The Middle Class gives Carol Shea-Porter an A+ for her voting record.
The non-partisan Drum Major Institute for Public Policy diligently holds Congress accountable by analyzing legislation that impacts middle class Americans. They sent Carol Shea-Porter to the head of the class with an impressive A+ Report Card. "Working for the Rest of Us" is more than a campaign motto for Carol -- it is her commitment and work ethic every day as our Congresswoman. Check out her Report Card for yourself.
Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter
Carol Shea-Porter is the first woman elected to national office in the history of the state of New Hampshire. Carol's large family has deep roots in New Hampshire, going back many generations, and she now resides in Rochester. Carol graduated from public high school in Durham, New Hampshire and then worked her way through the University of New Hampshire, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Social Services and later a Master of Arts in Public Administration.
Carol married Gene Porter, an Army officer stationed at an Army medical center in Colorado during the Vietnam era. After her husband left the service, they moved to New Orleans and then to the Washington, DC area where she continued her career as a social worker and teacher. She founded and directed a program to provide services to senior citizens, taught political science at a community college, and also taught politics and American history to retired federal employees.
Carol decided that the voice of hard working families needed to be heard in Washington. The voters of New Hampshire listened to her pledge to “represent the other 99% of us” and built a district-wide grass roots network that elected New Hampshire’s first Congresswoman, astonishing state and national pundits.
Carol is in her first bid for re-election. We all need to work hard to send her back to Congress where she can continue to represent regular New Hampshire people. She has a clear record of supporting the veterans and middle class by voting to:
Suport the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5749), to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to workers who have exhausted their currently-mandated 26 weeks. The money is paid from the unemployment insurance trust fund and will not raise taxes or add to the current federal deficit.
Uphold our Constitution and voted against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) last month. For more details on the vote click here.
Carol has sponsored legislation to help home health care workers, to protect the Upward Bound program, and to provide increased funding for Pell Grants (college grants for very low income students).
She co-sponsored bills to restore habeas corpus, and to provide better health care for children, seniors, soldiers and veterans. She has voted on legislation that was blocked for years by the Republican leadership such as increasing the minimum wage and investing in renewable energy. With $4.00 per gallon gas at the pump and the cost of home heating oil skyrocketing you can be sure that Carol will vote with you and mind and not the big oil companies.
To help Carol get re-elected go to www.sheaporter.com .
This is what New Hampshire people are saying about Carol:
Op-Ed Manchester Union Leader
August 8, 2008
Bill Duncan: Carol Shea-Porter is the veterans' best friend in the 1st District
I'm a Vietnam veteran, Annapolis graduate and proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but I disagree with almost everything in Paul Chevalier's July 23 column supporting Jeb Bradley.
If Chevalier and other past VFW officers want to support someone who aligns with their views, that's fair enough. But to completely misrepresent Jeb Bradley and Rep. Shea-Porter's records and then give the impression that it's a VFW endorsement -- all in one essay -- is just too much.
To take just one example, Chevalier asserts that Jeb Bradley helped "fix" the problem created when retired military personnel could not concurrently receive earned retirement pay and disability compensation for injuries that occurred as a result of service. Chevalier's incorrect assertion is a cruel joke on any disabled retired service member. This "concurrency problem" is not fixed. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is co-sponsoring important legislation to do that, but it will be a long, hard fight against solid Republican opposition.
And that's just the beginning. Chevalier covers all the same misrepresentations Bradley's speeches do, and even does it in the same order. Jeb and his friends employ the practiced fabrications on which he and George W. Bush have based their campaigns -- that a vote against President Bush's misguided Iraq war is a vote against the troops. This is an unfortunate and twisted assertion. Many people feel that support for the troops actually means voting to bring them home safely and treat them right when they get here. That's what Shea-Porter has done, against consistent Republican opposition, and her record shows it.
Shea-Porter is married to a veteran and her father served in World War II. That's why, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she was an original co-sponsor and strong supporter of the new G.I. Bill, and she was an original co-sponsor of a bill to guarantee that troops get at least as much time at home as the length of their last tour overseas. That's why she has introduced a bill to restore the Manchester Veterans Administration hospital to the full-service capabilities it used to have.
It doesn't make sense to assert that Rep. Shea-Porter doesn't support the troops. Actually, veterans of all eras throughout the district do know that New Hampshire veterans gained the best ally they've ever had in the U.S. House of Representatives when they put Jeb Bradley out and elected Carol Shea-Porter.
Ted Maltzie of Gilmanton certainly knows it. He spent 25 years suffering from a service-related knee injury he received as an Army Spec. 4 on an attack helicopter in the early 1980s. His knee deteriorated to the point that the pain was so great he could not leave the house, but the day he arrived at the hospital to get a new knee, the VA told him they would not give it to him. He was too young. Rep. Shea-Porter's office got involved and sent him to Concord Hospital for a new knee, courtesy of the VA. Ted says, "Congresswoman Shea-Porter gave me my life back."
And Ron Lyon of Dover knows it. He went to Vietnam as a first lieutenant nurse in the "doctors' draft" of 1967. By the mid-1970s, he'd been diagnosed with diabetes from Agent Orange exposure. Twenty years later, he asked the doctor to amputate his right leg to end the unbelievable pain, and he'll lose the other leg soon. When he finally sought disability compensation, the VA said no. They said his diabetes was a pre-existing condition.
A friend of Lyon told Rep. Shea-Porter's office about it, and three months later, Ron received his first disability check. Ron says, with wonder in his voice, "I'm a lifelong Republican, but I'm sure going to vote for Carol Shea-Porter this year. When it comes to constituent services, she's on a whole different level."
It's ironic that Jeb Bradley, who beat the draft with a college deferment and gets a 20 percent rating from the Disabled Veterans of America, would be running for Congress as "the man from the VFW." We need to send Carol Shea-Porter back to Congress to work for veterans.
Bill Duncan of New Castle is a co-chairman of Veterans and Military Families for Carol Shea-Porter. His opinions, as expressed above, are shared by Lew Henry of Lee, a wounded Vietnam vet and quartermaster of the VFW in Lee; Terence O'Rourke of Portsmouth, a former captain, Army Field Artillery, and Iraq vet; Robert Hannan of Dover, a retired Air Force captain; Lionel Ingram of Exeter, a retired Army colonel and Vietnam vet; William Whitman of Manchester, a decorated Vietnam infantryman and vice-commander of American Legion Post 2 in Manchester.
Letters to the Editor - Foster's Daily Democrat
July 24
Shea-Porter cares about vets
To the editor: As an amputee, I attend a support group at New England Brace Co. once a month. A few months ago, a Vietnam vet, who has diabetes lost a leg several years ago, was grousing about the Veteran's Administration.
He had gone to see Senators Gregg and Sununu about getting disability compensation. Based on their '"efforts" he was turned down and his appeal was denied. He never heard from either Gregg or Sununu again. He talked briefly to Jeb Bradley at a campaign event, but Jeb showed no interest. Ron complained that all politicians were no good.
I wrote an e-mail to Carol Shea-Porter about him and he received a call from Carol Shea-Porter's office the next day. At today's support group meeting (July 16, 2008) Ron said that he had received his first monthly check from the VA and it had taken less than a month after his data had been submitted to Shea-Porter's office.
He asked me to get him a Carol Shea-Porter Tee shirt and he said he will support her this November. He used to be a straight-ticket Republican.
Does Carol care about the vets? Ubetcha!
Hiram Connell
Somersworth
Article Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Shea-Porter is working on a solution
To the editor: New Hampshire residents are worrying about the impact of $4 a gallon gasoline and rising heating oil costs on their already tight household budgets. This impending emergency cries out for a serious and practical solution that will bring relief to the beleaguered middle class.
Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter is working on such a solution. She is co-sponsoring legislation that would force oil companies to drill for oil on the land they already lease from the federal government or pay fees based on the period of time the leases go unused. The oil companies, which are reaping record profits, currently lease 68 million acres where they produce nothing. Under the bill, H.R. 6251 (the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act), fees would rise each year a company holds a lease but does not use it to find new sources of energy. Revenue raised from the fees would be invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
In addition, a portion of the funds would also be directed to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). More than 30,000 New Hampshire families depend on LIHEAP to help with their home heating needs. Congresswoman Shea-Porter is working to strengthen LIHEAP on other fronts as well — for example, by mandating increased funding in future economic stimulus packages.
Carol Shea-Porter is keeping her campaign promise to work for "the rest of us." Let's work to send her back to Congress so she can keep doing just that.
John Jacobs
Portsmouth
Make the oil companies use it or lose it
To the editor: Pain at the pump? Just wait until we receive our heating bills this winter. The people of New Hampshire will continue to be victims of poor decision-making and deception by the Bush Administration.
The Republican Party would like to blame our Democratic Congress for skyrocketing oil and gas prices. Of course we all know that President Bush's war and the further destabilization of the Middle East have played a significant role.
The Republican Party would like to blame Carol Shea-Porter and other Democrats in Congress — those who oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore in ecologically sensitive areas — for our high gas and oil prices. Not so fast. Did you know that the oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of land already leased for drilling which is currently not being tapped?
Few people realize that this latest ploy by the Bush Administration to allow oil companies to drill in environmentally sensitive areas is a last attempt by the oil companies at a land-grab before their two oil men — Bush and Cheney — leave office. Keep in mind that experts predict that even if we were to begin drilling in these environmentally sensitive areas, gas and oil prices would not be impacted until 2030.
Last month, our congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter, co-sponsored the "Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act." This legislation requires oil companies to begin drilling on the land they currently lease or face stiff penalties. The oil companies must "use it or lose it." By drilling on land already leased, the oil companies will be able to provide some much needed relief at the pump.
As for this winter's heating bills, Congresswoman Shea-Porter is looking out for "the rest of us" just as she promised. She recently sent a letter to House Leaders urging that $3 billion in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program be included in any future economic stimulus package. "Hard-working Americans should not have to choose between putting food on the table and heating their homes."
Carol Shea-Porter is doing just what she promised — looking out for you and me.
Beth Olshansky
Durham