Kuster tells Telegraph editors Garcia looking out for the tea party
HUDSON U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., continues to try to differentiate herself from relative newcomer Marilinda Garcia and said the biggest difference between the two is that she was born bipartisan.
Kuster spoke with The Telegraph editorial board last week on a wide range of topics including congressional gridlock and the fight against ISIL, but stuck to the refrain that a vote for Garcia, a Republican state representative from Salem, is a vote for an extreme tea-party agenda. ... Subscribe or log in to read more
HUDSON U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., continues to try to differentiate herself from relative newcomer Marilinda Garcia and said the biggest difference between the two is that she was born bipartisan.
Kuster spoke with The Telegraph editorial board last week on a wide range of topics including congressional gridlock and the fight against ISIL, but stuck to the refrain that a vote for Garcia, a Republican state representative from Salem, is a vote for an extreme tea-party agenda.
My opponent is just right down the line tea party playbook, Kuster said. The tea party is whats rocking the boat down there.
Kuster said that, as a Democrat raised in a politically active Republican family, she is used to working with political opponents. She pointed to several efforts in her first term, including a bipartisan group of freshman representatives called United Solutions that shes a member of, and a tax bill designed to bring corporate profits back to America the group is backing. Another bill around sexual assault in the military she co-sponsored with a Republican representative.
Its not the only the best way to get things done. Right now its the only way to get things done, Kuster said.
She also addressed television ads that criticize her for voting with the Democratic party 95 percent of the time. She said the bulk of those votes many having to do with womans rights or the environment boiled down to being referendums on party ideals, she said. In votes that accomplished actual laws, the reauthorization of the Farm Bill, for instance, Kuster said she has voted often with House Speaker John Boehner and against her party.
Every step of the way that I can fix something, that is going to be a nonpartisan vote for me, she said. If you look back at the big bills that passed, that something actually happened in the most dysfunctional Congress ever, I voted with the speaker and I voted to get it done.
Kuster also highlighted her outreach efforts to voters in the state, particularly in Nashua, since she took office in 2012. She said shes been in Nashua more than 24 times in the past 18 months and regularly hosts town-hall meetings via phone that are listened to by 5,000-9,000 people.
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Kuster tells Telegraph editors Garcia looking out for the tea party