PRESS RELEASES AND Other PR

Peter Bearse, author of “We, the People,” a book which predicted average citizens would rise up to exert more influence on the outcome of American elections, and showed them how, today announced his Independent candidacy for the First Congressional District Seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. He is the only candidate in the race with the knowledge and experience to deal with both the economic and international problems that plague us.

Bearse noted that the hard-fought 2008 Presidential primaries, in which Independents stepped out and made a big difference, signify a big Independent vote in November. The candidacy of U.S. Senator John McCain, especially, has attracted Independents and benefited from their support. Bearse has been serving as McCain’s Fremont Town Coordinator.

“I suggest to you this is an extraordinary challenge to the American two-party system,” Bearse said. “It is also a time of extraordinary opportunity for the nation to make real changes. In this time of uncertainty for the major parties, Independent candidates will generate unprecedented voter interest. I am among their number,” Bearse said. In “We, the People,” the author coined the following theme as a clarion call for increased political activism: “Time for Us to Take Back Our Politics from the political/media class that has taken it over.”

Bearse said: “I’m running as a change-agent to enable Americans to push real change for a better future.” My aims are four:

1. To bring back a people-based politics, where people count more than money – to represent voters, work with them, fight for them, and vote the issues without regard to political party.

2. To help build a “Change Congress” caucus-in-formation with like-minded U.S. Representatives -- to help a Congress badly in need of reform improve its ability to conduct the people’s business.

3. To help end the financial arms race that Congressional races have become, so that “ordinary” Americans can have a chance to compete in national politics. Both parties are hostage to big money donors. We have the best Congress money can buy.

4. To establish a Congressional Office that provides a higher standard of service to constituents, featuring more local offices, greater outreach, better information, independent citizens’ advisory committees and pro-active engagement of constituents on issues – NOT an office that uses the Congressional mailing privilege as a vehicle for political propaganda and self-advertising.”

“It’s time to have an Independent-minded Representative who can also lead,” Bearse said. “Both major parties have failed us. Long-run issues are unresolved while politicians play politics with their eyes focused on the next election. They have sold voters a bill of goods that has mortgaged our future. Bad legacies build for our children: overhanging debts, economic insecurity, global warming, threats of terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and other issues which Congress has bungled while partisan politics raged in Washington.”

Bearse said U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat, and former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley, a Republican, are both “similar types of go-along, get-along politicians prone to follow party lines and play the same type of Washington-Insider political games. I have a moral obligation to vote as a majority of voters in the District would like me to vote, not to represent some half-baked ideology.”

“Much of what Congress does serves to shield members from responsibil-ity and accountability,” Bearse charged. “This has turned the House into a re-election machine for its members, with more than 95 per cent returned to office through each election.”

Bearse is a 1963 graduate of Harvard University who received his master’s degree and then Ph.D. in economics with high honors from the Graduate Faculty of the New School of Social Research in NYC. He served as economic advisor to two New Jersey Governors, Associate Director of the Center for New Jersey Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and Founder/President of Development Strategies Corporation. As International Consulting Economist, he has worked in 15 countries, including Iraq and Pakistan.

In Fremont, he serves on the town budget committee, as co-chairman of the Cable TV public access committee, and as the Fremont commissioner on the Rockingham Planning Commission.

Paid for by Supporters of Bearse for Congress