Little drama in the NH-01 debate moderated by Manchester Chamber

Republican Russell Prescott and U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas attend a Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce debate on October 16, 2024. (Source: Frame of Mind Photo/Jeffrey Hastings)

First Congressional District voters who had hoped the race would tighten during Wednesday’s debate went home from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce forum disappointed. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D) largely stuck to his tried-and-tested playbook, arguing for bipartisanship and moderation, while his Republican challenger Russell Prescott stuck to his “say no evil” campaign strategy.

Both candidates used the hour-long event to distance themselves from the more extreme elements of their own parties.

“When I was a state senator, I was a little bit of an independent because when something went wrong in my party, I would fight back and make sure we got things right,” said Prescott, a former state legislative member of the Executive Council, he said in his final statement, citing his past opposition on a 2011 voter ID law supported by the Republican Party.

Pappas, seeking a fourth term, sought to put distance between himself and an unpopular Democratic president.

“I am rated as one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives three out of 435 because I firmly believe that the solutions lie somewhere in the middle,” said Pappas. “I criticized the Biden administration’s student debt relief plans because they didn’t solve the problem for future generations and it was also a type of bill that should go through Congress and through a regular regulation. ”

In fact, Pappas was awarded a “100 percent Biden score” by FiveThirtyEight for his polling during the president’s first term. As for the question of student debt, In May 2023Pappas voted against repealing the Biden administration’s $500 billion college debt rescue plan after the first time address the topic before his successful re-election in 2022.

Wednesday’s debate, moderated by former WMUR political director Scott Spradling, began with a question about rising interest rates and an expensive business climate in New Hampshire. Prescott immediately referenced a warning he issued during his unsuccessful 2022 GOP congressional primary.

“I mentioned then that unless we make a serious effort to balance our budget, we will continue on this path of high inflation,” he said. “And that’s exactly what has happened in the last two years. “We haven’t taken balancing our budget seriously.” He pointed to the trillions of dollars in new spending that Pappas pushed through.

Pappas fought back. “Republicans and Democrats created this problem,” he said.

Prescott also blamed inflation for the state’s housing crisis.

“The reason we are here is inflation, not fiscal responsibility,” he said. “That’s the problem, and another way we got here is not by giving more block grants and spending more.

“I want to present the reality of what has happened over the last four years,” Prescott added. “It costs $150 per square foot to build a project to $300 per square foot due to inflation.

“What we need to do is balance our budget to get interest rates down.”

Pappas said rising real estate prices are “a question of supply,” adding that the state needs to “get creative in how we build for the future.”

Prescott, an engineer by trade who currently heads his family’s water treatment company, took advantage of an oddly worded question from Spradling, who asked how he would “promote and celebrate diversity in Congress.”

“Well, first I want to tell you about diversity in Congress,” Prescott said. “We need more engineers in Washington, DC with real problem-solving experience.”

Spradling acknowledged that he answered his question incorrectly, noting that he originally wanted to “address diversity as an issue to move through Congress to help southern New Hampshire.”

Prescott turned to immigration, citing his support for a “melting pot” vision of America while calling for “working toward an immigration process that eliminates illegal immigration.”

Pappas didn’t mention illegal immigration at all during Wednesday’s debate, but said New Hampshire “needs to continue to grow and move in a direction where we include people from all over the world who want to come here and achieve their American dream.”

Another issue that Pappas made light of was efforts to bring commuter rail to the Granite State, an $800 million proposal backed by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig, but was supported sharply criticized by Republicans.

“Ultimately it’s a decision that has to be made at the state level, but New Hampshire has adopted this statewide,” Pappas said. “They want other forms of transportation to be available, especially as we think about attracting the workforce we need.”

Prescott said he has seen the “impact” of light rail on the coastal region of his native New Hampshire and called it “really good.”

However, Prescott offered a caveat.

“If rail can’t pay for itself, costs more money and ends up driving inflation because we’re spending more money than we have, we need to be very, very fiscally responsible,” he said.

The latest survey from St. Anselm College shows Prescott trailing Pappas 50 to 41 percent.