The congressman from the 2nd District is Charlie Bass, first elected in 1994, defeated in 2006 and then elected again in 2010. Bass grew up in Peterborough, in a political family. His grandfather, Robert Bass, was elected governor in 1910 and his father, Perkins Bass, was elected to the U.S. House from the 2nd District in 1954 and served until he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1962. (There were two Basses in the House then, with Perkins Bass known as “Smallmouth Bass” and Ross Bass of Tennessee known as “Bigmouth Bass.”) Charlie Bass graduated from Dartmouth and worked for Maine Reps. William Cohen and David Emery in the 1970s. In 1980, when his father’s successor, James Cleveland, retired, Bass ran for the House and came in third in a nine-candidate Republican primary, trailing Judd Gregg, later governor and U.S. senator, and state Sen. Susan McLane. Bass then ran an architectural product factory with his two brothers and was elected to the state House in 1982 and the state Senate in 1988. In 1994, he again ran for the House, for the seat then occupied by Democrat Dick Swett, son-in-law of the late California Rep. Tom Lantos. There were 10 candidates in the Republican primary. Bass beat conservative Mike Hammond 29%-24%. In that Republican sweep year, he beat Swett 51%-46%. Read More

The congressman from the 2nd District is Charlie Bass, first elected in 1994, defeated in 2006 and then elected again in 2010. Bass grew up in Peterborough, in a political family. His grandfather, Robert Bass, was elected governor in 1910 and his father, Perkins Bass, was elected to the U.S. House from the 2nd District in 1954 and served until he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1962. (There were two Basses in the House then, with Perkins Bass known as “Smallmouth Bass” and Ross Bass of Tennessee known as “Bigmouth Bass.”) Charlie Bass graduated from Dartmouth and worked for Maine Reps. William Cohen and David Emery in the 1970s. In 1980, when his father’s successor, James Cleveland, retired, Bass ran for the House and came in third in a nine-candidate Republican primary, trailing Judd Gregg, later governor and U.S. senator, and state Sen. Susan McLane. Bass then ran an architectural product factory with his two brothers and was elected to the state House in 1982 and the state Senate in 1988. In 1994, he again ran for the House, for the seat then occupied by Democrat Dick Swett, son-in-law of the late California Rep. Tom Lantos. There were 10 candidates in the Republican primary. Bass beat conservative Mike Hammond 29%-24%. In that Republican sweep year, he beat Swett 51%-46%.

In the House, Bass’s voting record tended to be conservative on economic issues and moderate on cultural issues, especially on environmental issues. On the Budget Committee, he pushed unsuccessfully for biennial budgeting, which he said would add more stability to government programs. He won re-election five times by respectable margins, once, in 2002, over Dick Swett’s wife, Katrina Swett. But in 2006, as Democrats were sweeping New Hampshire, Bass lost 53%-46% to Democrat Paul Hodes. After that, he became head of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

In 2010, Hodes ran for the Senate, and Bass decided to run for the House again. He did not renounce his moderate positions on the environment, but he identified wholeheartedly with the tea party movement, which he called “a grassroots movement in America that is going to save our nation.” In a year when many Republicans were suspicious of incumbents, he said, “I was consistently one of the leaders for lower spending and so forth and served on the committee that had jurisdiction of that for eight miserable years.”

Of four other Republicans in the primary, his chief opponents were Jennifer Horn, a former radio talk show host who lost 56%-41% to Hodes in 2008, and former state Rep. Robert Giuda. Both ran as strong conservatives, promising to balance the budget and refrain from spending earmarks. Bass won with 43% of the vote to 35% for Horn and 17% for Giuda. Some 64,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary, compared to only 35,000 in the Democratic primary. In that contest, the winner was Ann McLane Kuster, daughter of Bass’ 1980 Republican primary opponent. She beat Katrina Swett, 72%-28%.

In the fall campaign, Kuster charged that Bass had supported policies that led to the financial crisis and 2007-09 recession, and said she would bring “Yankee values like fairness, frugality and responsibility” to Washington. Bass emphasized fiscal issues and attacked the Democratic Congress for overspending. Democrats charged that Bass, while serving in the House in 2005, had secured tax rebates for wood-pellet stoves and then invested in New England Wood Pellet. Bass said that his gains on the company’s stock did not violate congressional ethics rules because he purchased the stock after he left public office. Kuster raised $2.5 million and spent $2.5 million; Bass raised and spent slightly less than half those amounts. In a year when New Hampshire trended heavily Republican, Bass beat Kuster, 48%-47%. Kuster led in the North Country, had large margins along the Connecticut River and in Concord. But Bass got even larger margins in the towns along the Massachusetts border and just west of Manchester.

In Washington, Bass got a seat on the influential Energy and Commerce Committee. He told National Journal, “I’m not in lockstep with the Republican agenda from one end to the other, but when the leadership focuses primarily on the fiscal side, they know they have me with them. I will be a fiscal leader and a deficit hawk. My desk plate says, ‘It’s the national debt, Stupid.’ ”

As promised, during his second tour of duty in the House, Bass focused on fiscal discipline. In April, he voted for House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s controversial Medicare reform and privatization plan. Yet Bass also showed a willingness to endorse some spending if he thought it could help his state. In December 2011, Bass voted for an omnibus appropriations bill to keep the government running. In a statement explaining his vote, he pointed out approvingly that the bill included “an increase of $909 million over the President’s request in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.” LIHEAP funding helps New Hampshire, a state where consumers are beleaguered with extremely high home heating costs. In a July 2011 vote pushing the White House to expedite the process of building a $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline, Bass was one of just three House Republicans to cross party lines and vote against the measure. When an amendment to delay new cross-state air pollution rules passed the House in September 2011, Bass opposed it.

Bass made news when he participated in a child literacy event sponsored by Reach Out and Read, a national nonprofit Bass had voted to de-fund. When questioned about this apparent contradiction, Bass told a local TV station that “just because I voted to reduce funding for this program doesn’t mean I don’t support the ideas underlying it.” He added that policymakers needed to be mindful of budget priorities. An editorial in The Union Leader praised his decision to attend the event and pointed out that Reach Out and Read receives a lot of money through private donations.

Bass endorsed former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. in the 2012 New Hampshire primary. Romney touted the endorsement, but the campaign tempered this excitement in an internal memo that was obtained by a CBS News/National Journal reporter. The Romney campaign staffer wrote that Bass was one of 40 House Republicans pushing for the congressional Super Committee to consider revenue increases. “[Bass] says he means through eliminating loopholes or simplifying the tax code, but conservatives don’t trust Charlie and are guessing this means he’ll vote to raise taxes,” the Romney strategist wrote. Bass could have a tough re-election campaign of his own. Kuster has already been raising plenty of campaign cash for a 2012 rematch.