KEENE SENTINEL CANDIDATE INTERVIEW: Jennifer Horn explains why she should serve in Congress

03rd September 2008

By David P. Greisman
Sentinel Staff
Published: Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Jennifer Horn looked at the country, looked to Washington, D.C., and Congress.

If the status quo was going to be upset, the Nashua resident thought, then she had to be involved.

She was going to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We had spent too many years saying ‘Somebody else will do it, somebody else will fix it, somebody else will take care of it,’ ” Horn said Tuesday in a meeting with Sentinel editors.

“I just reject the mentality, that ‘It’s going to be the same old thing, they’re all the same, everybody who goes down there is the same.’

“You don’t accept that in your personal life. You don’t associate with people that are corrupt. You don’t do business with people who have cheated you and then turn around and do business with them again. Why would we allow that standard to apply to Washington? We have to reject it as citizens, as lovers of what our democracy is supposed to be.”

Horn is one of five Republicans seeking to challenge Democratic incumbent Paul W. Hodes for New Hampshire’s 2nd District congressional seat.

The other four: Grant Bosse of Hillsboro, Bob Clegg of Hudson, Alfred L’Eplattenier of Rindge and Jim Steiner of Concord.

A week before the Sept. 9 primary, Horn spoke about how the economy will be the top issue on voters’ minds, delved into her energy policy, suggested the need for lawmakers to reach beyond partisan boundaries and asserted that she was the best local candidate for helping Congress do so.

“I bring the most applicable experience to the table,” Horn said. “I’ve been a small business owner. I worked in health insurance. I’ve raised a family. I understand better than anybody else running for this seat how things like gas prices and the cost of groceries and health insurance and retirement, how those things affect people and have a direct impact on their daily lives.”

Horn, who worked for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York from 1986 to 1990, said people need more choices, not less, when it comes to health insurance.

“A bureaucratic government kind of one-size-fits-all solution cannot work in health care,” Horn said. “There’s no way we can afford what that will become. There are ways to provide health insurance that can make it more affordable.

“You can sell health insurance the way you sell auto insurance, across state lines. Open up the market, allow more competition, rates come down. We can allow small businesses to pool their employee bases so they can buy in bulk rates, so that they can provide it for more people. There are tons of ideas out there. Let’s look at them all.”

When people go to the polls, they will be making their decisions based on financial concerns, Horn said.

“The cost of fuel and how it affects the economy, that’s across the district,” Horn said. “Everywhere we go, people are literally losing their homes and their jobs. And we have a Congress that’s voting for a $3 trillion budget. It is such a massive disconnect that is almost unreal.

“There are things we can do,” she said. “There are ways that Congress can show leadership to bring us toward solutions in these areas, and they consistently choose not to, usually out of partisan party politics.”

Horn suggested eliminating the earmark process, replacing a fraction of retiring federal employees, and instituting “sunset provisions” on federal programs, requiring review before they receive further funding. Stopping spending is the only answer, she said; raising taxes is not an option.

On energy, Horn said drilling for oil is not the sole solution to lowering fuel prices and diminishing American dependence on foreign sources.

“We have to be willing to aggressively pursue alternative energy,” Horn said. “New Hampshire should be leading the nation in this. We have so many possibilities here. Everything has to come to the table.”

That includes nuclear power, she said.

“We look in France, where they provide something like 80 or 85 percent of their energy through their nuclear power,” Horn said. “We look at the United States Navy, for 65 years, using nuclear submarines. It is the cleanest source of energy out there. We know that we can access it and use it in a safe manner.”

But if issues such as energy, the economy and health insurance are to be taken care of, then Congress will need to get past its usual partisan gridlock, Horn said.

“Washington can only work if the representatives are willing to work together,” Horn said. “What a representative is responsible for doing is getting down to the task of solving these problems that we face.

“We cannot do that if we’re going to say that Republican ideas can’t be debated, (that) Democratic ideas are stupid and wrong,” she said.

“We need people in Washington who are so connected to their own communities, who see these problems, who are feeling it, that they’re going to go down there with the motivation to start working together again.”

David Greisman can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or dgreisman@keenesentinel.com

(Article originally published in The Keene Sentinel print edition entitled Horn lays out her platform in race for District 2 seat.)

 
 
David P. Greisman
The Keene Sentinel
dgreisman@keenesentinel.com
(603) 352-1234 x1439