
Advertisement
Advertisement

Jim Rubens: This is a connecting-the-dots job. People in New Hampshire are deeply, deeply frustrated and angry—fed up to the eyeteeth—with career politics and career politicians in Washington. It’s universal, it’s across the political spectrum—[politicians] they go to Washington, they make promises, and they seem to become consumed with nothing but reelection and they forget about their constituents.
Advertisement
No, they are not! They are not! Because I am not held captive by special interest funding sources. I can say what I believe to be the truth, and I can propose things that I believe are completely consistent with core Republican values: individual liberty, personal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, balanced budgets.You’re also the only Republican Senate candidate to mention climate change…
Not just mention! I have freely stated the—I’m going to call it a fact—that humans are responsible for climate change.Have you gotten pushback on that?
A lot of pushback. A lot of pushback. But the solutions that I am proposing are very appealing to economic conservatives. I’ve proposed eliminating all energy subsidies, and allowing the free market to advance the need for abundant, inexpensive clean energy throughout the entire free world as quickly as possible. I believe that the free market, unleashed from corporate cronyism—the jetting to Washington to get tax subsidies and carve-outs and mandates for your particular form of energy. These forms are often one or two generations behind the technology curve—this corporate cronyism energy policy is literally retarding the progress of getting inexpensive clean energy, abundant clean energy.
Advertisement
Like I said, he took $7 million bucks from Wall Street and voted for Dodd-Frank. And it’s hurting the state of New Hampshire.Do you think voters feel like he’s a carpetbagger? Or is that a nonissue?
It’s the number-one issue. It’s less the carpet bagging—a lot of people have moved here from out of state—it’s the opportunism. It looks like naked self-interest: [He] couldn’t get elected in Mass[achusetts], so [he’ll] come up here and try to keep his political career going up here.Folks see US Senators go to Washington, and coming back in a few years as millionaires—people know why that’s happening. It’s the corrupt political system. A corrupt political money system where votes are being traded for cash—it’s almost all perfectly legal. It’s legalized bribery. People like Jeanne Shaheen and her family, or Scott Brown, they go to Washington, and they get to be millionaires. And they forget about serving their constituents. And the point I am making is that this is why the country’s immense challenges are not being addressed. The motivations are all wrong. And the motivations are inherent in the corrupt political money system. And it’s got to be fixed. That’s why I’m putting a solution on the table: voluntary public elections financing.Do you think you actually have a chance of winning?
I do. There are huge, huge numbers of people still undecided. Brown is really not selling at the grassroots level here in the state… When voters go to the polls in two weeks, it’s going to surprise people. It’s going to be like Virginia.Are there any lessons you’ve learned from David Brat’s campaign?
There were lots of lessons to be learned. It shows you can operate which much lower amounts of funding. I’m fortunate that I’m self-funded, and that I have $2 million of pledged super PAC money behind me in this last month. But even if I didn’t, it shows that the blizzards of TV ads that Big Money has been buying are really not very effective if voters are given an outlet, an opportunity to express the desire to end career politics and get the country’s problems solved. And part of the solutions is going to be smaller government. If you give voters in this primary an opportunity to express that, as I’ve given them, I think we’re going to see something like we did in Virginia. And it’s going to be unexpected.