Stephen, Bradley swap barbs in race for US House seat

CONCORD, N.H. - In a bitter 1st District primary rematch, Republicans John Stephen and Jeb Bradley are fighting over everything from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to funding for a brown tree snake program in Guam.

The two top contenders in a four-candidate field faced each other in 2002, with Bradley coming away the winner. Stephen and Sean Mahoney of Portsmouth split the conservative vote and Bradley, considered more moderate, went on to claim the seat that opened up when then-US Representative John Sununu ran for the Senate.

Bradley, who served two terms in the House, has been fighting to reclaim his seat since narrowly losing to Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in 2006.

On Nov. 4, the Republican winner will face Shea-Porter and Libertarian Party candidate Robert Kingsbury of Laconia.

In television ads and debates, Stephen has tried to portray Bradley as being "everything that is wrong with Congress" while he, a fiscal conservative, would bring much-needed reforms to Washington.

As a case in point, Stephen accused Bradley of going too far in voting to spend money on earmarks such as a teapot museum and a brown tree snake program in Guam.

Bradley replied that Stephen ignored that such projects were tied to important bills funding defense and veterans programs and Medicare. Bradley said he sought an earmark to pay for night-vision goggles for troops stationed in Iraq.

"Would you have listened to those troops and gotten the new equipment, and if the only way to do it was an earmark, would you have done it?" Bradley asked at a recent debate in Manchester.

"I would have absolutely supported those troops," Stephen said. "There is a way to do it through an emergency appropriation and you get other members of Congress to file a bill to make sure it's voted on by all your colleagues, but what you did was to make sure it was an earmark so you could tack it on to some other brown tree snake program."

When asked by Bradley later if he would've voted against an important defense bill because it had earmarks, Stephen said he would've voted for the bill. Then, "I would've immediately submitted a bill to repeal the brown tree snake program" and make congressmen stand up to taxpayers and say whether they're going to vote for it, he said.

Stephen also has attacked Bradley's decision to vote several times against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Bradley said conditions have "clearly changed" since he served in Congress and he now supports coastal drilling.

"You failed us when you had the chance, Jeb," Stephen said.

Bradley has repeatedly accused Stephen of shortchanging county nursing homes when Stephen was health and human services commissioner.

He said property taxpayers have had to pick up the bill to make up the payments that should've been spent on the nursing homes.

"There were a number of county commissioners and legislators who join me . . . who said you misled the Legislature," Bradley said.

Stephen said by the time he left office, county nursing home payments had increased by 20 percent.

Rounding out the primary field is David Jarvis of Hooksett, a telecommunications engineer who ran for the 1st District in 2006 as a Democrat and Geoff Michael of Merrimack, a private business consultant who calls himself an "anti-politician."