[img_assist|nid=2357|title=Crowd at Stephen, Bradley debate|desc=Photo credit: PolitickerNH.com|link=none|align=middle|width=420|height=315]NEWINGTON-Former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro) said at a Republican debate that his primary rival has put New Hampshire on a path towards an income tax. While, former Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen (R-Manchester) said Bradley was distorting the record and he was simply following a state law supported by Bradley when Bradley served in the legislature.

Bradley said Stephen supported a state budget that increased spending in the Health and Human Services Department by $400 million and argued that Stephen shifted the cost of nursing homes onto local property taxes. "It's a road to a one-way-street you help put us on and that's a road to an income tax," Bradley said. "When John Lynch says the budget is unacceptable it should be unacceptable for you."

Stephen responded "there you go again Jeb" and said he was following a law that Bradley supported. "The law says I cannot cut spending until after the budget is passed. I basically had to submit a budget that maintained all programs at the rate of medical inflation," Stephen later told PolitickerNH.com.

The two rivals also used their closing statements to argue that each candidate was reinventing their records.

"Jeb you can try and reinvent your own record but I wish you wouldn't try and reinvent mine. I am a fiscal conservative," Stephen said in his closing statement.

Bradley countered that he was not reinventing Stephen's record.

"I'm not reinventing your record when I say you increased spending by 13 percent and you shifted the cost to taxpayers."

Bradley and Stephen also discussed recent Supreme Court rulings, social conservatives and the lack of a veterans hospital.

Despite the fierce primary fight, both Bradley and Stephen said the party must unite after the primary and defeat U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-Rochester).

Also at the debate were 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate state Sen. Bob Clegg (R-Hudson), former New Hampshire Republican Chairman Wayne Semprini, former state Sen. Chuck Morse (R-Salem) and Republican National Committeman Sean Mahoney and Committeewoman Phyllis Woods.

The debate was sponsored by the Seacoast Federation of Republican Women and the Stafford County Republican Women.