6/22/2010

Ashooh: Congress is out of touch

Foster's Daily Democrat Editorial

It's not with great frequency that a congressional candidate can boast of such mentors as former U.S. Sens. Warren Rudman and Gordon Humphrey. But GOP hopeful for the U.S. House of Representatives Rich Ashooh can ... and proudly does so.

After spending more than six years in Washington working on the staffs of the two senators, Ashooh returned to New Hampshire where he rejoined the business world working for BAE Systems, then known as Sanders, and today the state's largest private employer.

Now Ashooh wants to return to Washington, but this time as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the First Congressional District.

During an editorial board meeting at Foster's Daily Democrat last week, Ashooh laid out the premise for his campaign.

The father of five sees the country returning to the same problems Rudman and Humphrey fought in the late 1980s and early 1990s — deficit spending. Only this time it is worse because of the structural deficit built into entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Like his mentors, Ashooh wants to do battle. He sees this as a natural extension of his history of volunteerism that dates back to fourth grade when he campaigned for Dave Banks for Congress. In later years that desire to be involved extended to stints on the board of trustees for the University System of New Hampshire and for Franklin Pierce University. He also served as chairman of the Christa McAuliffe-Alan Shepard Discovery Center Commission.

In Washington, Ashooh sees job number 1 as peeling back the deficit, to which jobs and prosperity are tied.

To that end, Ashooh supports a spending freeze to "stop the bleeding," reducing the size of a "bloated" government and addressing the structural deficits of Social Security and Medicare.

With regards to the latter, Ashooh notes the recently passed health care bill adds greatly to the deficit problem and should be repealed.

But, adds Ashooh, his campaign is not about repealing ObamaCare. It is about changing the way Washington does business and better serving voters.

Ashooh correctly believes Congress is in systematic need of repair. Chairmanships based on seniority and pensions that encourage long stays in the legislature lead to congressmen and women who are out of touch with the voters back home.

For his part, Ashooh has no plans to pick up his family and move to D.C. should he win the primary, then the fall election. He wants to live in New Hampshire and stay connected to New Hampshire.

Another aspect of Ashooh that makes his candidacy attractive is his background in manufacturing. Unlike many in Congress and on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Ashooh believes that the country can again foster manufacturing jobs. But in order to do that, business and government need a more cooperative relationship.

While Ashooh sees the need for strong regulation, a point made by the oil spill in the Gulf, he sees other areas where the government needs to get out of the way.

For example, he doesn't believe the government should be anointing any particular form of alternative energy. Ashooh says the entrepreneurial nature of free enterprise will determine what energy source or sources will heat and light homes in the future.

In this regard he warns of onerous tax consequences of the current cap and trade energy debate on job creation.

Like other GOP primary candidates who have sat down with Foster's Daily Democrat editors, Ashooh has a lot to offer. Voters will need to pay close attention before casting primary ballots this fall given the quality of the Republican field looking to unseat U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.