Compromise Still Front and Center in Executive Council Race

Much like the District 9 Senate Debate the night before, the two local Executive Council District 4 candidates, meeting for a 'Tell it Like it is' debate – hosted by Kathy Benuck at the BCTV studios in Bedford – discussed many prevalent issues they may face should they be elected.

Yet, while Bedford Republican Bob Burns and Manchester Democrat Chris Pappas engaged many of those hot-button topics – such as education finance, health care, abortion and Planned Parenthood, and passenger rail – the issue of compromise was once again paramount.

The discussion arose last week when Burns was asked, during the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerces' debate in Manchester, about what specifically he'd be willing to compromise should he earn the voters' nod in November. His reply, "I don't think I'd compromise on anything," has been heavily dissected by both sides in the last seven days.

Last night's debate proved no different with Burns once again arguing that he holds his integrity and values in high regard, thus refusing to budge, while Pappas continued to point to Burns' words as proof he'll hold true to "an extreme Tea Party agenda."

"We've seen too much division, we've seen too much partisanship on both sides of the aisle. We've seen too much extremism in Concord," said Pappas, "and to not be able to compromise, I think represents an acceleration of the problem in Concord and not a solution to it."

Still, Burns contends Pappas is using the terms "extremism" and "Tea Party" as tools to skirt the issues, rather than engage the voters with tangible plans.

"He's been very unspecific in exactly what are all these ideologies and things I won't compromise on," said Burns. "He continuously says that I won't compromise, and yet never has once said one of the things he'll compromise on"

"I'll give you an example of somewhere where I'd compromise," replied Pappas during the rebuttal portion of the debate. "If I agreed with a contract and I thought a contract was a good thing to do, in terms of either my politics or my outlook, I necessarily wouldn't vote for that contract if  I didn't think it was in the fiscal responsibility interest of the state of New Hampshire."

Burns said that type of compromise has little place in the chambers of the Executive Council.

"The executive council is about leadership, it's not about compromise and it's not about negotiation," he said. "Much of what we do, we get contracts set before us that were decided in the state budget and it's pretty much no or no go. We vote for it or we don't vote for it. We get department heads. We find out whether they're qualified or not. We don't compromise on whether they're qualified or not. We don't say 'hey, you voted for my friend over here so I'll vote for your friend over there, you get one, I get one,' so I have to wonder what exactly is this compromise he speaks of."

The race continues to be contentious, as the New Hampshire Young Republicans, yesterday, released a statement condemning Pappas for an article he wrote in 2005 suggesting New Hampshire should rid itself of the 'Live Free or Die' motto. The Pappas camp fired back, saying Burns and company are just trying to muddy the waters.

Follow Patch daily as we continue to provide in-depth coverage of this race, and others in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 General Election.