures.
Sen. Kerry's total is added to roughly $3 million already in the Massachusetts Democrat's presidential campaign chest, the majority of which had been transferred from his Senate account. After spending nearly $2 million so far this year, the campaign can boast an on-hand cash total of slightly more than $8 million.
Some analysts who had viewed Sen. Kerry as the frontrunner for the Democratic nod were surprised that the senator failed to exceed Sen. Edwards last quarter.
"That's got to be of some level of concern," said Steven Weiss, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors campaign finances. "No frontrunner likes to be beat out in fundraising."
A Kerry campaign aide said the senator and his staff were impressed with Sen. Edwards' figures but stressed that Sen. Kerry is pleased with his own tally.
"We've raised more money, acquired more donors, put more in the bank and built a stronger political foundation than I thought would be possible 90 days ago," Jim Jordan, Sen. Kerry's campaign manager, said in a statement.
On his way to winning the 2000 Democratic presidential nod, Vice President Al Gore raised a record $8.9 million during the first quarter of 1999. George W. Bush led Republican candidates with $7.6 million, with roughly one-third of that total coming in on the last day of filing.
This year's candidates are working under new campaign finance rules, instituted last November, that double the amount of so-called "hard" dollars that individuals can donate to a federal candidate, to $2,000.
The new laws also bar campaigns from accepting "soft money" donations, or unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and labor unions.
The Supreme Court was expected to review the new law in the coming months, though a delay in a federal appeals court ruling on the matter has raised concern that the nation's highest court will be unable to hear the case this term.
On March 19, Kerry qualified for the federal matching fund system, which rewards candidates with federal dollars if they raise at least $5,000 in each of 20 states in amounts no greater than $250 per donor.
Sen. Kerry has not said yet whether he will apply for matching funds, which might bring in less money than he could raise without those dollars.
During his 2002 re-election campaign, Sen. Kerry raised $14.7 million, the 10th-highest total collected during that six-year period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The senator's closest opponent in that race, a Libertarian, raised less than $200,000.
Other Democratic campaigns were expected to release their fundraising figures in the coming days. Conventional wisdom is that none of the others will report totals as high as Kerry and Edwards, Mr. Weiss said.
Candidates must file their first-quarter financial reports with the Federal Election Commission by April 15.
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
Gregg Moves Smallpox Compensation Bill to Senate Floor Despite Heavy Criticism
WASHINGTON—Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) successfully moved his smallpox vaccine compensation package through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Wednesday by a vote of 11-10, despite scathing criticism led by the committee's senior Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Gregg's bill would encourage health-care workers and other first responders to get smallpox vaccines by ensuring them compensation for any injuries or side effects. The smallpox vaccine, said Gregg, is one of the most reliable ways to protect the United States from the threat of a biological terror attack.
"This is not a legal issue. This is not a health issue. This is a national security issue," Gregg said. "We are at war. We have a fundamental obligation as members of the Senate to put our differences aside and work together to make sure the American people are protected from the worst our enemies can do. The passage of this legislation is vital to the safety of the American people."
Kennedy blasted Gregg's plan, saying the flat compensation payment of $262,000 a year is "heartlessly inadequate." He said there should be no caps on compensation for lost wages and medical expenses. and said Gregg's bill failed to adequately compensate victims of minor injuries.
Kennedy said some states already have ended vaccination programs because the current system is "a disaster." The White House has urged thousands of health-care workers and other first responders, including firefighters and police officers, to get the vaccines.
"This is a 'tin cup' response to a major health threat and I think it insults the first responders in this country," Kennedy said.
Gregg fired back, calling Kennedy's statistics "flawed," and saying that his plan was "a genuine attempt to address the issue."
"Today, anybody who gets vaccinated … gets nothing," he said. "And that's the way it's going to be until we pass this bill."
Smallpox vaccination programs have come under harsh criticism since they began in early February. . Both Illinois and New York halted the vaccines after three people suffered fatal heart attacks soon after being inoculated. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon is one of the latest health facilities to stop giving the vaccines.
The House of Representatives killed a similar bill Monday, as 21 Republicans sided with Democrats to vote against it. Both of New Hampshire's Republican Reps., Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass, voted in favor of the bill.
Published in Foster's Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
NH and Maine Senators Join to Push for USS Thresher Memorial
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday night marking the 40th anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher, a pioneering nuclear submarine that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic on April 10, 1963, killing 96 Navy sailors, 16 officers and 17 employees of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg (R) and John Sununu (R) and Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R), who sponsored the resolution, said Wednesday they would introduce legislation next week to build a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., in honor of the 129 people who died on the Thresher and in the rest of America's nuclear submarine program..
"The loss of the Thresher was an enormous tragedy for the U.S. submarine service, for the Navy, and for the nation," Sununu said in a statement. "Yet from this tragedy, the Navy learned important lessons about submarine safety and acted to improve designs and to prevent engineering and design flaws on future submarines."
Sununu said the crew's "ultimate sacrifice" helped improve the nation's defense system.
Thresher was launched in Kittery at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1960. It was one of the first of a new class of submarine for the Navy: deep-diving, fast-attack crafts that boasted many innovative features, such as a sound silencing system, a large bow-mounted sonar and a hydro-dynamically streamlined body. The Thresher failed to resurface during a deep-sea diving trial, but the Navy never determined the reason.
Snowe said in a statement that the loss of Thresher led to the creation of the SubSafe program, which strengthened regulations on hull integrity and pressure-related components for submarines. It also prompted the establishment of additional training for engineers studying submarines and ocean dynamics. Since the advent of these programs, Snowe said, not a single U.S. submarine has been lost under similar circumstances.
"Our nation owes a great debt to the 129 men of the USS Thresher, years, and to the civilians who have accepted the risk and sacrificed alongside their submarine shipmates," Snowe said. "It is an entirely appropriate time for us to acknowledge the loss … and express our gratitude for their sacrifice."
Gregg, in a separate statement, said, "This measure we introduced recognizes the courage and bravery these men demonstrated in risking their lives in the development of the United States Navy's submarine program, a program which has proven invaluable to the American military.".
New Hampshire Rep. Jeb Bradley (R) said he will introduce similar legislation in the House of Representatives.
Published in Foster's Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Delegation – It’s Business As Usual, With a Few Changes
By Kim Forrest
WASHINGTON--Nearly two weeks after the war began in Iraq, the offices of New Hampshire's congressional delegation on Capitol Hill are trying to keep to business as usual despite increased security and their need to keep a close watch on the Middle East.
District Two's Rep. Charles Bass says the biggest change has been more security in congressional office buildings.
"Over the last month, they have implemented a much more coordinated security plan for evacuation," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
He noted that loudspeakers have been placed in the office buildings, cars are being checked more carefully as they enter the Capitol grounds, a barrier has been placed around the Capitol and Congress members are encouraged not to walk outdoors. Still, he said, his day in Congress is still structured pretty much the same as it was before the war began.
"As for day-to-day life," he said, "there's really the same mechanics of it. Obviously, everybody's more focused on the hour-by-hour events in Iraq."
Bass said that members of Congress do get a special briefing at 10:30 each morning from the Armed Services Committee, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then another briefing on the House floor from Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Bass said he also follows the war in the same way his constituents do.
"I watch television when I get a chance, just like every other American," he said.
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) said that senators, too, receive exclusive briefings each day.
"On a day-to-day basis, we're receiving top-secret briefings each morning that help ensure senators have any information they need in making good policy decisions," Sununu said in a statement.
Jeff Turcotte, press secretary to Sen. Judd Gregg, said that senators continue to go about their business. For Gregg, that meant presiding as chairman at a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Wednesday.
Turcotte also said that even as the Senate continues to deal with the budget and other domestic issues, the war is on everyone's minds.
"The mood on the Hill is not run-of-the-mill by any means," he said. "While the budget process is a predictable, annual event, obviously the thoughts and prayers of Sen. Gregg are with the troops in Iraq."
Sununu, in his statement, expressed similar sentiments, saying that the work on the Senate floor is focused on keeping Americans safe, especially during this time of war.
"National security issues and homeland security spending are at the top of the priority list," he said.
On a more local level, Bass discussed two ways he is helping Granite Staters who are affected personally by the war.
He has placed a link on his Website titled War Time Services and Information, which connects family members of those who are in military service in the Middle East to various help organizations.
And, in all four of his district offices, in Keene, Concord, Nashua and Littleton, he has created a military help desk, in which Second District families with a member on active duty can call in with any problems, financial or administrative, and get specialized assistance.
"I've instructed my staff to accept requests and make them top priority," Bass said. "I feel it's very important to do everything we can to limit the obvious anxiety that many families are feeling right now."
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
New Study Finds Radio Alcohol Ads Heard More By Children
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – While a study released Wednesday found that children and teenagers are more prone to hear alcohol radio advertisements than adults, the manager of seven Connecticut radio stations said he airs such ads only on broadcasts geared toward listeners 25 and older.
"Radio Daze," a report by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, found that in 2001 and 2002 youths ages 12 to 20 were exposed to 8 percent more beer advertising, 12 percent more advertising for "malternative" and "alcopop" beverages-such as Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice-and 14 percent more advertising for hard liquor than adults. Wine advertisers, however, exposed youths to significantly less radio advertising than adults, showing how advertisers can target an adult audience without overexposing youths, the study found.
"The fact that kids under 21 hear more beer and distilled spirits ads than people 21 and older should concern everyone who cares about our children," CAMY executive director Jim O'Hara said.
John Ryan, general manager of Cox Radio's seven Connecticut stations, said he permits alcohol advertisements only on stations that target adults who are at least 25.
"We would never take liquor, beer or wine advertising on a contemporary hit radio station that would hit people 15 to 18 years of age," Ryan said.
Cox's general sales manager Scott Summerlin said all songs played on the adult contemporary station WEZN-FM Star 99.9 have been tested to appeal to an audience 25 years and older.
In light of the study, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. said he intends to monitor underage drinking trends and alcohol ads targeting youth. Dodd said he might hold a hearing on the issue.
"In the fight against underage drinking, we all have to live up to our responsibility," Dodd said. "These new findings…tell me that the industry advertisers need to do more to prevent the marketing of alcohol product to children. We intend to hold advertisers accountable."
Lobbyists for alcohol manufacturers discounted the study. Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute, a national association for the brewing industry, said illegal underage drinking in America is declining.
"Some organizations … must ignore these facts in order to generate headlines from their studies," Becker said. "The CAMY study uses advertising market data but interprets it in questionable ways."
Becker said that although adolescents are bombarded with alcohol advertisements through radio and television, 83 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are not "current drinkers." He said parents have more to do with whether their children drink than advertising does.
A 2001 Household Survey on Drug Abuse released last week by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that among youths 12 to 17, an estimated 17.3 percent used alcohol in the previous month.
Frank Coleman, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said that although a greater percentage of underage listeners hear radio advertisements, the actual number of listeners over 21 who hear the advertisements far outweighs those below the drinking age.
"It's blatantly misleading," Coleman said. "They are shameful for misleading people and senators."
The CAMY study also criticized federal oversight of radio alcohol advertisements, saying the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) failed to follow up on its 1999 recommendations to reduce youth exposure.
"We think, for instance, if the FTC takes a look at its recommendations from 1999, they will see that the industry really hasn't followed through on any of the FTC recommendations to limit youth exposure," O'Hara said.
Lee Peeler, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said that several manufacturers, including Coors Brewing Co., heeded the FTC's advice and established a monitoring agreement with the Better Business Bureau.
Earlier CAMY studies found that youths also were overexposed to television and magazine ads for alcohol.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
Maine Lawmakers Vote on Energy and Environmental Bills
WASHINGTON – Maine Democratic Rep. Thomas Allen warned Wednesday that the influence of dam owners could cost the public its say in the dam relicensing process.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, overriding several objections from environmental and consumer protection advocates, was expected Wednesday evening to approve an energy bill that included incentives for development in the hydropower industry. Allen's proposed amendments that he said would guarantee a public voice in dam relicensing were defeated.
"I'd like to see a different bill that looks forward - that encourages new technologies," Allen said after the committee's vote.
The dam relicensing provisions in the bill would ignore a compromise Congress agreed to last year, Allen said, that would have placed more power in the hands of the public and public-interest groups.. The committee bill would give that power to dam owners, leaving fishermen, fish and wildlife agencies and other interested parties with little say in the managing of hydropower facilities.
Four years ago, the Edwards Dam, on the Kennebec River, was removed after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission determined that the amount of power the dam generated did not justify the destruction of the river's ecosystem. Without citizen input, the dam's removal would have been impossible, said Judy Berk of Maine's Natural Resources Council.
Now that the dam has been removed, "the large value of the ecosystem" is being realized, she said. Fish, like salmon and sturgeon, that were unable to reach their spawning grounds because of the dam are rebounding. In addition, the state was able to raise the river's water quality level after just a few months, Berk said.
Another provision of the committee bill would give a $300 million subsidy to the hydropower industry. Hydropower is "cheap and established," and the subsidy is unnecessary, Allen said.
Subsidizing the hydropower industry would cost taxpayers at least $200 million, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense Action, a non-partisan budget watchdog group. The committee rejected Allen's amendment, which would have cut the subsidy to $100 million.
Neither Allen nor the Maine Natural Resources Council opposes hydropower development in general. In fact, Allen's biggest problems with the bill stem from the fact, he said, that it remains "too attached to oil and gas." Nevertheless, he added, there are problems with giving the hydropower industry too much power.
Allen suggested that other renewable energy developments, like solar, wind and energy efficiency, need more financial help than hydropower does.
"America has the high-tech work force, the research institutions and the capital to lead in each of these industries," he said in his opening statement to the committee.
Energy efficiency is particularly important, Berk of the Resources Council said. "A kilowatt-hour saved is a kilowatt-hour earned," she said.
In the Senate, the Finance Committee on Wednesday approved a package of bills that would provide incentives for environmentally responsible energy policies. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, who sits on the committee, has pressed for more fuel-efficient vehicles and said she was eager to support "responsible energy solutions for America's future.
The committee-approved legislation includes provisions that Snowe sponsored or co-sponsored to offer incentives for technology, such as wind energy, hybrid vehicles, energy-efficient appliances and fuel cells.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
Democrats Lambaste Gregg Smallpox Compensation Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and several other Democrats lambasted a bill Wednesday introduced by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., that would compensate health-care workers and other first responders who were injured by smallpox vaccines.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Gregg chairs, voted 11-10 to send the bill to the Senate floor and rejected amendments offered by Kennedy, the committee's senior Democrat, who called the bill "completely, totally inadequate." Kennedy said Gregg's bill would not provide guaranteed funding for compensation, "coerces" workers to get vaccinated by putting a time limit on the availability of compensation and would cover only limited health care needs.
The bill is an attempt to encourage health care workers and first responders, such as police officers and firefighters, to get smallpox vaccines by ensuring they or their families will be compensated for illness or death. As Kennedy noted, many states have ended their vaccination programs, which he called a "disaster," because so few workers were volunteering for inoculation.
"This program is not going to be successful unless the people, workers, sign up for it. That's the bottom line," Kennedy said. "You've got to treat the people fairly on this, and this legislation does not do it. It's a 'tin cup' response to a major health threat, and I think it insults the first responders in this country."
Gregg said he disagreed with Kennedy's characterization of the bill, adding, "It's not an insult, it's a genuine attempt to address the issue." Gregg also said charts and graphs Kennedy presented were "wrong and misleading, and hopefully not intentionally so.
Today anybody who gets vaccinated (against) smallpox . . . gets no compensation at all. Nothing. And that's the way it's going to be until we pass this bill."
Gregg said that under his proposed compensation plan, a health-care worker would get more compensation than a soldier wounded in battle. Kennedy criticized the bill, however, for capping payments for medical expenses and lost wages and for failing to compensate people with minor injuries.
The House defeated a similar bill Monday when 21 Republicans joined Democrats to vote against it. New Hampshire Republican Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley voted for the bill.
However, the House Appropriations Committee set aside $35 million for the smallpox compensation fund Tuesday as part of President Bush's emergency spending bill. New Hampshire Congress members said they will vote for the supplemental bill, which the Senate began debating Wednesday.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the administration supports Gregg's bill.
"The administration continues to work closely with members of the Senate and supports efforts to pass legislation that will provide compensation to those health-care workers and medical response team members who volunteer to make sure America is protected," Lisaius said. "They need to have similar compensation available to them such as that received by other first responders."
Smallpox vaccination programs have come under scrutiny recently and two states-New York and Illinois-halted immunizations after three people died last week from heart attacks just days after being vaccinated. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon also suspended vaccinations.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Amid War and Protest, Maine 4-Hers Quietly Visit the Capital
WASHINGTON – While affirmative-action activists filled the street outside the Supreme Court and Maine's Congress members ran from committee hearings to policy meetings, 17-year-old Erin Spear of Canton and 19-year old Devin Prock of Walderboro wound their way through the overwhelming maze of Senate and House office buildings Tuesday.
They got lost only once, as they tried to find a cafeteria.
Spear and Prock came to the capital to attend the annual national 4-H council conference at the organization's Chevy Chase, Md., headquarters. On Tuesday, the group of about 200 teens visited members of their states' congressional delegations.
So Spear and Prock, along with their chaperone, Karen Hatch-Gange, a University of Maine coordinator from Sydney, set off on a mission. They wanted to make sure Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Reps. Thomas Allen and Michael Michaud knew at least one thing about 4-H.
As Prock put it: "4-H is more than cows and cooking."
It's reputation is for agriculture, but 4-H really is about leadership, the students repeated in four meetings with the members. While some amount of farming is involved, not all the members have cows, the teens told the lawmakers, quietly at first, but more confidently as they went from office to office.
Their purpose might not have been as lofty as that of the throngs trying to influence the Supreme Court on affirmative action. And they might not have as great an impact as the members of Congress in their meetings and hearings. They came, primarily, to make sure the lawmakers understood that the 4-H network is connected to many after-school enrichment programs, camps and clubs - that it is helping young people in Maine and nationwide.
"4-H makes a person a better person," Prock said to Allen. "We help people who need help."
Spear, for example, enjoys crafts. Recently, she and other members of her 4-H group in Canton constructed a handicap-accessible garden at a local nursing home. Prock helped autistic boys learn how to show and work with animals.
"That sounds wonderfully worthwhile," Collins said, as the teens told her about their leadership activities, projects with adults and work with schools.
Collins took a few minutes to tell Spear and Prock about some of her recent activities, including oversight of the new Department of Homeland Security as chairwoman of the Governmental Affairs Committee. And before the senator ran off to her weekly Republican policy lunch, she joked with the teens about partisan disagreements.
Spear and Prock said they were struck by how pleasant the members were. And the two of them really seemed to take to politics.
"I like cows and all," Prock said, "but this stuff's more fun."
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
3 NH Congressional Winners Spent Less Than Their Opponents
By Daniel Remin
WASHINGTON — All three New Hampshire winners of last year's election to Congress received and spent less money than their opponents.
In the closest election of the three, Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., raised about $3.73 million and spent more than $3.67 million, far less than former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who raised and spent approximately $5.8 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (at opensecrets.org).
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., raised $1.01 million and spent about $983,450, while his opponent, Martha Fuller Clark, raised and spent more than $3.5 million. Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., raised $906,760 and spent $886,700 in his reelection campaign; his challenger, Katrina Swett, raised and spent more than $1.4 million.
"It's been that way every single election I've run except for one," Bass said in an interview. "The moral: money doesn't buy elections. Votes win elections. Candidates discover this year after year after year. It's what you believe in and how effectively you communicate your message."
Bass said the new campaign finance law that went into effect the day after last November's elections and bans federally unregulated "soft money" would not change his next campaign's fund-raising strategy. "I never raised or spent any soft money," he said. "I'm simply going about the business of organizing my campaign two years from now just as I always did.
"On the national level, I think that it'll reduce the ability of the national campaign committees, both Republican and Democrat, to have a big presence in a particular campaign, to spend a million dollars, for example, on media on a candidate or an incumbent who's in trouble."
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who was not up for reelection, received $277,763 during the 2001-02 election cycle, according to Political Money Line.
The money raised by all four current members of the New Hampshire delegation came from a variety of individuals and PACs (political action committees). According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sununu received more than $1.5 million from PACs in 2001-02, the most of anyone in the New Hampshire delegation.
Verizon Communications, through its two PACs, was one of the largest contributors. In 2001-2002, it gave $2,500 to Gregg, and $10,000 to Bass and $10,000 to Bradley, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
PACs can contribute a maximum of $10,000 per election cycle. However, individual contributions also came from Verizon employees. Bass, for example, received $2,000 from Verizon employees, and Bradley received $500.
"The way we decide to give to particular candidates is that we always support candidates that support progressive telecommunications policies that are pro-competition and pro-consumer," Susan Butta, a Verizon spokesman, said in an interview.
The PAC of SBC Communications, another Baby Bell, contributed $9,000 to Bass and $3,000 to Bradley, according to the CRP. "We generally support those members that have a basic understanding of our industry and have like-minded feelings towards what our industry needs, which is less regulation," Barry Hutchison, an SBC spokesman, said in an interview. "Charlie Bass and others, they certainly have those beliefs."
Bass serves on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. But he and Hutchison said that was not why SBC contributed to the campaign.
"They support me, I'm assuming, because I do a good job representing New Hampshire," Bass said. "It's important to remember what comes first. Voting record comes first. I have certain beliefs and so forth; if these entities agree with me, they make contributions. There is no quid pro quo or anything like that."
BAE North America's PAC was Bass' largest contributor. The defense contractor gave the maximum $10,000 to Bass, who also received $4,652 from BAE employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The PAC gave $5,000 to Bradley.
New Hampshire is such a jurisdiction, and its two House members back a strong national defense, Measell said.
Like Bass, Bradley said he was looking to raise just the "hard money" that is regulated by the Federal Election Commission.
The freshman lawmaker received loans for his election campaign that he is working to pay back. The FEC reports that Bradley accepted $309,000 in personal loans and that his campaign is approximately $33,000 in debt.
The FEC report indicates that Bradley had close to $27,800 in cash after the election, a sum he plans to increase. "We're building that up," he said. "We had (a fundraising) event down here in Washington. I think that was pretty successful, so that's the kind of thing we'll continue to do. I look to have ample resources to run a strong re-election effort."
Gregg, the Granite State's veteran senator, spent approximately $350,700 in the last election cycle, according to Political Money Line, and had $368,391 cash on hand at the end of last year. He is up for reelection next year.
Gregg chairs both the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary. He is a member of the Budget Committee.
The National Association of Broadcasters PAC contributed $9,999 to Gregg in 2001-2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
All members of Congress' personal financial disclosures are due on May 15.
(Daniel Remin is an intern with the Boston University Washington News Service.)
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
