IN THE TWO NEW Hampshire congressional races, voters are hearing echoes of the same issues that divide George W. Bush and Al Gore: how to protect patients' rights, provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors, ensure the future of both Medicare and Social Security, and split any future budget surpluses between tax cuts and government initiatives.
The Democratic challengers favor solutions that rely more on government or government programs like Medicare, while the Republican incumbents lean toward private-sector approaches. The races will be a barometer of how far New Hampshire has moved from its historic preference for small government.
Since 1918, the 2d Congressional District in the western part of the state has been represented by a Democrat for just four years.
But Barney Brannen, the former school board chairman of Lyme, makes a persuasive case for the district to send another Democrat to Washington in place of the three-term Republican, Charles Bass. In his direct, let's-get-it-done style, Brannen favors adding an optional prescription drug benefit to the basic Medicare plan as the simplest way to relieve seniors of some of the crushing costs of their medicine.
To maintain Social Security benefits, Brannen would use general fund surplus money and would favor incentives for retirement investments that don't drain off current Social Security revenues. He supports targeted tax cuts, not the trillion-dollar one backed by Bass and other Republicans. A lawyer by profession, Brannen supports a patients' rights bill that would let patients take their HMO to court if they feel they have been denied needed treatment. He draws on his experience with the Lyme schools in advocating that the federal government meet its full commitment on special-education funding, which would free up local money to hire more teachers or improve school buildings.
In the 1st District, the Globe endorses Democrat Martha Fuller Clark, a five-term state representative from Portsmouth. Like Brannen, Fuller Clark favors both a prescription drug benefit as a part of Medicare and a patients' rights law with teeth. On the latter subject, she has particularly strong credentials: She was a leader in getting New Hampshire's HMO accountability law passed.
If Fuller Clark upsets two-term Republican John E. Sununu, the son of former Governor John H. Sununu, she will be the first woman to represent the state in Congress. Unlike her opponent, she is prochoice and has been an advocate of requiring insurers to cover women's prescriptions for contraception. In her 10 years in Concord, Fuller Clark has been a forceful proponent of environmental protection and gun-safety measures. Both she and Brannen offer the state strong voices to advance a progressive, problem-solving agenda.
