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As a mayor and city councilor of Lowell, Eileen Donoghue has seen the repercussions of poorly funded federal projects on a municipality.

In that office, which she held for two terms, the Holyoke native led the schools and improved the city despite frequent federal funding shortfalls, she said. She said she brought Lowell from a shaky situation to more solid footing.

Now Donoghue, 53, wants to govern from the other side of the equation, in Congress, where those acts, mandates and federal funds originate. She is one of five Democrats seeking the 5th Congressional District seat in the Tuesday, Sept. 4, primary election.

Running second to Niki Tsongas in recent polls, Donoghue maintains that her 12 years of experience in local politics and the fact that she has lived and worked in the district over the last decade — unlike the frontrunner — should sway the vote her way.

The first item on Donoghue’s agenda will be a new G.I. Bill of Rights, she said. Although she wants the U.S. to leave Iraq, she thinks the federal government should do more to help returning troops.

“Whether you’re in favor of the war or you’re not … the fact is we have an obligation to these men and women,” Donoghue told Community Newspaper Co. editors and reporters in a recent meeting.

She has watched the problems pile up for veterans, from reports of high suicide rates among returning vets, to the scandalously bad conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, to reports of rising unemployment rates among veterans.

To fix these problems, Donoghue wants the country to provide job training in addition to medical and psychological care for returning troops, she said, adding that such proposals would be long-term commitments. Injuries from the Iraq war can last a lifetime, she said.

“Bring the troops home immediately,” Donoghue said. “Set a timetable.”

Besides injury to soldiers, the war has drained the national budget and sapped the strength from the Army, she said.

“It’s going to cost us $1 trillion if we end it in 2007,” Donoghue said. “I think it’s strained the military tremendously.”

After the war, affordable health insurance is the next most important issue, she said.

“It’s no secret that the costs of health care are totally out of sight and out of control,” said Donoghue.

She outlined a policy to enact universal health care coverage similar to the Massachusetts expanded health care bill passed last summer.

Instead of the Bay State’s mandate on individuals to insure themselves, Donoghue would make health insurance the responsibility of employers, she said.

Her policy would give tools to small businesses, allowing them to pool resources so they could have the same bargaining power as larger businesses, she said.

Although Donoghue finds a nationwide single-payer system, like Medicare, she does not believe that kind of reform has enough political support.

“In the meantime … we still have, you know, 47 million people uninsured,” she said.

As mayor of Lowell, Donoghue also served as chairman of that city’s School Committee, where she had firsthand experience with the federal government’s impact on education.

Donoghue felt the federal government should have funded a larger part of Lowell’s $20 million special education budget. The government has also neglected to fund the No Child Left Behind act, she said.

She would like a moratorium on the education mandates of No Child Left Behind, until the law receives proper funding, she said.

In terms of support for environmentally friendly initiatives and regulations, Donoghue thinks that the government is lagging behind.

“There’s no reason why the federal government can’t be a leader on this issue,” Donoghue said. To give the government some influence in this area, she would favor appointing a national renewable energy czar.

The proposed post would be similar to the current drug czar, creating a leader who could dictate policy on renewable energy, Donoghue said.

With about 500,000 buildings and 600,000 automobiles owned by the federal government, a national renewable energy czar could start by holding the government accountable, she said.

Without a solid leader, movements to reform energy consumption will be waylaid by lobbying groups, said Donoghue, who also supports raising fuel efficiency standards on automobiles.

To pay for some of these programs, she wants to roll back tax cuts on the wealthy and trim the defense budget.

But that will not be easy, because only a small percentage of budgets are discretionary, she said.

On the campaign trail Donoghue has emphasized her experience in Lowell.

Referring to Tsongas, Donoghue said that experience or “lack thereof” matters. Tsongas, a dean at Middlesex Community College, has never been elected to political office and moved to Charlestown in the 1990s after her husband, Paul, the former congressman for the district, passed away. She moved back to Lowell about a year ago.

“Twelve years ago before I got involved in politics, I didn’t know then, what I know now,” Donoghue said. “I have been there for 12 years. I have been working day in and day out. I have stuck by. I did not move away. That’s not an attack, that’s just a fact.”

During her tenure in Lowell’s government, Donoghue worked on a project to revitalize housing in the downtown area from mostly subsidized housing to mixed income.

Though the process was “controversial,” she said it worked out well, as low-income families were able to move into the nicer homes.

Donoghue said she would follow former 5th District U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan’s example of holding Town Hall meetings throughout the district.

“When people give you their vote, they give you their trust and that’s a big responsibility,” she said. “You have to be able to discuss tough issues and defend a position.”

(Andy Metzger can be reached at ametzger@cnc.com or at 978-371-5745.)