Kuster Taps Into Windham Voter Pool

Annie Kuster is making a relentless push in her second bid for the 2nd congressional district.

The Democratic candidate said she is putting in 18 hours a day on the campaign trail to make sure she doesn't wake up on Nov. 7 having lost to her opponent, U.S. Rep. Charles Bass, by one percent again. 

According to Kuster, one of the toughest voter groups to crack in 2010 was in the Windham and Salem area, so she was extremely excited to have a house party hosted for her on Oct. 19 at the home of Mike and Wendy Joanis.

Wendy linked up with Kuster in the most unexpected of ways – waiting in a holding room at Windham High School as President Obama prepared to come to town.

"We were stuck in this holding room and waiting and waiting," Kuster said. "Then we just started chatting and chatting."

Wendy and Mike's daughter Emma was singing the National Anthem for Obama, which was the reason the parents were in the room.

Kuster called Emma "so poised" during the event.

"I said, 'I've got to meet her parents,'" she said.

Then Kuster encountered President Obama all over again, watching along with other Democratic candidates as Air Force One touched down in Manchester yesterday. Obama spoke for 25 minutes at a rally at Veteran's Memorial Park later in the morning.

Wendy introduced Kuster to the gathering of about 35 residents, saying that Kuster's experience as an adoption attorney was a plus since she and her husband have an adopted child.

Kuster touched on about a dozen topics as she spoke to the group for about 40 minutes.

She said that it was nothing personal between her and her opponent, whose families go back as friends for a couple generations. Kuster explained that she and Bass just have different views on the world.

She hammered his voting for the Paul Ryan budget, which she said would force seniors to pay about $6,000 extra for Medicare.

"The average income of a Medicare benificiary is $23,000," she said. "This is what they call the 'death spiral' of the healthcare system."

She also told the room that there can be a bi-partisan solution to social security, making it "totally sustainable indefinitely."

"It's one of the most successful social programs in the world," Kuster said.

Kuster also noted that the economy is all about the middle class. 

"The way to get the economy moving is to make sure the middle class has the resources to be consuming, that it is consumer-driven from the middle class," she said. "When we make the next decision to buy a car or a refrigerator. As I like to say: my husband and I date at Lowe's."

She added that she is in favor of removing the capital gains tax for those who earn up to $250,000, a proposal of Mitt Romney's that she said she does agree on.

Kuster also answered a question on "No Child Left Behind," saying that she is "opposed to the notion of a punitive model."

"What I think we really need to do is help teachers find their strengths and correct and build upon their weaknesses," she said. "I'm not fond of this 'teaching to the test'"

On bringing rail to N.H., Kuster said that it was a terrible mistake by the Executive Council to turn down $4 million in federal funding for a study on the subject.

"That could be a tremendous boom to our economy," she said, citing the Amtrak Downeaster as a successful example. "I do think it would be expensive. That's why I wanted to see the study."

Kuster appeared in Windham just 30 minutes after Bass stopped at a ribbon cutting ceremony only five minutes up the road.