Politics & Government

Rubens Receives Republican Liberty Caucus Endorsement

The group says that the former state Senator from Hanover is the best candidate to face-off against incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Former state Sen. Jim Rubens got a boost to his Senate campaign on May 29, from a grassroots organization that is planning a massive get-out-the-vote operation in September to assist primary challenges to a number of establishment incumbent Republicans in the state.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire threw its support behind Rubens in the Republican Senate primary after what director Aaron Day called a “significant” interviewing process of the candidates including about 15 hours of discussion about issues and a vetting by the group’s national endorsement committee as well.

“Jim does reflect the core values of the Republican Liberty Caucus,” he said.

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One sticking point with the group in the endorsement process was the issue of so-called man-made climate change, something Rubens believes in, an issue that sets him apart from other Republican candidates but that members of the caucus were skeptical of. Previously, Rubens had spoken in favor of carbon tax initiatives as a way of combating the issue. However, Day added, Rubens also understood that government’s role was to allow the free market to work, while getting subsidies and the Environmental Protection Agency out of the way so that clean energy initiatives could expand and create jobs.

“At the end of the day, this is very pro-liberty position and something we can get behind,” Day said.

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Rubens’ serial entrepreneurship was also something that set him apart from what Day called “a qualified field” of candidates, skills that were sorely needed in Washington, D.C. He called him principled and electable, despite many of the Republican establishment backing former MA U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in the race.

Rubens thanked the local and national groups for their endorsements and said that they would help him, along with independents and primary Republican voters, choose the candidate who actually had “bold solutions” to bringing back jobs to the United States, better educating the nation’s children, and ending “corporate cronyism” on Wall Street.

Rubens called for expansion of spectrum bandwidth at the local level for inexpensive wi-fi in both places that have expensive web access and no access. He also said that Senators that were “serious about cutting spending” would eye all departments, whether it was wasteful military spending, numerous job training programs that haven’t been tested for effectiveness, regulations on the sale of raisins, or import-export banking subsidies, most of which are controlled by one bank.

“The Pentagon does not need its 170 golf courses,” he quipped.

Rubens called for replacing the Affordable Care Act with “healthcare innovation” initiatives including expansion of insurance choices, price transparency, more nonprofit clinics, and tort reform, just to start. He also called for the end of spying on Americans.

Rubens also attacked incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and President Barack Obama, for their lack of action addressing the Veterans Administration scandals during the last two years when they first found out that some employees were profiting from falsifying waitlists. Instead, veterans should be given vouchers to get their own healthcare at local hospitals and doctors, he said, as well as prosecuting the people involved in the scandals. Ruben also called for limiting foreign military actions so that there would be fewer casualties.

“I, for one, am sick to the heart with our veterans coming home in boxes and without legs and with brain injuries, when U.S. national security is not at stake,” he said, “and when the regional powers in that area can intervene in their own interest for regional stability. The egregious maltreatment of our veterans at the hands of government deepens the already basement deep mistrust of Washington that Aaron mentioned.”

Follow all the Patch Campaign 2014 stories in our Elections section.

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