Tuesday
02Oct
Shaheen Starts Out: 2 False Statements & 1 Retraction
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 07:16AM by Marshall Cobleigh
Jeanne Shaheen's campaign is off to a typical shady start. In her announcement speech there are at least two false statements: She claimed that her record as Governor "did it all while still balancing the budget and holding the line on taxes and we want to get back to fiscal accountability"
The facts are that it took 79 governors two hundred years to bring State spending to $1 Billion. In six years as governor Jeanne Shaheen doubled state spending up to a whopping $2 Billion. Is that the type of fiscal accountability she wants to bring to Washington?
As for her claim of a we did it with a balanced budget do you remember when she left office with an estimated deficit of $300 Million. Craig Benson whittled that down before the end of the fiscal year but her claim of leaving the state with a balanced budget is clearly false.
As for her alleged holding the line on taxes remember Jeanne Shaheen imposed the first broad based statewide property tax and fought vigorously for a statewide sales tax. It was the legislature that stopped the state sales tax not Jeanne Shaheen.
On 9/19 Shaheen told the Concord Monitor that she did not regret her 2002 position supporting the Iraq war saying "I think that I represented the position of most of the american people" (she is really saying as usual I took a political poll and thats what the poll said)
One half hour after the interview her press agent called the Monitor and said "Shaheen misheard the question" Later Shaheen herself called the Monitor and said she "regretted her 2002 Iraq question and if I had known what I know now, I would have taken a diferrent position."(That means she has seen a new poll.)
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Reader Comments (8)
Benson did not inherit a $300 million defict. That was a figure projected by a third party group as a deficit over a few years that never came to pass because of revenue growth.
Former governor Shaheen is more qualified to be a United States Senator from New Hampshire. A partial listing includes:
Governor Shaheen was a leader and sponsor of legislation creating electric untility deregulation. New Hampshire went from the second highest electric rates in the U.S. towards free markets and lower prices for consumers and families. Senator Sununu is a member of some powerful committees on Capitol Hill has he ever done anything like this?
Governor Shaheen led the state's first overseas trade mission. A trade mission that resulted in millions of dollars of business, jobs and taxbase expansion for New Hampshire. I don't believe Senator Sununu has ever been on a trade mission or even attempted to create jobs for New Hampshire.
Governor Shaheen and Commissioner George Bald worked countless hours on attempting to improve the market conditions and the future of the Berlin papermills including going to Manhattan to work with the owners of the papermills. Can you imagine Senator Sununu doing something like this? Being a logical engineer, he would delegate it.
The other reality in the race for U.S. senate is what is going to happen on Pennsylvania avenue. New Hampshire needs to have a Senator and Congressional delegation that can get things done with the incoming administration. I think there are a number of signs that are pointing to the next four years being democratic.
Shaheen also fought aggressively against reversing the Court's ruling by a costitutional ammendment, so don't go blaming it on her predecessors.
The Shaheen $3 million deficiet did not materialize because Craig Benson immediately took actions to avoid it. Something that smile, but do nothing governor John Lynch should be doing now rather than ignoring the fact that NH is facing a $21 Million first quarter revenue shortfall.
Jeanne Shaheen's actions as a state senator were largely responsible for increasing NH's electricity cost dramatically and causing the bankruptcy of PSNH and leaving us with an out of state provider.
Jeanne Shaheen did so much for the Berlin papermills that they were recently torn down. Look at the results and forget the political rhetoric
Jeanne Shaheen did so much for the Berlin papermills that they were recently torn down. Look at the results and forget the political rhetoric."
And what actions were these? I recall Senator Shaheen, in addition to sponsoring deregulation legislation (as previously mentioned), filing a "friends of the court brief" in which she invited members of the NH House to sign to end the complex and unneeded litigation between PSNH and the state.
During testimony before my committee, ST&E then PSNH Vice President Gary Long stated on at least three occassions: "we need load." It was my impression that PSNH went into bankruptcy due to a myrad of market, capital and regulatory issues. It is clearly unfair to base this issue on one single factor or policy such as Senator Shaheen. Insofar as an out of state provider acquiring PSNH. In this field I think PSNH being a part of a larger transmission and generation portfolio NU only serves to average down costs for the company and in the long run the consumer. I do think, however, the deregulation legislation could have gone further namely into more innovative rate designs such as the weather adjusted rate mechanism (warm) and the conservation tariff. Both of these rate designs are being used successfully in Oregon and Washington State to lower utility costs and build regional economic development.
Unless you like the 9% approval rating the Democrat majority currently holds?