By Ross Marrinson
rmarrinson@hgazette.com
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Republican 5th District congressional candidate Jon Golnik visited Haverhill last week on the third leg of his city-by-city walking tour, known as the "Can You Hear Us Now" tour, a phrase implying Washington, D.C., has become a bubble of insiders who are far removed from the day-to-day struggles facing towns like Haverhill.
Golnik's message is simple: "Congress isn't listening, Jon Golnik will."
"You need to listen," he said. "But you can listen but not hear. We need to do both."
During his visit to downtown's Jennie's Antiques, Golnik talked with voters who said they appreciated the services former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy provided to his constituents.
"You look at Ted Kennedy," he said, walking down Merrimack Street. "His constituent services were second to none. We can aspire to that."
Golnik continued to The Peddler's Daughter, at 45 Wingate St., to participate in a roundtable discussion with three members of AvPro Worldwide, a Haverhill-based company that focuses on aerial advertising. He met with President Stew Allen, Sales Manager Martin Allen and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Marty Allen to talk about how they've been affected by the economic downturn, the new health care bill and other small business legislation and how he'll run his campaign competing against incumbent Democrat Niki Tsongas.
"We know we'll be outspent," he said at the table. "We've got to outwork everybody. Work, work, work."
Golnik talked about the new health care bill, and the continuing struggle to increase oversight — a common request from voters — while decreasing regulation, another common request.
"We need to focus on the cost at the providers," he said. Health care is about opening access, and you've got to lower costs. You can do this by increasing competition."
Golnik listed three ways to increase competition. First, he believes consumers should be able to buy insurance across state lines. Second, he wants to repeal certain unnecessary state mandates, which keep prices high. Third, he believes medical malpractice reform would increase competition because it would give doctors the freedom to diagnose as they see fit.
"(Malpractice lawsuits) is at $54 billion over the last 10 years," he said. "Doctors shouldn't practice defensive medicine."
Golnik also discussed the new-age, Scott Brown-like, populist Republican, the type of candidate reaching moderate voters across the nation.
"People say, "You're a Scott Brown Republican. I say that I'm a Jon Golnik Republican," he said. "We're going to listen. We're going to be engaged, responsive. We're going to take a practical approach toward problem solving."
He said that while he "doesn't know everything," voters will know where he stands. He's a proud fiscal conservative, acknowledges that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that gave women the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, is the law of the land, and says that while marriage is defined as the relationship between a man and a woman, gay couples should have the same rights as straight couples.
"The fact that gay couples can't estate plan or visit each other in the hospital is unacceptable to me," Golnik said.
He said he appreciates the work that incumbent Congresswoman Niki Tsongas has done in protecting the nation's servicemen and servicewomen, and cited a body armor bill that Tsongas worked to pass in Washington over the past few months, but said he remains deeply concerned with the direction in which the current leaders in D.C. are taking the country.
"I'm not one to throw someone under the bus just because they have a 'D' after their name," Golnik said, referring to Democrats. "But the deficit has grown by 55 percent in the last 18 months."
This fact, he said, reminds him how important it is to lower costs across the board.
"I'm just against bad ideas," he said, noting that Massachusetts has a 6.25 percent sales tax while its neighbor to the north, New Hampshire, sits at zero percent. "We need focused legislation to lower costs."
It all comes back to jobs, though, for Golnik, and he said he knows how important jobs legislation is to residents of Haverhill.
"Jobs are huge to the northern part of the district," he said. "We need to lower the (tax) burdens, open more credit, increase the size of the of the loans the (Small Business Administration) can give out."
With the Sept. 14 primary just weeks away, Golnik will think about his grandfather, who was the longest-serving official in Hartford, Conn., history.
"He always used to tell me that the best part of serving was being able to help people," he said. "We're going to run a campaign he'd be proud of."
NY Democrat gives candidate fodder
On Monday, Golnik issued a statement urging Tsongas to call on her colleague New York Democrat Charlie Rangel to resign.
Rangel, who recently gave up chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is entangled in various ethics charges from the misuse of rent-controlled apartments for political purposes to the failure to disclose rental property earnings.
"What happened to transparency and 'draining the swamp'?" Golnik asked. "People are cynical because once again, members of Congress are above the law. I agree with Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio), Rep. Rangel needs to resign."
Former presidential candidate and National Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has chimed in, saying that if the charges filed against Rangel are true, Rangel should "get thrown out of Congress."
"This isn't about Republican versus Democrat," Golnik said. "It's about the public trust and the sanctity of one of our most cherished institutions. Now that we see charges are here and convictions likely, it is time (Tsongas) take the next step and request his resignation."
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