GOP's Horn faults Hodes on donations

Published: Friday, October 10, 2008

GOP's Horn faults Hodes on donations

By KEVIN LANDRIGAN Staff Writer
klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com

CONCORD – Two years ago, Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hodes attacked Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Bass for taking six-figure campaign donations from big energy and big business while sitting on the House Commerce Committee that regulates both.

Republican challenger Jennifer Horn, of Nashua, tried to turn the tables Thursday, accusing Hodes, the first-term congressman, of "looking the other way'' on financial regulation while taking $141,448 from banking, insurance and real estate entities as a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

"We are in this economic mess because Paul Hodes and his party looked the other way and took campaign donations from the very companies he was supposed to look after,'' Horn said.

The pot of campaign cash Horn points to with derision represents 8 percent of the $1.6 million Hodes has raised in this campaign through Aug. 20, according to Federal Election Commission records.The former Telegraph columnist and radio talk-show host accused Hodes of hiding in the shadows while Congress debated the $700 billion Wall Street buyout and didn't announce his opposition until after the House voted last week.

"Paul Hodes is not the same person in Washington as he was when he campaigned in 2006,'' Horn said. "In 2006, Paul Hodes said he would bring a backbone to Washington. When he got there, he voted with his party 98 percent of the time. That's not leadership, and it's sure not a backbone.''

Meanwhile, Horn got financial support from the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee that is bankrolling a new, $90,000 buy on WMUR TV with an ad in which Horn accuses Hodes of doing little while taking "money from the mortgage and banking industry.''

The RCCC stake is a big lift for a first-time candidate running in a 2nd District race that handicappers say strongly favors a Hodes re-election victory Nov. 4.

Hodes campaign spokesman Mark Bergman said the first-term congressman hosted roundtables across the state about access to financing and, in 2007, voted in favor of ending predatory lending practices.

He opposed the bailout and favored a "bottoms-up'' approach such as giving to banks net worth certificates as was done during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, Bergman added.

Horn told reporters "anybody paying attention'' knew the subprime mortgage lending excesses would wreak havoc in the economy. But the GOP candidate's own 10-point plan, "Moving America Forward,'' makes no reference to it.

Horn said the fundamental problem facing the economy has been wasteful federal spending and earmarks, and her plan calls for both to change along with a line-item veto for the president and a balanced budget amendment to the federal Constitution. "I would disagree the crisis wasn't mentioned. I would assert that we did address it,'' Horn added.