Editorial: In 1st District, vote Shea-Porter

Wow. The fact that so many folks are uninformed is pretty scary. Kuster is the clone of Pelosi. Bass made her look pretty uninformed in the debates. Shea Porter is not much of a threat in my eyes either. She is not a moderate though. It has been a hoot watching these Dems try to put out there in the last few weeks that they are moderates. Some of the questions that were posed to them in the debates like name one thing you disagree with the President on, left them pretty much speechless. Especially Kuster. The media cannot protect them in debates. So their true selves come out. Hopefully the true independents pick up on this and saw the stark differences.

In 2009, I went to ask Carol Shea Porter a question on Medicare at her Town Hall Meeting in Manchester. I waited three hours outside, then was given a ticket with a number on it as I walked inside the room where she was to speak. She spoke for 25 minutes, then had a nice Boy Scout pick one ticket stub out of a jar. Whoever held the matching ticket got a chance to ask a question. About 12 people got to ask a question from the 100 people in attendance. My number wasn't called, and she left when the 35 minutes she allotted for questions was over. So I went to another one of her Town Hall Meetings, got a ticket, and again, my ticket wasn't pulled, so again, I couldn't ask her my question. Now Carol Shea Porter is asking for my vote to go back to Congress and do what, ignore me again? Carol Shea Porter wouldn't give me the courtesy of a few minutes of her time when she was a congresswoman, so all I care to say to her now is, I'll be voting for Frank Guinta!

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Guinta was out of the mainstream for wanting to repeal Obamacare?? One of the most unpopular (not to mention unread) laws in history, passed exclusively by one party, completely behind closed doors, and almost deemed unconstitutional save for the fact the chief justice decided it was a tax when all along Obama said it wasn't????? THAT is out of the mainstream?? What stream are you in????

As a veteran and user of the Manchester veterans hospital, I believe that the only choice in this election is Carol Shea-Porter, a staunch supporter of veterans rights. During the George W. Bush administration, when Republicans filled all the seats in the Granite State's congressional delegation, the Manchester V.A. hospital was allowed to decay. The Bush Administration, with the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (owner of the world's largest private hospital chain), floated a plan to move veterans to a voucher system to rack up "savings" by closing veterans hospitals. Manchester V.A. hospital staffing levels were allowed to drop to scandalously low levels as our hospital was set up for closure as part of the privatization push. After the elections of Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes and Jeanne Shaheen, staffing levels were boosted at thehospital. Over 160 staffers were hired. The level of care improved. During the GOP Presidential primary, many Republicans vowed to make the Manchester V.A. hospital a full-service facility, including Mitt Romney. However, Romney has not made an official pledge to do this. In fact, in the spin room at the N.H. Institute of Politics after the recent Congressional debates, Charlie Bass, who was part of the Republican congressional delegation that allowed our hospital to decay, expressed the opinion that a voucher system was a good thing as it would allow veterans to utilize local hospitals. The Republicans have no desire to make the Manchester hospital full-service: Carol Shea-Porter does. She is a stalwart friend of vets.

Voters have a real choice in this race. They can give Frank Guinta another term, and spend it wondering what he's really doing in DC, since he has lied repeatedly about his activities there and their effect on the people who are supposed to be his constituents. Or they can bring back Carol Shea-Porter, who did so much for so many of us here in NH while she served in Congress. Voters need to do their homework in this race, because the differences between the candidates are stark, if you can get past the Guinta spin and realize that he has worked for the 1%, while Carol always worked for the rest of us.