Bad Week for Guinta?

For Immediate Release: Friday, September 04, 2009

Contact: Zandra Rice Hawkins, 603-892-2150

Concord, NH – It’s been a tough week for CD 1 Republican candidate Frank Guinta. Let’s review:

Shea-Porter Trumps Guinta on Town Halls

Frank Guinta announces he’ll host a health care forum – and Representative Carol Shea-Porter holds two Health Care Town Halls, 2 days before Guinta’s event.

Supporter Caught In Lie

Frank Guinta’s new best friend – the man who accused Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter of having him thrown out of a health care town hall for trying to ask a question – is caught in a lie.

A police officer involved with Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter’s highly publicized town hall meeting last weekend released a statement yesterday saying the man removed from the event was repeatedly warned and that Shea-Porter had nothing to do with him being removed.

Unfortunately for Frank Guinta, he had already allowed Mr. Carl Tomanelli to dominate his own forum for a full seven minutes, and then used the story to make a call for “civil dialogue” and endeared himself to Mr. Tomanelli by saying “First of all, let me tell you that you are invited to any town hall meeting I have.” (Video, 7:27)

Pet Project Deemed Illegal – Take 1

The proposed municipal spending caps, or “tax cap gimmicks”, being touted by the NH Advantage Coalition and former honorary chairman Frank Guinta are under fire in the courts for being … illegal.

The NH Advantage Coalition now has court battles in three towns over the legality of the group’s prime project. Following a court ruling in Concord earlier this spring which rejected the legality of the tax cap gimmick, the towns of Somersworth, Claremont and Mayor Guinta’s own Manchester are taking it to court. During a recent court hearing, Frank Guinta sided with special interests against his own city solicitor.

Pet Project Deemed Illegal – Take 2

Frank Guinta’s politics again got in the way of sound policy at a tax cap gimmick-related meeting in Manchester this past Wednesday, September 2nd. In response to a question about it, Frank Guinta told residents that if the tax cap gimmick passed, there would be no detrimental impact on the airport’s bond rating, and that no one in the city’s finance office or other departments had flagged any concerns over bonds or bond ratings.

But on NHPR that very morning, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport Director Mark Brewer stated that the airport was concerned about the impact on the bond rating – and that they had alerted the city. [NHPR, 9/2/09]

Question from caller Josiette, Manchester:
“There is a proposed issue on the Manchester ballot, a tax cap gimmick, that would limit the city’s economic development to the CPI. With the airport as a city department, I’m wondering if you can share with us how this tax cap gimmick, if it passes, might affect the economic development opportunities of the airport, if there are other airports that are subject to these types of limits, and how it might affect the airport’s ability to secure future bonds and its current bond rating?”

Response from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport Director Mark Brewer:
“It is a concern for us. As I indicated earlier, we are a self-sufficient entity. Depending on the bonds that we sell and the provisions of that bond sale, there is a very real potential that our costs, when the bond payments hit, will grow greater than the cost of living, which is what the tax or spending cap would propose. So we do have a concern and our financial advisors do have a concern. And that has been expressed to the city.”

Guinta Doesn’t Know How Many People in New Hampshire are Uninsured

Frank Guinta had a firm grasp of Republican talking points at his “health care forum” on Monday – right down to not really understanding the problem he is talking about.

Fosters, 9.1.09:
One of the questions Guinta did get came from Joan Jacobs, a Portsmouth Democrat who used to work for the federal government as a health care policy analyst. She wanted his take on helping small businesses afford health care, to which he said they should be able to pool resources in order to maximize buying power.

She also asked him how many people were uninsured in the state. He didn’t answer that one, which a video camera-toting operative from Granite State Progress, a Democratic-leaning media strategies outfit, shouted aloud.

Then Jacobs piped up: “Mayor, you don’t know how many people are uninsured?”

The crowd booed her. Guinta said he’d “be happy to get back” to her.

There are currently 143,000 people in the Granite State without health insurance, Jacobs said after the event.

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“Just like Kelly Ayotte, Frank Guinta is not ready for prime time,” said Zandra Rice Hawkins, director of Granite State Progress. “These half-truths and easy affiliations are earning him the nickname Jersey Frank. Open and honest dialogue is the New Hampshire way and he would do well to remember that.”

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