Democratic candidates for first congressional district meet at forum
Issues discussed include criminal justice reform, Medicare, gun control
Issues discussed include criminal justice reform, Medicare, gun control
Issues discussed include criminal justice reform, Medicare, gun control
Voters packed a room at the Portsmouth Public Library to hear from the eight Democratic candidates running to replace Carol Shea-Porter in Congress.
Each candidate was fielded a question which the others could also weigh in on, like criminal justice reform.
“Every dollar we’re spending chasing marijuana is a dollar we could be spending chasing the fat cats on Wall Street,” said candidate Terence O’Rourke.
Greed was a top issue many of the candidates brought up, responding to a question about Medicare.
“We’ve got to take the money out of the system and shut down the pharmaceutical companies who are getting in the way of all the reforms that we want to have,” said candidate and state Rep. Mark MacKenzie.
“It is unacceptable that people are paying extremely high copayments, deductibles and premiums where basically they’re deciding they don’t even want to go to the doctor,” said candidate Levi Sanders.
All candidates discussed gun control and called for bans on assault-style weapons.
“I can tell you with absolute certainty the weapons of war that we used, that our teams used in Iraq do not belong on the streets of Manchester or anywhere in the United States,” said candidate Maura Sullivan.
“There are 4 to 9 million AR-15’s out there. We don’t know by a factor of five million how many we’ve even got,” said candidate Deaglan McEachern.
“When my wife and I got married 43 years ago, we had to wait seven days for the marriage license,” said candidate Lincoln Soldati. “So how about a 72-hour waiting period?”
I would implement a 48-hour waiting period, but I’m also concerned that the C.D.C. has not been able to study this,” said candidate and state Rep. Mindi Messmer.
“The fact that we have so many dedicated, articulate students, not just in Florida but here in New Hampshire, they’re keeping this issue in the public conscience in a way that it’s not going to fade into the background,” said candidate and Executive Councilor Chris Pappas.
The primary will be on September 11. All the candidates said whichever Democrat wins the primary, they will fully support them to beat the Republican candidate in the November election.