Fifth District Republican candidate Jon Golnik visited Haverhill Tuesday on the third leg of his Can You Hear Us Now? tour. Golnik, who lives in Carlisle with his wife and two children and hold degrees from Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins and the Wharton School, began the tour on Merrimack Street, and spoke with several business owners about the state of their businesses, what impact the new health care legislation was having, and how the commonwealth's 6.25 percent sales tax affects their store traffic given that New Hampshire, a state with no sales tax, is less than five miles away.
"You can't meet enough people," Golnik said. "We're working every day, going to every town in the district talking to different groups."
Golnik also issued a statement citing a Boston Globe story in which U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas was called out for her supposed lack of transparency on her earmark spending in Congress.
Matt Viser, in his July 12 Boston Globe article "Uneven Response on House Earmarks," writes, "Voters seeking to view the earmark funding requested by Representative Niki Tsongas would be hard-pressed to find it."
Golnik calls for all earmark spending to be "open, transparent, attributed and necessary."
"Congresswoman Tsongas repeatedly claims to want an open and transparent government and when faced with doing it herself, refuses," Golnik said. "The do as I say not as I do era of politicians must end."
Golnik said he believes all earmarks should be attributed to the requesting representative and should be easily accessible.
"Niki Tsongas has voted for every outrageous spending bill put before her from the cap and trade energy tax, to the trillion dollar health care disaster, and stimulus's (sic) and bailouts," Golnik said. "If that's what she spends when we are watching, we clearly know she shouldn't be in a position to spend without our knowledge or public consent."
Golnik continues by saying that all earmark spending should be plainly visible to the public in order for the public to determine the earmark's validity.
"If a piece of legislation is worthy, then let's put it forth to the public scrutiny that it was intended to have," Golnik said. "We are running massive deficits and have a national debt of $13 trillion and climbing."
Golnik will be at the Haverhill Citizens Center on Monday, July 26, for a meet and greet with voters from the district.
Tsongas has responded to the criticism, saying that she was one of first members of the Massachusetts delegation to voluntarily publish her funding requests.
"I annually released to the media the list of projects that I believed deserved federal funding, publicly supporting each request I forwarded to the committee," she said. "I feel that publicizing requests in the form of a press release simultaneously posted online is proactive and transparent, making it easy to evaluate the projects I submit."
Tsongas said she believes that federal resources can advance community development and job creation, as well as reduce tax burdens.
"The projects I supported have created and retained jobs, supported the development of equipment to protect our servicemen and women, expanded access to health care, provided first responders with the best available technologies, and promoted critical economic development," she said.
Tsongas ended her statement saying that she would continue to be a strong partner for the people and communities in the 5th District, while maintaining legislative transparency in Washington.
"I firmly believe that the federal government has a role to play in promoting business and opportunity through a transparent federal funding process," she said.
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One of Tsongas' opponents, Westford Republican Tom Weaver, has revamped his campaign website and has outlined his views on several "key initiatives," including private job creation, the future of children, protecting the environment while producing more energy, national defense, education and health care.
For more information on Weaver's policies, visit tomweaverforcongress.com
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Fifth District Republican candidate Sam Meas calls the new financial reform package, titled the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Bill, a "missed opportunity," and claims the bill fails to address key economic problems that led to the 2008 collapse.
"Like many people of good will in both parties I wanted a reform package that would provide transparency, sensible regulatory checks and balances, and less government manipulation of the economic sector," Meas said.
Meas said he believes the bill doesn't eliminate the "too big to fail" dynamic, and said citizens will continue to see massive bailouts.
"This legislation could be interpreted by future Congresses as a green light for greater government intervention within the financial markets," he said. "Left unchecked, this might transform America's free market system into a mercantile form of crony capitalism."
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Campaign finances, as of the June 30 filing reports submitted to the FEC:
U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas:
Total contributions: $1,248,815
Individuals: $1,035,522
PAC: $210,075
Party: $20
Other: $3,198
The campaign raised more than $386,000 last quarter, which is an increase of almost $80,000 from the first quarter. The campaign ended the second quarter with $567,997 cash on hand.
Republican Jon Golnik:
Total contributions: $205,418
Individuals: $100,418
Candidate contribution: $105,000
The campaign raised more than $28,000 last quarter, almost a 10 percent increase from the first quarter. Golnik's campaign ended the second quarter with $112,814 cash on hand.
Republican Sam Meas:
Total contributions: $55,475
Individuals: $23,915
Candidate contribution: $25,000
Other: $6,560
The campaign raised almost $13,000 last quarter, almost doubling the first quarter's contributions. Meas' campaign ended the second quarter with $1,075 cash on hand.
Republican Robert Shapiro:
Total contributions: $13,374
Individual contributions: $898
Candidate contribution: $12,476
Shapiro's campaign ended the second quarter with $1,898 cash on hand.
Republican candidate Tom Weaver did not submit any campaign reports by June 30.
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