For four years I had a congresswoman who was the perfect representative for me. Carol Shea Porter won a true grassroots election in 2006, spending about $230,000 total and surprising all the pundits. Carol served two terms in Congress representing NH-01, and during that time worked so hard for us, serving on the following committees:
Committee on Armed Services
Subcommittee on Readiness
Subcommittee on Military Personnel
Committee on Education and Labor
Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
Committee on Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife
Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
She always did her homework, communicated with her constituents, maintained two district offices, and provided excellent constituent service. She was a strong advocate for military families and veterans, and always kept in mind the goal of representing those she called "the rest of us."
But in 2010, with many Democrats staying home and a virulent and highly funded ad campaign, one of the worst in the country, blanketing the local airwaves, Carol lost to Frank Guinta. Frank has still not explained his mysterious bank account and is lying about being cleared of any wrong doing. Frank has become a plague on NH's middle class, voting for the Ryan budget and sending out expensive and deceptive mailers claiming he is "saving Medicare." He also has only one district office, in Manchester, which is a long way for most of his constituents to travel.
But Carol is a very courageous woman, and she is willing to take on Frank again next fall. She has been writing an excellent series of op eds for local papers, explaining the truth about the issues that face the rest of us. Here are links to the articles she has had published so far:
The debt? What debt?
Tell leaders not to scrap our Social Security
Where are the jobs?
What's really behind debt-ceiling politics
Medicare works, leave it alone
Re-electing Carol will not be a walk in the park! There will be a lot of money behind Frank Guinta. He is spending a lot of his time courting various presidential candidates, and doing what Republicans do to get those big donations from the Koch Brothers, etc. We won't be able to match the money, so we will do what we did in 2006 and 2008, mount a grassroots campaign in every town and city in the district. Of course, as we all know, "early money is like yeast," so here's Carol's website!
We here in NH-01 want you to meet our Carol Shea Porter. Everyone should have a representative like this, and we will have her back again in November 2012.