Iraq war veteran Bech says he intends to make Washington ‘uncomfortable’ if he wins Olver’s seat

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The 2008 Republican Party candidate vying for the seat opponent, longtime incumbent, Amherst Democrat and Congressman John W. Olver currently holds laid out several of his key platform issues Tuesday, all of which he said are necessary changes the state needs to consider. Nathan Bech, an Iraq war veteran, listed realistic solutions to energy independence, the lowering of state taxes, and securing the country’s borders as top priorities for his campaign. Mr. Bech has vowed to take the district in an entirely new direction, and wants voters to know that if elected, he has every intention of “rocking the boat” in Washington. “I am going to go to every single city and town in this district and listen to the people and their concerns and hopefully go to Washington and shake things up,” said Mr. Bech. “I don’t want to go to Washington to get comfortable; I want to go down there to make other people uncomfortable.” Among the many hardships facing the modern United States economy, Mr. Bech says he considers our dependency on foreign oil the most dire, and said that he is in favor of utilizing our own domestic oil supply, which is something Mr. Olver has been adamantly opposed to. “Gas prices are a big concern for working families right now. We as a country have to have a short-, medium-, and long-term plan to obtain energy independence, and part of doing that means that we need to get our own oil out of the ground and start building more refineries in the United States,” said Mr. Bech. “And these are all things that my opponent, John Olver, has consistently voted against.” While Mr. Bech realizes that drilling for domestic oil is one part of a larger, more complicated plan, he considers the development of nuclear fusion to be the next step toward energy independence. “We need to ultimately develop nuclear fusion, which has no radioactive waste or negative impact on the environment,” said Mr. Bech. “Then the whole world will come to us for their energy needs and we will no longer be dependent on dictators and social forces.” Also listed among his top priorities is the lowering of taxes for Massachusetts residents, another area that Mr. Bech feels divides the two candidates. “Generally speaking, my opponent is a wasteful spender, he throws money at projects that are not voted on in Congress, and takes money from hard-working Americans,” said Mr. Bech. “The government owes it to American taxpayers to only take what it needs to get the job done.” The lowering of taxes, according to Mr. Bech, has been shown to be successful in other countries facing an economic funk, and for ideas he has looked across the globe to smaller countries in Europe. “We need to look at what Ireland did,” he said. “Ireland had a stagnant economy and they lowered their taxes and the economy really took off. We need to lower taxes here in the United States so that businesses can be self-sustaining and get moving again.” Among the life experiences that contributed to the direction of his campaign, Mr. Bech considers the time he spent in the U.S. Army Reserve as the most influential. “My time in the military really opened my eyes to national security issues,” said Mr. Bech. “Having deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, I have spent a significant amount of time in the Middle East and I have a very solid understanding of the situation we face. If there was one thing I learned, it’s that we need energy independence so that we will no longer be dependent on the whims of dictators and social forces.” Also listed among his top priorities is the securing of our nation’s borders, which Mr. Bech considers intentionally unguarded. “How hard is it to build a fence and patrol it? If we are going to have a border, we may as well make it a real border, not just one written on paper,” said Mr. Bech. “Republicans want illegal immigrants here because it creates cheap labor and Democrats want them to come in because they will eventually vote Democratic. Both parties tell the voters what they want to hear and then do nothing about it, and I want to do something about it.” Mr. Olver’s campaign headquarters said that there has not been a recent increase or decrease in campaigning activities because he has been actively campaigning through the work he has done during this past term in office, and an interview with Mr. Olver has been scheduled for July 17. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 6/25/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 150)