By Adam D. Krauss
Foster's Daily Democrat
Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Editor's note: This is one in a series of stories from editorial board meetings Foster's Daily Democrat is holding with congressional candidates.

DOVER — Bob Bestani didn't have Washington in his sights he when retired in 2008 from overseeing private sector finance at the Asian Development Bank and became a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

By then the Newmarket resident and Budget Committee member had worked in several posts throughout the banking and corporate finance worlds, with a focus on the high-tech, petroleum and power industries.

He had also served as assistant deputy secretary for international monetary and financial policy at the Department of Treasury under President George H.W. Bush.

So when he arrived at Stanford, he thought "I'm set." But sometimes things don't go as planned.

The nation's financial sector started to collapse and soon he found himself lecturing on the situation at Stanford and Harvard, locally and across state, all the while wondering why he was providing an explanation that people in power were not.

"There was nobody explaining this down in Washington," he said Tuesday.

Not only that, but be began to assess other issues facing the country — energy independence, national security and foreign policy — in context of his experiences living and working across the Middle East and Asia.

Today the self-styled independent conservative Republican is running for the U.S. House seat held by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, D-Rochester.

"I look around, and I don't see any of the candidates — Republicans or Democrats — who basically bring this kind of background and experience," he said. "I challenge you to find somebody who can speak to these issues. So at a time when we are in a crisis on numerous fronts in America, who are we nominating, suggesting go down to Washington to speak to these issues? I don't see anybody."

Bestani extended his analysis to practical terms.

"Would anyone here hire a carpenter who never worked with wood? Would you hire a plumber who never worked with pipes or an electrician who never worked with wires? Absolutely not," he said. "So why do we keep sending people to Washington who have no substantive experience in any of the core issues that will dominate the national agenda? And why is it we're flabbergasted that when we send people down there and we end up with just political hacks?"

Bestani said he breaks the mold.

"I've lived in the Middle East. I speak Arabic as a result. I have traveled to and done business in virtually every country in the Middle East. I understand ... the culture, the politics of that region very, very well," he said. "Because I ran a bank in Asia, I've also had the opportunity to travel to virtually every country in Asia ... and of course on behalf of the United States when I was assistant deputy secretary of the Treasury I negotiated with the likes of the Japanese, the Chinese, the Koreans, etc., and numerous other governments."

Bestani said Washington needs people with what he can offer: the ability to understand complex problems, compromise, engage in constructive dialogue and not forget they're there to represent voters — not be "Washington's representative to their state."

He said Washington, from the White House down through Congress, is mostly bankrupt in these areas — which begged the question: is he too smart, or have too much experience, to make it in Congress?

"Honest to God I get that question a lot, and I don't know how to respond to it, really." he said. "In what walk of life do you know too much about anything? So the more you know I think the better off you are."

Bestani said the government needs to get a handle on its priorities, and pledged to continue to take principled stands to ensure this happens. He said he voted against Newmarket accepting $804,000 in stimulus funds for a bike path because teachers are being laid off and money needs to go to improving the nation's ailing infrastructure.

Had he been in Congress when the Iraq war was launched, Bestani said he "would not have gone along with that."

He said the government needs to, realize it can't deliver services like the private sector, correct the financial system, "get the government out of health care" and get a handle on debt because America is "staring at bankruptcy in the next 10, 15 years."