catching up with New Hampshire’s first Congresswoman

Six months ago, few people would have recognized the name Carol Shea-Porter. But the Rochester Democrat who came from out of nowhere to defeat U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley in November is on her way to Washington, where she will become the first woman to represent New Hampshire in Congress. She has already attended several orientations, been assigned to the Education and Workforce Committee, and even exchanged a few “pleasantries” with President Bush at the White House. Beginning in January, she will spend her work week in Washington, D.C., returning on weekends to visit her family and her Granite State constituents. As Jan. 4 approaches, the day the 110th Congress convenes for the first time, Shea-Porter is more confident than ever in her mission to represent “the rest of us,” and she is still thrilled about her surprise victory. “I don’t think that thrill’s going to go away anytime soon,” she told The Wire in a recent interview. She went on to detail her vision for the next two years.  

You came out of nowhere to win this with limited funds and a grassroots campaign. After all the hard work, and going up against an incumbent Republican who at least once was very popular in the state, what did it feel like to actually pull off that victory in November?

Obviously it felt wonderful. We planned to win and we felt we would win because we had our ear to the ground and we understood what the issues were that were affecting New Hampshire-ites. But it still was a great feeling because you realize that everything that you care about and that you talked about you now have a chance to act upon. You actually get to go vote and have some effect on the dialogue in Washington. I used to say that you can stand out in the backyard, but the conversation’s in the living room and the living room of course is Washington. So it’s wonderful to have a seat there and to be able to raise my voice for the rest of us.

Was your enthusiasm bolstered further by the success of Democratic candidates across New Hampshire and across the rest of the country?

Absolutely, but I did feel we were going to win the House and Senate. I didn’t think we were going to win the Executive Council; that I didn’t expect. We didn’t do any formal polling. We did get some numbers back that our volunteers were bringing to us, but we were so close to the ground that we knew that there was a big sea change coming. And so when people would say to me, “The polls say you’re such and such number of points down, what do you think?” I’d look up and say, “I think we’re gonna win.” I’d see that look of pity on the reporter’s face, but I did feel confident that we would.

With that initial elation of winning behind you, do you find yourself daunted by the task before you?

We were laughing today because we opened up our campaign account at exactly $100. I put it in myself. So, you talk about a baby step on a long journey! Looking at it now and realizing the work that the Congress has to accomplish, it’s a big, big charge, but we’re not going to work two days a week anymore like that past drive-by Congress. We’re going to work every day, like Americans do, and we’re going to approach these problems with the same integrity and enthusiasm that we approached the campaign. And I know that there are many people who feel the same way who have come to Washington to get this job done.

So while it will be difficult—we have budget problems, we have problems with the world, we have more than I care to list right now—I still feel that we are from the same gene material that our parents and our grandparents came from and that we’re a can-do people by our nature, by our genes. We’re the children and the grandchildren of the greatest generation; the group that survived the depression and won World War II. That’s a terrific gene pool, and we can do this job. The first thing we have to have is this confidence in ourselves, and one of the things I think the Bush administration has done is drain that sense of confidence in the nation that we are up to the task and that there are answers and that it involves all of us. So I’m just very excited.

What do you view as the top priorities that need to be addressed right away, and what do you view as some of the mistakes Jeb Bradley made that you are now burdened with correcting?

One thing of course is raising the minimum wage. He voted against that raise each time, and I can’t wait to raise the minimum wage. It’s been stuck at $5.15 for nine long years, long overdue. And that’s also going to help small business because when people get more money obviously they spend in the local economy. They don’t bank it, not when they’re that close to the poverty level. They spend it, and a dollar will circulate eight times in the local economy, so I’m happy for small businesses in New Hampshire too because I think that will be a shot in the arm for them, as well as for working families. And then we have some other tough votes. There’s going to be some votes about the Iraq war funding, so there’s going to be a lot of work to do. There’s a vote coming up on the oil companies and taking away some of those subsidies, and I’m excited about that. It’s basically doing the work of the people.

All the time we have to remember that this is the people’s House and that we should be doing the work of the people and representing the majority of the people and making sure that the middle class stays strong and that the poor have an opportunity to get into the middle class. That’s what America’s always been about, and these votes are votes that are going to help working men and women.

I’m also looking forward to finally having some kind of an energy policy. There’s been a lot of talk and it’s all very exciting about renewable energy, and I did campaign on having a program like the Apollo program where we work toward energy independence in the next decade. I spoke to some of the experts about the feasibility, and the answer is yes, it is feasible if we have the will, as in political will. And I do, and I have found many other people in Congress who have that political will. So I’m excited about the prospect of pushing forward an energy program that takes care of the environment and frees us from our oil dependence.

You’re the first female U.S. representative from New Hampshire. How proud are you of that? Does it make you feel any added pressure being the first woman to represent the state?

No, and I wouldn’t say that I feel proud of that, because you’re either a female or a male, it’s just a given. What I do feel is, first of all I laugh and I say I feel sympathy for the third and fourth graders that have to learn that long name with the hyphen, because those are the ones who are going to have to say “who was the first woman....” So I apologize to them in advance. The other part of it is that I do feel good about that when I have young girls come up to me, or young women come up to me and tell me that it broke a barrier for them. I do feel good about that because I think that all of us should feel that everything’s possible. But as I tell people, I had a father, I have a husband, I have a son, I have brothers and I’m going to represent all of us.

I’m sure your family’s been very supportive of you throughout the campaign. Do you expect it to be difficult to balance your family and your personal life with your responsibilities in Washington?

That personal life? (Laughs) Yes, it is difficult. It’s manageable, we certainly talked about this as a family before I ran and even though I told them it would be very time consuming and that it would be tough, I don’t think people can be fully prepared for what those demands actually are. It is very intense. But they’ve been behind me all along because they’re aware of these issues and concerned about it, and I told them that I was running for their future. And they get it, they know, because they’re in college, how much it costs to go to college, how the interest rates have been going up, they understand the cost of housing. Certainly my daughter who’s in college is concerned about those issues as she starts to think about being independent after college. They know that we have this deficit and that they will be inheriting it. So they’re really supportive because they know that I’m there for them as well as for everybody else.

Now that the Democrats have taken majorities in the House and Senate, how much do you think the state and the nation are capable of achieving over the next couple of years?

I know it’s a great chance. (Members of) Congress, because of a few really unpleasant people who have had leadership positions, have been unable to work together. There’s been a great deal of bickering and just a breakdown in communication and vision. Now we have a group who, while we have different districts and obviously we don’t agree on everything, we share a vision and we understand why we’ve been sent to Washington, and we have heard people from across the country asking us to get along, work it out, and start making these changes. They want us to work on health care; they don’t want any more excuses. And I think that while my personal preference is Medicare for all, and I will push that, I will actually be welcoming anything that improves the lot of people in New Hampshire. So we know that we’re supposed to deal with health care, we know the country has asked us to deal with this war in Iraq, and we’ll be addressing that, and we know that they’ve asked us to move forward on energy policy, and we’ve heard the same thing across the country. Americans are worried about the direction the country’s going in, they’re worried about the deficit, and it doesn’t matter where you live. We’ve all been sent to Washington with the same message, and I think that makes it very possible to work together and get something done in the next two years.