MANCHESTER, N.H. – Republican U.S. Senate Nominee Corky Messner gathered a roundtable of New Hampshire small business owners and employees on Monday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on the New Hampshire economy and the response to the pandemic from the state and federal government.
Messner told the assembled crowd that he has visited many businesses across the Granite State in recent months and has been impressed with the creativity and ingenuity used by local businesses to get through the pandemic.
He also attacked Washington culture and felt more dialogue was needed between people with differing viewpoints to find solutions on issues, citing the friendship between late U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.
“It’s really important that we bring our politics back to the point where we can disagree civilly,” he said. “We can fight hard to get our laws passed, but we need to do it civilly.”
Ultimately, Messner expressed a desire to empower people and businesses to deal with pandemic moving forward by providing clear guidelines and encouraging personal responsibility rather than pandemic-related regulations.
The roundtable generally agreed on this point, with State Representative Joseph Alexander (R-Goffstown) giving an example from his job as a bartender, which he only was able to return to in June. There, he says the requirement to wear gloves was ineffective given the tendency for most bartenders to wash their hands frequently throughout a shift and a constant need to replace gloves due to direct contact with paper money.
Joe Ruotolo, owner of Border Brewery and BBQ in Salem, expressed his frustration over various points regarding the pandemic.
Ruotolo told the group that a PPP loan and EIDL loan were actually a hinderance given attached criteria with the loan he felt he could not meet due to various COVID-related restrictions, feeling that the threat from COVID-19 had been overblown.
“We have a 99 percent recovery rate (from COVID-19), that is not a reason to shut our country down,” he said.
Ruotolo also expressed concern with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and other state and federal government officials on several points.
He expressed frustration with the concept of “essential” businesses, questioning whether some businesses allowed to stay open earlier in the pandemic such as New Hampshire Liquor Stores were added to the list for political reasons.
Ruotolo also expressed concern over Sununu’s emergency orders, believing that the New Hampshire legislature should be allowed to fulfill their constitutional role as a co-equal body with the Governor in New Hampshire’s government and anything else reduces his ability to be heard as a New Hampshire resident.
State Representative Kim Rice (R-Hudson), GOP Policy Leader in the NH House, responded to Ruotolo’s comments regarding Sununu, stating that if Sununu were not allowed to issue emergency orders, the Democratic majorities in the New Hampshire House and Senate would not have allowed businesses to reopen at all, causing further economic hardship for New Hampshire residents.
Rice also defended Sununu by stating the beginning of the pandemic was a learning curve for everyone, including the governor.
Alexander also supported Sununu, referencing his vetoes of several pieces of legislation relating to firearms to Ruotolo after noticing Ruotolo was wearing a shirt for Next Level Firearms.
However, Rice and others such as former State Representative Victoria Sullivan (R-Manchester) also agreed with Ruotolo overall on the issue of emphasizing personal responsibility during the pandemic rather than financial aid that may not resolve the problem.
Sullivan felt that it was inappropriate to saddle future generations with debt from relief legislation that may be ineffective and also agreed with Messner and others on the board that extra unemployment benefits given as part of early relief packages made it difficult for business owners in the state to find employees.
On that point, Ruotolo also criticized teachers, stating that he believed they could do their jobs safely if they could also eat out at restaurants or go to gyms. Rice replied that not all teachers share the same viewpoint and believed that the problem Ruotolo is seeing came from pressure imposed by teachers’ unions.
Messner also believed that listening to science and scientists was important when it came to issues such as COVID-19, but also noted that science can evolve with new data and discoveries and that science should only be one part of the policy-making process.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) criticized Messner for his support of Senate Republicans most recent proposal for COVID-19 relief, particularly in regard to the lack of any support for hospitals beyond laboratory equipment for COVID-19 testing and the lack of aid for local municipalities facing hardships due to reduced revenue thanks to the pandemic.
“Colorado Corky Messner poses an extreme danger to Granite Staters who are trying to stay safe amid coronavirus and overcome the greatest economic challenge we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” said NHDP Spokeswoman Noelle Rosellini. “Messner is pushing for a package with zero dollars for New Hampshire in state aid, and zero dollars for hospitals and health care workers on the front lines. He is threatening New Hampshire’s economy and would leave Granite Staters to fend for themselves by pushing to halt much-needed aid to our state.”
