Health care and immigration dominate congressional forum

EXETER — There were sharp disagreements over abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and political shots over support for single-payer Medicare for all health care as the 11 Democrats running in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District teamed up at a forum on Thursday night.

The showdown, organized by the state Democratic party and held at Exeter High School, was the first time in a month that the large field of candidates vying to succeed retiring four-term Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter of Rochester gathered on the same stage at the same time.

Multiple times throughout the forum Levi Sanders heavily criticized two of the leading candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination– Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester and Maura Sullivan of Portsmouth – for not supporting a Medicare for all.

Sanders – a Claremont resident and son of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – has made support for single-payer health care his signature campaign issue. He used words such as “disgraceful” and “unacceptable” to blast Sullivan and Pappas.

Sullivan fired back, saying “Levi, disgraceful is Republicans trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Disgraceful is a Republican president who is trying to take away coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, including children.”

And Sullivan – a U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran who later served at the VA and the Pentagon, vowed to make “sure that every Granite Stater and every person in this country, frankly, has affordable access to health care.”

Pappas, who’s repeatedly explained that he’s weighing the single payer plan as well as other health care proposals, highlighted that “no one’s fought harder up here on this stage to expand health care to individuals at the Statehouse that I have and I’ll take that fight to Washington DC.”

And Pappas –who runs his century old family owned Puritan Backroom restaurant – touted that “as an employer we provided coverage for our workers long before we were required to do so by the ACA (Affordable Care Act) because it’s the right thing to do.”

Terence O’Rouke, the Rochester city attorney and Army veteran who served in the Iraq War, said “I think Medicare for all is the next logical step to get us where we need to be with full coverage. But in the long run what we need to have is a national health system.”

State Rep. Mark Mackenzie of Manchester highlighted how he supported the idea of a single-payer plan for over a decade. And the longtime fireman who served 25 years as the head of the AFL-CIO in New Hampshire described his rivals for the nomination as newcomers to single-payer support.

“Let’s make it clear that this idea has been around for a long time and a lot of people had an opportunity to jump on it and it amazes the hell out of me that I’m sitting here with people saying ‘well now I’m all for single payer,’” he said.

The candidates also disagreed over calls by many Democrats to scrap ICE, the wake of the agency’s carrying out of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy toward people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. The policy resulted in hundreds of children being separated from their parents and sparked national outrage.

Lincoln Soldati, the longtime trial lawyer who lives in Portsmouth, urged that “we need to abolish ICE because of its cruelty. We’ve seen it with our own eyes. This has to end.”

“ICE was originally part of the Patriot Act. Their job was to seek out terrorists. Not to terrorize immigrants and asylum seekers,” explained Soldati, who served nearly two decades as Strafford County attorney before being elected mayor of Somersworth.

State Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye agreed that “we definitely need to abolish ICE.”

But Naomi Andrews of Epping, a longtime top aide to Shea-Porter who stepped down as her chief of staff this spring to run to succeed her, said that “we need serious reforms of ICE.”

And she called on Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign.

O’Rouke described what was happening at the southern border as a disgrace but added that “the idea that we’re not going to protect our borders and we’re not going to have ICE is totally ridiculous to me.”

And Sullivan turned her fire on President Donald Trump, saying “the problem is this president because this president is directing ICE. And we need to stand up to him.”

The candidates were in agreement on dealing with gun violence, calling for waiting periods and universal background checks for gun purchases, banning assault weapons, bump stocks and high capacity magazines as well as 3D printing of guns.

Deaglan McEachern , a Portsmouth native who’s a technology executive and community activist, agreed with his rivals but added that “the one thing that separates me is that we need a background check on bullets.”

Paul Cardinal of Merrimack and William Martin of Manchester also took part in the forum.

The 11 candidates face off in the Sept. 11 primary.