Charlie Bass is the kind of politician who really listens to his constituents. It is one of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, that he has so successfully represented New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District through the years. And it is one of the many reasons why voters should reelect him to continue his public service.

How does Charlie, a Republican, keep getting elected in a district that has so many Democrats? That is easy. He listens. He spends a lot of time in the district just conversing with constituents and learning. He knows what people’s concerns are, and he makes sure to address them.

It helps that he is an old-fashioned New England Republican, not a hard-core conservative. That showed in this Congress, which had an influx of Tea Party conservatives in 2010. After the 2010 election, Charlie’s American Conservative Union ranking dropped from a 68.74 to a 52. As the U.S. House got more conservative, Charlie stayed the same. He voted, as he always does, to represent the views and values of his district, not of the national Republican Party activists.

His opponent, Ann Kuster, has shown in the last several weeks that she is not just extremely liberal, but, well, kind of belligerent about it. Every congressional candidate is “tracked” by a camera-carrying staff member of the opposition. When one of Bass’ staffers asked Kuster some routine questions in a public place not long ago, she yanked the camera out of his hands and got verbally nasty. When the video was posted online, she claimed that the staffer had gotten aggressive with her, although the video shows otherwise. Then at a debate this week she got upset and grabbed Charlie’s microphone. That is really strange behavior for a congressional candidate.

Even if she were not so grabby, Kuster would be a bad choice. She is a strident, ideological liberal who does not quite get the people of the district, as Charlie does. Bass works hard to represent all people of District 2. He has earned the chance to continue doing so.