Pappas says Trump’s actions a campaign concern

LACONIA — Executive Councilor Chris Pappas, a candidate for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, says people on the campaign trail frequently express concerns to him about President Donald Trump.

Pappas, in an interview Tuesday at The Laconia Daily Sun, said he shares those concerns.

“What we have seen just yesterday is deeply concerning and, to me, pretty sickening, where the president of the United States stood up on a world stage but did not stand up for American values or for the interests of this country against someone who is, you know, an autocrat and former KGB operative who I think is playing Trump like a fiddle,” he said.

Pappas said Congress needs to protect the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

“We’ve got to get there in a bipartisan fashion, because even if the Democrats decided there is evidence to impeach Trump, they are not going to have the votes to convict him,” he said.

A simple majority of the U.S. House could impeach the president, but conviction would require a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Currently, Republicans hold a majority in both chambers.

Pappas said there’s a good chance Democrats could emerge from the midterm elections with a majority in the House.

Running in crowded field for a district that takes in a wide swath of southern, central and eastern New Hampshire, Pappas hopes to be part of a Democratic wave.

“This a bellwhether district,” he said. “This district has flipped back five of the last six elections between (Democrat) Carol Shea-Porter and (Republican) Frank Guinta.”

Shea-Porter announced in October she would not seek re-election.

Voting in the primary is set for Sept. 11.

As of June 30, Pappas, 38, whose family has owned and operated the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester since 1917, has raised $665,975 in political contributions.

Democrat Maura Sullivan, who served as a captain in the U.S. Marines, leads the field in fundraising, with $1.5 million. State Sen. Andy Sanborn leads Republicans in fundraising, with $838,344.

Pappas said he supports an assault weapons ban and a path to citizenship for “Dreamers,” or immigrants who arrived as children and qualify under the DREAM Act.

He also calls for more government funding to assist nonprofit treatment and recovery organizations that have formed to fight the opioid crisis.

“These organizations that have sprung up by virtue of volunteer activities and people in the community wanting to do something to help their neighbors, they can’t make it on bake sales and business contributions alone,” he said. “They need a more stable funding stream.”

New Hampshire is among the leading states for fatal overdoses per capita in the nation.

“As a member of Congress, that would be my top priority, to make sure that we can sustain that investment over a period of time,” he said.

“If someone is in recovery, they are there for a lifetime, and we have done a pretty terrible job as a state over the last several decades in investing in addiction treatment and recovery and prevention and investing in mental health.”

He also said he rejects legislation that is premised on the idea that there is significant voter fraud that needs to be addressed by increasing residency or identification requirements to vote.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu recently signed a bill imposing voter residency requirements in New Hampshire that could limit the number of college students who can vote.

“I think we have an election system here in New Hampshire that has a high degree of integrity and you see little evidence of any acts of voter fraud being committed,” he said. “There certainly is not the widespread voter fraud that some claim, including our governor and our president, and I think that those myths have been perpetuated in a way that has allowed voter suppression legislation to pass.”

Pappas said the state should be looking for ways to include young people in the democratic process in New Hampshire.

“You know our toughest challenge as a state is that we are the second-oldest state in the country,” he said. “We do a poor job of attracting young talent to start their careers here or pursue higher education here in the state.”