THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511230548
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NASHUA, N.H. LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
The Republican governors see a bright future for the Republican party.
At the 1995 Republican Governors' Association conference this week, the governors were confident they could consolidate and build on their power base. ``Isn't it great to be a Republican?'' said Michigan Gov. John Engler.
But Sandy Munn of Concord, N.H., would have preferred that they talked about schools. While they're at it, Munn suggested, the governors might look into job creation.
``My job went to the Philippines for 25 cents an hour,'' Munn said of a job she had for 10 years manufacturing microchips. In 1990, faced with impending layoffs, she traded in her $14-an-hour job for an $8-an-hour job soldering circuit boards. Some of her friends, she said, ended up working at McDonald's for $5.50 an hour.
Munn would have felt out of place at the governors' conference, where the herculean struggle between the Republicans and the Democrats for the hearts and minds of the people they govern was front and center.
The hearts and minds of the people seem to be elsewhere.
Steven Duchesnaye, a 25-year-old auto mechanic from Concord, didn't hesitate about what he thought should be on the agenda of the governors and the presidential candidate.
``Balance the budget, keep taxes low as possible and fight crime,'' said Duchesnaye, who, like Munn, never mentioned a political party as he talked about the issues.
The governors did talk a great deal about the importance of a balanced budget, but they talked about it in a different way than the people of New Hampshire did.
The governors cast the budget in terms of a grim battle to the death with the Democrats. They signed a resolution supporting the Republican leaders of Congress and underscored the importance of having a balanced budget in seven years, using Congressional Budget Office numbers.
When Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole spoke to the governors on Monday, he made much of how the Republicans ``didn't blink'' in the negotiations with President Clinton, and how Clinton did. When Newt Gingrich spoke to the governors, he ridiculed Leon Panetta's interpretation of the agreement between the two parties. Panetta, the White House chief of staff, had said the budget would be balanced in ``seven or eight years.''
Most people interviewed in New Hampshire mentioned the importance of a balanced budget. But they talked instead about how to do it fairly, or the dire consequences of not doing it at all.
``Where did we go wrong?'' Munn said. ``We're going downhill, we're going to have to change this, bring jobs back. Otherwise we're going to end up as a Third World country.''
``I know that we do need to make cuts,'' said Monica Laskey-Rigrod, a 29-year-old speech and language associate from Nashua. ``But I don't think it should be done on the backs of the poor.''
Laskey-Rigrod did identify herself as a ``diehard Democrat'' at the outset, but after a few minutes she stopped talking about issues in those terms. What she said about returning power to the states would have gained her applause from the Republican governors - who have made states' right a ``Republican'' issue.
``The federal government isn't chipping in as much as they used to, so they might as well give power back to the states,'' she said. ``The states know what to do. There could be a variety of solutions in different states; maybe one will work and the rest could use it as a model.''
For the people, issues just seemed to be about the issues, not the two major political parties.
In New Hampshire, where Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in the state House and Senate, a number of Democratic mayors were elected and in some communities there was even a repudiation of candidates put forward by conservative taxpayer associations. However, in Nashua, where the conference was held, voters soundly rejected an attempt to repeal a cap on city spending. Those trying to hear a ``message'' from voters are not quite sure what it is they're hearing.
At the conference, Virginia Gov. George Allen said he made a pledge to the people of his state not to raise taxes under any circumstances. In New Hampshire, one of only two states without an income tax or sales tax, it is accepted political wisdom that a candidate can't get elected unless he makes a pledge to veto any broad-based tax.
Such pledges didn't come up in interviews with people in New Hampshire - although the importance of keeping promises did.
``I don't think it's right to promise things to people just to get their vote,'' said Coreen Labrecque, a 34-year-old X-ray technician.
Labrecque is worried about what's going to happen to Medicare and Medicaid. At the conference, Republican governors placed fears like Labrecque's at the feet of Democratic ``scare-tactic politics.''
What has Labrecque scared is that last week she went to check to see whether she was still eligible for fuel assistance this winter. She was - but there might not be money enough for her. And in New Hampshire, winters routinely hit temperatures below zero.
What would she do without fuel assistance? Labrecque said, ``I really don't know.''
In the closing press conference, a reporter asked Gingrich what advice he would give to an elderly couple apparently in straits like Labrecque's. Gingrich chose to lash out at the media for misrepresenting Republican efforts in Washington.
Of the couple, whom presumably Gingrich did not know, he said, ``I suspect that couple will be well-off, but frightened.''
When asked whether government officials, or any party, were in touch with the issues and problems that they had just talked about, Munn, Duchesnaye, Laskey-Rigrod and Labrecque all said no.
``They kind of do their own thing,'' said Duchesnaye. ``There isn't really much that changes. They get in the defensive mode and they don't deal with the issues.''
``Their attitude is `let's mess him up (political opponent), let's get someone else in there,' '' Munn said. ``They'll do anything to mess each other up.'' by CNB