Four AGC members are vying for a seat at the table in their respective districts in different parts of the nation, hoping to bring what they’ve learned – and something new – to the conversation in our nation’s capital. Meet them.
BY A.D. THOMPSON
The call to serve can come at any time, from any place, and demonstrate in any number of directions.
Mike Dugan enlisted, enjoying a first career in the Army – “20 years, two months, four days,” he shoots back when asked how long – before joining the ranks of the construction industry as a business development executive for RaLin Construction in Carrollton, Georgia, an AGC Georgia member.
Hollie Noveletsky, owner and CEO of Greenland, NH-based Novel Ironworks, an AGC of New Hampshire Inc. member, may have started out as a legacy – as a kid she ran the blueprint machine for the company her dad founded in 1956 – but spent decades (and still actively
serves) in a fulfilling nursing career that’s taken her to places domestic and international.
Dugan (R-GA-3), who spent 11 post-military years serving in the Georgia State Senate, is now vying for a seat at the national level in the House of Representatives.
As is Russell Prescott (R-NH-1) who, like Dugan, has spent a decade in the New Hampshire State Senate. His father founded the Exeter-based R.E. Prescott, an AGC of New Hampshire Inc. member, and who has run the company, alongside his brother, for the better part of 40 years.
Prescott’s opponent, Noveletsky (R-NH-1), never in a million years thought she’d run for office.
That’s what Grant Bucher (R-IN-3), project manager for Weigand Construction in Fort Wayne, Indiana, an AGC of Indiana member, said as well.
“Politics isn’t something I’ve ever wanted to be involved in,” Bucher, 34, said in a recent interview with Constructor.
“It’s not something that I’ve been passionate about. “It was a spiritual calling,” he said.
All four, however, share a belief that things in Washington, D.C. need to change if progress is to be made, if work is to get done, and they’re ready to do their part if they get the job.
Noveletsky, whose son used to sharpen pencils in the office, is now handing off tasks to her grandsons – J.R., 7, and Whittaker, “he’s 2 and a hellion!” she laughs – and credits her interest in the seat in part with their futures.
“I think like most people, I was getting angry watching what was going on in D.C., the dysfunction on both sides,” she said.
“But then I looked behind the anger to see that’s not really what it was. It was fear. I can’t leave this mess for them. And as a woman in this country, I’ve been afforded such opportunity – I sit on the board of the American Institute of Steel Construction. What greater opportunity is there for a woman in this industry? – and I am afraid those opportunities are going to be lost for the next generation.”
For Dugan, the progression was more natural. He was the State Senate Majority Leader for four of his 11 years, “and when Drew Ferguson, who’s our Congressman now in the 3rd District, announced he’d be retiring at the end of his term, I felt that it was time to take what I’ve learned and go to D.C.”
“There are no new ideas coming to Washington, D.C., and we’re doing the old things badly,” Prescott told Constructor, noting that he brought as much to the table in New Hampshire. “I balanced the budgets every single term I was in public service. That was one of the reasons I ran for office then. It’s the same reason I’m running today. We can do better.”
Though the candidates hail from different parts of the country, there’s overlap in the issues they’re looking to tackle.
“Labor,” said an emphatic Dugan. “All facets. Whether the issues are touching supply and materials, construction, delivery or any of the subs you have on the project, everyone’s going to tell you the same thing: there’s just a shortage.”
Dugan says folks have been working hard at the state level to encourage interest in the trades and then offer programs to build skills at both the high school and college level.
“People have, for ages, pushed this idea that you’re not a success if you don’t go into the university system and get a four-year degree, and that’s just not what fits for everyone.”
Tracks in Georgia’s higher-ed system are two fold: technical schools that teach skilled trades, “but also two-year degrees which incorporate business courses, so if they want to go from being an electrician to having their own company, there are resources available so they can make that transition.”
In New Hampshire, where companies like Noveletsky’s (she is also owner/president of Rose Steel), along with others including Capone Iron and SL Chasse Steel joined forces to encourage growth in the labor force at the high school level only to find few takers, has found success with the DoD SkillBridge Program, through which people transitioning out of military careers find new ones on the other side.
“We don’t get to keep them all, because they come from all over the country and often want to go home,” said Noveletsky, who served in the Army Reserve Nurse Corp for eight years, “but it’s been a really nice opportunity to give back to the military and put more welders into the workforce.”
Immigration reform, all the candidates agree, could help a lot.
“I think the people who stand back and say they don’t want Mexicans crossing the border [at all] are not in touch with our reality,” said Bucher, noting that his drywall and paint crew, and some of the best carpenters on the Weigand team, come from immigrant populations.
“Some are the sons and daughters of immigrants,” he said. “[Critics are] so far removed from the jobs we depend on, they don’t understand how much the country needs them.”
Current laws that are on the books, says Prescott, are being ignored.
“Those laws [were made] for the fact that bringing people in who can help with our economy, who can make America a better place to live, work and raise a family,” he said. “And people in industry are in need of qualified, hardworking people who have an ethic, a belief that America
is great and want to make it greater, who want to work to achieve the American dream.”
Noveletsky thought the economy would be the thing she heard most about from potential constituents until she got out there and started shaking hands.
“It’s the border. It’s immigration. And immigration is a two-fold issue: legal and illegal. Because if we’re going to push ‘Buy American,’ if we’re going to reshore our domestic manufacturing and our supply chains, we’re going to need workers.”
Noveletsky, who brought workers here from England, said it costs tens of thousands and takes years, for issues that often don’t matter at all when it comes to execution.
“By 2027, we’re going to be short 400,000 welders in this country. I need welders. I don’t need them to have a bachelor’s degree.”
The legal side needs reform, while the unlawful routes need to be quashed. “We can’t have a two-tier system where the people who do it right are penalized and have to wait years, if not decades, to get here, while incentivizing people to do it the illegal way. We need to shut the border and revamp the system.”
This doesn’t mean the economy isn’t on folks’ minds, too.
“Here in New England, we have the double-whammy of the economy increasing interest rates and decreasing work availability, and we fight foreign competition,” she said. “Right now, our biggest competitor is Quebec.”
Subsidies, exchange rates and other factors create a sweet spot for foreign-fabricated steel, which comprises more than 90% of the public school projects in Massachusetts, she said.
“They’re 25% plus lower; we can’t touch their prices,” she said. “We’re losing work because there’s less of it and we’re being squeezed by increasing wages and material [costs]
because of a lack of workforce.”
The word compromise, she hears, is considered poison in D.C.
“When you look at the nightly news and you see the people on the far-left and far-right getting their five minutes of fame, they’re the ones we hear from and they’re the ones holding up the process,” she said. “We need to get people there who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done.”
Dugan, though more politically experienced, would likely agree.
“We need to govern. And government is a relationship,” he said. “Everyone has their ideological views. I am conservative. But I am just one person. There are 435 of them in the House of Representatives and each one sees things through a slightly different lens. So, how do you get them to work together to actually move our national interests forward?”
Like his fellow AGC members, Bucher sees this race as an opportunity to reset things in the Capitol and get things done.
“I want to spark renewal,” he said. “We’ve got to get something better out of our government again. We can’t continue with the status quo.”
I have heard it said on several occasions, Bucher’s website reads. “I don’t believe there is any political way to restore DC.”
In response, I say, “So don’t send politicians.”
Noveletsky is many things: a businesswoman, a veteran, a nurse who has volunteered on the heels of disasters at home and abroad, a grandma. A politician? Not so much.
“I have always maintained my practice a couple of times a month because I love nursing. And what I love about the steel industry is the people.”
As she’s traveled around her state, she’s rediscovered that love.
“We have such good people in this country. In construction.”
The greatest gift we can give them, she says, is what AGC members have known for a long time. “We need to help them develop their relationships. We don’t want to lose doing work on a handshake, to be face to face and work problems out. You can only do that with relationships.”
It’s what she and her fellow candidates hope to bring to Washington if they get the job.
“I have no delusions that I’m a savior and can go there and make everything right,” she said. “But I want to be a part of the solution. I can’t not try.”