Bradley wins close GOP primary in NH's 1st CD
MANCHESTER, N.H. --Former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley narrowly won a tough GOP primary Tuesday for the seat he lost two years ago to Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.
Bradley beat John Stephen, former head of the state Department of Health and Human Services, and two other challengers.
"We believe that our state is better for the fact we don't have an income tax, we don't have a sales tax and that's what I want to reflect again in Washington," Bradley said in his victory speech.
Shea-Porter, of Rochester, was unopposed for her party's nomination.
"I wish that I had the chance to make this race a contrast between myself and Carol Shea-Porter, but it was not meant to be. I'm so proud of the race we ran," Stephen told his supporters.
Bradley and Stephen, who were far ahead of two other candidates, traded charges for months about their records -- Bradley's in Congress and Stephen's as health commissioner.
Bradley, 55, of Wolfeboro, accused Stephen of not making enough state payments to cover nursing home bills, leaving the cost to property tax payers.
Stephen, 45, of Manchester, said Bradley, who defeated him in the 2002 Republican primary, repeatedly supported wasteful spending during his two terms in Congress.
Rounding out the primary field were David Jarvis, 39, of Hooksett, and Geoff Michael, 56, of Merrimack.
Shea-Porter 55, narrowly upset Bradley in 2006 during a national flood of anti-war, anti-Republican sentiment. Libertarian Robert Kingsbury of Laconia will also be on the November ballot.
Jerry Boucher, a 58-year-old software engineer from Manchester, voted for Bradley.
"I think he was good when he was in Congress," he said.
But others picked Stephen as a fresh face who will help change Congress. Connie Elliott, 60, a child care director in Manchester, was one.
"He seems to have a level head in thinking about middle-to-lower class people who are working hard and trying to save," she said.
Bradley, who spent 12 years in the state Legislature before winning the congressional seat, was criticized by Stephen for voting against proposals to open the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling. Bradley said times have changed and he now supports the drilling.
Stephen has been criticized by county officials for shortchanging nursing homes, leaving property taxpayers to pick up the state-required payments. Stephen said by the time he left office, county nursing home payments had increased by 20 percent.
------
Bradley, who resumed campaigning soon after losing to Shea-Porter, cites his work to help keep the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open as one of his biggest accomplishments in Congress. When a Pentagon panel considered closing the shipyard in 2005, Bradley was part of a bipartisan state effort to save about 4,500 jobs, many of them in Bradley's district.
Bradley also focused on military and veterans' issues. He bucked his party and sponsored a budget amendment that restored $4 billion over five years for veterans' medical care. A GOP plan had called for cutting medical benefits below current levels through the decade.
Bradley joined most other House members from New England to vote against President Bush's energy bill in 2005. He cited provisions that would shield gasoline additive makers from lawsuits and open the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling. He later voted for a defense bill that included the drilling. Bradley said he was disappointed the drilling was in that bill, but said he voted for it to speed new equipment to the military and raise troop strength.
Stephen served for almost four years as commissioner. Before that he was assistant safety commissioner and worked for 10 years as a county and state prosecutor.
When he left office last year, Stephen said he met the three goals he set for himself: returning maximum value to the citizens and taxpayers of New Hampshire, changing the department's approach to being proactive and prevention-focused; and bringing transparency and openness to the department.
He also supported a new welfare-to-work law; helped develop a medical emergency plan for hospitals in the event they have to face a flu pandemic, natural disaster or terrorist attack; developed a package of changes to Medicaid to expand home- and community-based care for the elderly and disabled so fewer of them would land in nursing homes.
Stephen also consolidated the administrative functions of agencies serving the developmentally disabled in Lebanon and Claremont and of two similar agencies in the Conway area.
------
On the Net:
http://www.jebforcongress.com/
http://davejarviscongress.com/
