NH-1 Republican Debate Challenge

Mayor Frank Guinta
Town Hall
City of Manchester
One City Hall Plaza
Manchester, NH 03101

May 19, 2009

Dear Frank,

First let me welcome you to the race for the Republican nomination for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional. It can only help the party and the state to have a vigorous contest for the seat. As the old saying goes, “you are only as good as your competition forces you to be.”

But now that the announcement hoopla has died down, I would like to make a suggestion in this public letter. I would like to propose that over the next few months we set up a regularly scheduled series of meetings at the various county GOP gatherings and other open public forums to discuss the leading issues that will be on the national agenda. At its best, politics is fundamentally about issues and ideas. I think we owe it to both our party members and the general electorate to put in front of them where we stand on the issues of the day.

From my perspective, the issues that will face the nation over the next five years are quite clear. They will certainly include the following: 1) the whole set of issues surrounding job creation including economics, finance, trade policy; 2) given the fact that the current financial crisis started in the banking sector, banking and bank regulation should be discussed; 3) energy policy will undoubtedly continue to be a core issue in the future as energy touches virtually every other set of issues; 4) health care is an important core issue both because it touches economic competitiveness of the country but also because of the aging American population; 5) the same can be said about education policy. In this hyper competitive age, education will play a central role in our national economic well being; 6) last, but certainly not least, we need to discuss foreign policy. We are still engaged in two wars abroad and much of our future will be influenced by what happens abroad, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. I am certainly open to discussing any other issues.

I am sure you will agree with me that we owe it to the New Hampshire electorate to discuss these issues openly and in depth. It would be a real pity if this campaign ended up like so many in the past, being just about superficial platitudes and sound bites. Let’s help educate the electorate on the issues and force our Democratic opponent to do the same. We will all be far better off for it.

                            All the Best,

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Note from Skip:  Bob has been contributing to the ‘Grok for a while now; upon his request, we have posted this challenge as we have always been of the mind that more speech is better than less!  Thus, we extend the opportunity to both Mayor Guinta and Mr. Bestani to do a "blog debate" here at the ‘Grok.  We are also willing to have that debate on our radio show, Meet The New Press.  Just let us know the particulars – we’ll make sure it is interesting!

In fact, Mayor Guinta has been on the show a number of times already.  This Saturday, starting at 10am, Mr. Bestani will be on for an interview and also be co-hosting afterwards for the remainder of the show.  Call in at 603-527-1490 or email us during the show. 

The ‘Grok also extends the opportunity and the debate challenge invitation to ANY one (Republican OR Democrat) who has filed (or thinking of doing so) in either NH Congressional District or for the Senate seat to post their ideas / stances here at the ‘Grok.  We would also be very happy to have you in the studio to yak with us – we did so last election cycle with all of the Republican Congressional candidates (for some reason, the Democrats declined…we just don’t understand why not!) and we would love to do it again!

Doug, we’re going to have to come up with a new list of questions!

Stay tuned folks – the endless campaign has revved up again!