Humphrey’s gambling blast enlivens debate

By By Dave Levinthal Eagle-Tribune Writer As appeared in the 1/24/02 Eagle-Tribune

“The way he brought up his company from almost nothing, that’s great and makes him seem like he’s a really good businessman.”

DERRY — They clashed over property taxes, income taxes and gambling expansion.

On the issue of education funding, they each presented starkly contrasting solutions.

Former U.S. Sen. and Republican gubernatorial candidate Gordon Humphrey addresses a crowd at the Marion Gerrish Center yesterday in Derry. Five of the seven candidates to replace Gov. Jeanne Shaheen attended the event. More on gambling on Page 2. But the first public forum featuring both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates drew promises from them that these core New Hampshire issues, not character assassinations, would drive their campaigns.

“There is nothing else to run on than issues,” said Democratic state Sen. Mark Fernald, who was joined at the informal event by fellow candidate and Democrat Jim Normand, a former executive councilor; Republican businessman Craig Benson; former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey; and former state Sen. Bruce Keough.

The two other gubernatorial candidates, Beverly Hollingworth, a Democratic state senator from Hampton, and David Corbin, a former Republican state representative from Stratham, did not attend the forum at the Marion Gerrish Center.

New Hampshire’s popular Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen is not expected to run for re-election, but is expected to make a bid for a U.S. Senate race.

The audience of more than 50 people, primarily senior citizens and members of the event sponsor, the American Association of Retired Persons, peppered the candidates with questions both general and provincial during the two-hour-long forum.

On the state’s Supreme Court-mandated responsibility to “adequately” fund public education, the three Republicans said thrift and better budget planning is the answer, while Fernald advocated an income tax and Normand left all funding options open, especially gambling expansion.

He is the only gubernatorial candidate who, to any degree, supports the idea.

Republican businessman and gubernatorial candidate Craig Benson makes a point during the forum yesterday. The Supreme Court itself became a target, when Benson and Humphrey called for the review of and term limits on the state’s often embattled judges and justices, while Keough only wants a review process.

Fernald and Normand defended the court’s lifetime appointments as “200 years of constitutional history” and a key to judicial independence.

“If they have to go back and answer to politicians,” Fernald told the crowd, “then they lose their independence.”

On creating a long-awaited Exit 4A in Derry along Interstate 93, the responses ranged from Normand’s “Derry doesn’t get enough respect in the state” to Humphrey’s “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Benson called for alternative transportation in the I-93 corridor, such as railroads.

And when one audience member inquired about their positions on gun control, all five candidates proudly announced their support for rights guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Keough boasted of his concealed weapons permit, Humphrey of his National Rifle Association membership and Normand of his hunting license.

Fernald, while saying he supports gun rights, also called for laws that “keep guns out of the hands of criminals, young teens and the mentally unstable.” That’s just common sense, he said.

Amid a menu of cookies and coffee, yesterday’s event was filled with props and placations, too.

Humphrey flashed giant photographs of his family and spoke often of his 90-year-old mother, while Fernald explained with colorful graphics how New Hampshire citizens pay far more in property taxes than they do any other tax.

The candidates, who will face their party opponents in September primaries, provided for some predictably colorful moments, too.

When Humphrey, for example, spoke of his plan to cap property tax rates at 10 percent, he quickly segued into a slam of the gambling industry — an echo of statements he made last week in Concord.

“I’m not going to back down,” Humphrey said. Gambling is “a sleazy, scummy business.”

Afterward, Jim Bramante, a horse dentist from Derry who supports Normand, confronted Humphrey over his anti-gambling statements. The exchange lasted but a minute, but Bramante said he made his point.

“He has to look at himself in the mirror,” Bramante said. “The people who run the track, the people who work at the track, are hard-working people. And they’re extremely offended.”

For Jim Bilotta of Derry, all the candidates made impressive pitches, and all deserve due consideration from voters.

“But Craig Benson seems to speak most from the heart,” Bilotta said. “The way he brought up his company from almost nothing, that’s great and makes him seem like he’s a really good businessman.”

Craig makes it official with Executive Councilors Peter Spalding, Ruth Griffin and former Manchester Mayor Emile Beaulieu