Republican candidates talk energy costs, immigration at annual Reagan-Coolidge BBQ

Aug. 29—With the state primary looming and voters set to decide who forges ahead as the final N.H. and U.S. House and Senate candidates, Cheshire County Republican community members invited some of their party's state candidates for an annual barbecue luncheon Sunday.

The Cheshire County Republican Committee welcomed eight congressional hopefuls to Keene's Wheelock Park for its annual Reagan-Coolidge BBQ. For a few of those running, it was a return to the park after having spoken at a similar event in July hosted by the Keene City Republican Committee with a stronger focus on local candidates.

Candidates presented short addresses to an audience at the Horseshoe Pavilion after an invocation was given just after 1 p.m. following fraternizing and food. Stephen Stepanek, chair of the N.H. Republican State Committee, also preceded the candidates and gave a short welcome.

"2020 was the most important election in our time," Stepanek said. "We won in New Hampshire but we lost nationally, and we're paying the results — this country is being destroyed by the Democrats. 2022 is the second most important election because we've got to stop the destruction of this country."

First up after Stepanek was gubernatorial candidate Thad Riley, a former Brentwood School Board member in School Administrative Unit 16 running against incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu. Riley alleged kindergarten classes in public schools are being taught about critical race theory and sexual identities, expressing interest in countering them with conservative policy.

"My neighbor called me over to talk to his family after his kindergarten son came home crying because he couldn't get the whiteness off his skin," Riley told listeners. "I hear these stories again and again about bizarre sexual identity conversations. We will stop the sliding scores, we will get political ideologues trying to indoctrinate our kids out of our schools and we'll get to work on day one."

Three candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the state's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House were next. The candidate chosen by voters in the primary will run against incumbent Rep. Annie Kuster, D-Concord, in November.

Bob Burns, a businessman and former Hillsborough County treasurer, pitched himself as "the only person who supported [Donald Trump] in 2016 and committed to supporting him in the future." He targeted the U.S. Senate's "CHIPS Plus" bill signed into law by President Joe Biden on Aug. 2.

The bill designates $39 billion in federal monies to serve as direct financial assistance for companies to "build, expand or modernize" domestic semiconductor facilities, according to the National Small Business Association. $11 billion is appropriated for chip manufacturing research and $2 billion aims to increase applications of national defense technology.

"My plan to bring [production] back was to require that weapons and electronics the government's buying are produced in the United States," Burns said. "The Democrats' plan was to just give millionaire and billionaire companies lots of money with the kind of promise in the future they would bring that manufacturing back."

Lily Tang Williams, co-chair of the N.H. Asian American Coalition and supervisor of the checklist in Weare, is among Burns' contenders. She delivered a fiery account of her life from fleeing China's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and becoming a small business owner after starting life in the states with $100 to her name.

"I've done what I could to educate the youth in the past five years about the horrors of communism and socialism," she said. "I cannot wait to get into Congress to have a big camera in front of my face to debate 100 members of the Progressive Caucus including [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. I'm used to being outnumbered."

Third of the 2nd Congressional District candidates for the U.S. House is Keene Mayor George Hansel, who expressed to the crowd that if Burns is chosen as the nominee "you will lose" and deemed himself "the only one in this race who can win." Hansel cited his overwhelming number of votes in last year's Keene mayoral race as evidence.

"I'm sick and tired of losing, sick and tired of losing and I'm not going to lose this seat," Hansel said. "If we [Republicans] don't win this election in November, we get two more years of Ann Kuster."

Hansel continued his criticism of Kuster in saying he "[hasn't] met one person" in the 2nd Congressional District who favors her and said he wants to be a "better advocate" for voters. He emphasized energy prices as an area in which he said Kuster hasn't helped constituents.

"This is a rural district where people hurt when they have to pay $2,000 more for the heating bill than they did last year; I've been hearing that on the campaign trail, too," he said. "Thank you very much Ann Kuster, you sit on the Energy Committee and you're not doing anything to address it."

U.S. Senate candidates, meanwhile, are looking to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan this fall. Edmond Laplante, a Richmond auto mechanic, spoke to the crowd at Wheelock Park first, saying that if he were elected, he'd push to use foreign aid funds supporting Ukraine and Taiwan for domestic purposes instead.

"Let's use this money for the border patrol, our military, for God's sakes," he said. "With Ukraine, I thought to myself it reminds me of the Cuban Missile Crisis."

Laplante said he doesn't like Russian President Vladimir Putin but "understand[s]" why the leader initiated the war in Ukraine as NATO expressed interest in the country's ports. The Senate candidate said he'd rather see $40 billion allocated to national defense against Chinese and Russian weapons production.

Competing candidate Kevin Smith, town manager of Londonderry, mirrored Hansel in mocking Hassan, referring to her as "Maggie Hasn't." He issued a list of grievances against her on issues he says the incumbent senator isn't resolving. Smith said Hassan's ideas like a gas tax and getting rid of the filibuster aren't solutions.

"Maggie hasn't done anything to try to lower gas prices ..., she hasn't done anything to help secure our border ..., she hasn't done anything about election integrity ..., she hasn't done anything about parental rights and education," Smith said, repeating points he made during a May stop in Keene.

He said in managing Londonderry, he's grown the town's tax value by $2.2 billion while maintaining a historically low municipal tax rate, a claim supported by reporting from WMUR.

"Not only am I a conservative fixer, but I'm a conservative fighter as well, and more than ever, we need a new generation of conservative fighters who are going to Washington and stopping this socialist agenda of Joe Biden and Maggie Hassan," Smith said.

Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, followed and defended some of the stances he has taken. Bolduc has called for repeal of the 17th Amendment which allows voters to cast votes directly for U.S. senators rather than state legislatures voting for senators, per reporting from the New York Times.

Bolduc fired back at recent criticism of him during Londonderry's Old Home Day parade where a vehicle supporting his campaign displayed a Confederate battle flag.

"People ... try to accuse me of being an extremist by a flag in a parade I didn't even have any responsibility for," he said. "But when I saw in Maggie Hassan's parade there were children my grandchildren's age carrying signs that said 'abortion on demand,' that is sickening, and it's wrong."

He also expressed anger at electric and heating bill prices, which he said have continued to increase and could pose problems for older and child residents of homes.

Closing the list of candidate speeches was Chuck Morse, president of the N.H. State Senate, who aims to move up to the U.S. Senate and take Hassan's seat. He sold himself to the audience as a pro-life, tax-cutting supporter of Donald Trump with interests in building more of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and reducing energy prices.

"Let's get back to budgeting; let's get back to not borrowing and spending," Morse said. "Republicans are even screwing up in Washington and we as Republicans need to get there and get the job done."

Tim Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @timmnail.