WHERE DOES ONE START??

Let’s start with the Exeter/Anthem contract impasse. What we have is two 900 pound greedy gorillas and a situation where there is a lot of money at stake. Some of the numbers that are being thrown around is about 20,000 insurance subscribers and total costs have not been released yet.

What we are looking at is the most expensive hospital in NH by about 50% and a greedy insurance company with a lot of purchasing power. I remember being told, by reliable sources that an Anthem CEO was paid about $600,000 salary and a million $ bonus on top of that. Where do we think this money is coming from? I think it is coming out of health insurance premiums and I firmly believe that greed is what is driving up our health insurance costs as well as our health care $’s.

It seems every contract negotiation period we go through these negotiation gyrations and people like you and me get dragged into the PR war of who is right and who is wrong and how we are all going to lose our favorite doctors. Fortunately, Dorie and I moved our health care to the Portsmouth Hospital and our PCP too so we are not directly affected by all of this; but, what I do know is there is too much money at stake for both parties to continue playing one upsmanship and I would not want to be the Anthem CEO that loses 20,000 subscribers who are paying about 1,000 a month for their health insurance premiums. I don’t believe Exeter Hospital can afford a mass exodus to Portsmouth. There are times that when Dorie and I have gone to Portsmouth Hospital, or any of our other doctors offices, it seems like we are always bumping into friends or other Exeter residents; more people seem to be going to Portsmouth, than Portsmouth patients coming to Exeter and this cannot be good for Exeter Hospital so another hemorrhaging of Exeter patients will not be good.

That is why I think an agreement we will be reached as soon as one of the protagonists blinks.

I have a meeting with the NH Insurance Commissioner next week and we can chat about this.

WHEN IS A FINANCIAL MESS A REAL FINANCIAL MESS??

When the legislative auditors tell you the NH State budget deficit just went up another $100 million dollars to $900 million; when you elect liberals don’t be surprised when they spend us into a huge deficit and the republicans have to come in clean up the mess. The old political saying is put the liberals in control of the social programs and the fiscal conservatives in charge of the purse strings; that way everyone is happy.

My committee assignment is on the finance committee, division one, with Ken Weyler from Kingston as my chairman. Ken and are have been friends and supporters for years and I have the greatest respect for his MIT education and intellect. If anyone can help lead us out of this mess it will be the excellent financial team that Speaker O’Brian has brought together on Ways and Means (they figure out how much money we have to spend) and finance (who figures out where to spend it). I believe the state cuts will be deep and painful; but there might be some hope and ways to mitigate the cuts without passing anything along to the towns.


We need to all remember that what the state does has only minimal impact on you local tax bill. The majority of times it is YOU that determines what your tax bill is by voting in all the local spending increases for the town and especially the schools. If you don’t show up at the deliberative session and vote no on some of these increased spending proposals, then you own your tax bill, not the state. When we complain about our tax bill we are actually complaining about our own action or inaction.

A REMINDER IN HISTORY.

General VoNguyen Giap.

General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader
of the North Vietnam military. The following quote
is from his memoirs currently found in the
Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi :

'What we still don't understand is why you Americans
stopped the bombing of Hanoi . You had us on the
ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder,
just for another day or two, we were ready
to surrender! It was the same at the
battle of TET. You defeated us!
We knew it, and we thought
you knew it.
But we were elated to notice your media was
helping us. They were causing more disruption in
America than we could in the battlefields. We
were ready to surrender. You had won!'

General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed
what most Americans knew. The Vietnam war was not
lost in Vietnam -- it was lost at home. The
same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media,
is currently underway. It exposes the
enormous power of a Biased Media to
cut out the heart and will of
the American public.

A truism worthy of note: ... Do not fear the enemy, for
they can take only your life. Fear the media, for
they will destroy your honor.

REMEMBER, IF YOU DON’T ACT CRAZY, NOBODY WILL KNOW!!!

I don’t know if it is just me or when I watch the Exeter Selectman’s meeting there is a lunatic fringe that keeps coming in and attacking the selectman or the Town Manager. Maybe I’m the one that is nuts and they are normal, never rule out all the variables when you are trying to make a decision. If they want the town manager gone draw up a petition and present it to the board. But stop this haranguing that distracts from town business, is so wasteful of time, and let the board listen to constructive ideas to move our town forward. Don't misunderstand, there is a need for the voters and taxpayers, such as Mr. Bailey, to keep an eye on the process; but, some others need to take a break. This last meeting was a little too much.

Just for the record, I’m not all that happy with how Exeter is being run, we are spending much more than we need to keep our services and reduce our taxes. We need to cut spending, pay down our bond debt obligations and get ready for a new sewer treatment plant. Our need for infrastructure upgrades border on catastrophic in nature to the taxpayers; please keep this in mind.

Some were complaining about the cable contract; but, where were they on the transportation fees being placed on registering our vehicles? The voters seem to vote in every spending issue that goes before them on the warrant articles and then complain that their property taxes are too high. We are also in the mindset that we don’t have to cut back our local spending, we just need to complain to the state that we need more money in the revenue sharing area to make our local ends meet; remember the state has to balance their budget buy cutting spending.

A good test for Frank Guinta and Kelly Ayotte will be to find about 30-40 million in grants to fund our water and sewer upgrades that need to be done because the feds keep changing the guide lines requiring expensive upgrades.

We do need to bring back the water sewer commission. My request to the town is NOT to reappoint the prior members that quit when the town needed them. I do believe we have people in town with the expertise to devote full time to our water and sewer needs with out the political game playing that caused the demise of the water sewer commission.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Now the elections are over and everyone is in place, pending committee assignments, the jockeying began. There were two main contenders for speaker with two other well qualified and very fine people who were lesser known running. The vote was pretty much neck and neck and the first ballot for speaker was inconclusive without the needed majority to win, by 1 vote. The second ballot gave the speaker ship to Bill O’Brian by under 10 votes. Either by 10 or a thousand, Bill was the winner.

Bill had Gene out classed in his ability to communicate to the newly elected freshman; but, reached out to the libertarians. Bill also had some very good people supporting him and one of his secret weapons is Pam Tucker out of Greenland. Anybody that knows Pam knows you don’t let a pretty face hide a cold organizational logic and great communications skills by a warm caring heart that can squeeze you for a vote while asking how your family is doing. She was the secret weapon to victory. Other people saw Pam the way I did and she is now the deputy speaker; good choice Bill.

The interesting part of this election was that the democrats were trying to get Gene Chandler elected speaker because they new he would be less partisan than Bill. Gene rejected their support, which would have put him over the top and speaker, to his credit.

One of the issues we have to keep in mind is the democrats left standing after the last election are mostly comprised of the left wing loonies from safe voting districts. These are the least easy of any democrats to deal with. There is probably no reason to reach out to them because of the huge republican majority; but, it would be the right thing to do. I suspect the reaching out will not be without limits.

The usual number of bills filed during the first filing session is about 1200, there is a projection and only a guess, there will be about 1800 which are crazy. We have some freshman putting in about 20 bills dealing with a variety of social issues; get out the Advil.

The very process that we have to work with will be working against us. With all the social bills in we will have to take those first because the budget bills always come in last because of the lengthy hearings, department presentations and general discussions takes the majority of time for the first session. It is not easy to find where to cut almost a billion dollars out of a 12 billion dollar budget (very time consuming).

So that is pretty much what we are facing and the tasks will be daunting. We can do it with your help, input and guidance.

COURAGE COMES IN SMALL PACKAGES!!!

The following is a press release from ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. I don’t really know what they do; but do know that is where my daughter Alexa is stationed. She is on her 8th tour to Afghanistan, her first 7 were flying and she drew a ground tour on this one.

Alexa was instrumental in promoting and organizing a soccer match between the ISAF women and the Afghan women’s soccer team. In the middle of a war that our troops are fighting and the politicians are fighting over, Alexa asks the Afghan women’s team, “hey you guys want to play soccer”?

As I have seen in the news and told by veterans that there are parts of Afghanistan that if you’re a female and try to go to school you will be killed. If you wear anything other than the traditional dress, you will be killed, in other words if you’re a woman in Afghanistan, it seems it is awful easy to get killed.

What I’ve heard is that the captain of the women’s team is about five feet tall and a college student studying a finance/economics program at a college in Kabul and most of the soccer players are either college or high school students. One of them told ISAF that they wanted to show the world that they aren’t afraid anymore and they want the world to know they are sick of war; many of them were born during some kind of war and know nothing else,many of them have lost friends and family.

They seem to be like “kids” or women that know what they want and not afraid to push for it, the end of war and peace to their country.

The ISAF team is a composite team of people from different countries most of which grew up playing soccer and thought this was a great idea. All the generals bought into this idea and the game was on.

With only about 3 weeks to turn the NATO team into a team the training began, about 3hours a day after work, which can run 12 shifts, if they can’t sneak away for the team.

Finally the big day arrived today. The game was covered by about 25 international news organizations and many ranking officers from NATO. The Afghan team had beaten the Pakistani team and was up for the match. The teams went back and forth, up and down the field and stayed scoreless for a long time. Both teams started out not playing as good as they wanted and improved as the day went on.

Both teams did an excellent job with the Afghan women able to get one goal while holding the ISAF team scoreless.

What appeared amazing is that the vendors that were selling at the bizarre were (all men) rooting and cheering for the Afghan women. This is generally unheard of in that culture.

I tried to get Alexa to admit that they let the Afghan women win to rule out any honor killings, should they lose, and Alexa assured me it was a fair, hard fought game and they all had a wonderful time.

Just think of the ramifications; why would we send special ops troops into the mountains to kill the enemy, spend billions on sophisticated weaponry and drones, etc. When soccer balls are so cheap? Hey let’s stop shooting at each other for awhile and play soccer.

I say this tongue and cheek and only kidding; this is what the world would be like if it was run by women, no more wars, lower grocery prices and they will probably find an end to world hunger. It is getting to sound better and better all the time.

I can also tell you that we are very proud of our young Captain, that was born, raised and educated right here in Exeter, she truley one of Exeters own and also brings pride, not only to our family, but also to our community.

The press release follows.





"MEDIA ADVISORY
Headquarters
International Security Assistance Force – Afghanistan


Committed to the security, reconstruction and extension of governance in Afghanistan

2010-10-CA-010

Afghan National Women’s Football Team, ISAF Women
Set to Face Off

KABUL, Afghanistan (October 25) – Kabul-based media are invited to attend a football match here at ISAF headquarters between the Afghan national women’s football team and a pick-up team of women from ISAF on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 1:00 p.m.

Leadership from the Afghan women’s team, who requested the match, envisioned the exhibition game as an opportunity to practice against friendly international competition in preparation for future tournaments.

When approached, ISAF members were eager to support the Afghan team.

“We admire the courage, tenacity and fearlessness of these Afghan women,” said US Air Force Capt. Alexa Quandt, an ISAF women’s team member and event coordinator. “They are truly an inspiration with their perseverance and dedication.”

The Afghan women’s team, founded in 2004, played their first international match against Pakistan in August, 2007. The team is the first all-women Afghan soccer team ranked by FIFA, the world soccer's governing body.

Since then, the team has continued to seek new challenges to hone their skills and demonstrate their resolve to continue playing the game they love.

“Afghans should be proud of their women’s football team,” said Brigadier General Chris Whitecross, ISAF Communications. “This match is a great way for them to showcase their skills against friendly competition.”

Media interested in attending must arrive at the ISAF main gate no later than 12:15 p.m.

WHAT: Football match
WHO: Afghan national women’s football team vs. ISAF women’s team
WHEN: 1:00 p.m. Friday, October 29, 2010
WHERE: ISAF Headquarters"

LET BYGONES BE BYGONES!!!

Pat Abrami and I had a long talk and have cleared the air and put aside any disagreements or misunderstandings. As we grow older we understand that grudges and ill feelings do not extend our lives. I have always respected Pat and understand his steadfastness in doing the right thing for our constituents and with his health care knowledge will be an asset to our constituents.

Remember I said at the last candidate’s forum, if people have their hearts in the right place to do the right thing, the only part of the equation to answer is how we get there.

There is a lot to respect with our republican candidates; they all bring something to the table and have strong leadership abilities to lead and guide us through the next few years of what is shaping up to be very tough economic decisions. People like Pat, Frank, Ron, Joanne, Tim and Michele do have the abilities to do this. If elected they will all need political guidance to get to that other 50% of the problem, which is the solution.

I saw them struggle through this campaign, now if they win, they will need to be molded as a team to become affective representatives and Matt and I will be working with them to move our constituents agenda forward (of course this is if we all win); but that will be up to the voters.

I do have an area of concern, no longer about our candidates; but, if the republicans show up on Tuesday, Nov 2d. The independents, god bless them, can only carry the fight for so long. We will need main stream republicans to step up and stand with us.

Lee

RON DUPUIS!!!

One of the under rated candidates running for State Rep is Ron Dupuis. Ron is an honorable person who once served in the house from the Derry area. Ron moved from Derry to North Hampton a number of years ago and did the honorable thing and resigned his house seat because he left his district. Many state reps wouldn’t do that and hang on until the next election and not run; Ron isn’t like that.
While in the house, Ron did a good job and was very conscientious and fiscally conservative.

I am hoping Ron gets elected because we need his experience and fiscal conservatism to get NH back on the right fiscal footing.

He’s a good choice.

Lee

THE ELECTION IS GETTING CLOSER!!!

November 2d, is getting closer and the political picture is becoming clearer. First of all the democratic state rep candidates for our district (district 13) are some of the friendliest and best candidates that have run for these seats in a long time, that is to their credit. The republicans are divided and appear to be lacking a clear message or vision for the future or they are just not articulating it.

GOVERNORS’S RACE: John Lynch is the embedded politician with the backing of a bunch of special interest groups from gay marriage to the various police groups with the power of the incumbency. He is going for an unprecedented 4th term. On the other hand we have a feisty John Stephen who I don’t think is impressed the Lynch’s support, record, or polling numbers. As best as I can figure the polling numbers are closer than we think, in the 6 or so point range, which is quite good at this point in the election. It only takes 3 days to win or lose an election. Stephen can win.

GOVERNOR’S COUNCIL RACE: Bev Hollingworh is well thought of, respected and is in a job where she doesn’t have to vote on gay rights, budgets, abortion, gun rights, etc. She just keeps the governor on the straight and narrow and is another conduit for her constituents to state government. She does not play politics and represents her constituents irregardless of their political party; she is caring and respected. Chris Sununu is a smart young man with a recognized name and has a hard time attacking Bev’s record of constituent support and just being liked. I think Bev will hold onto her seat.

STATE SENATE: Although Russ Prescott has been doing an admirable job campaigning and holding his own in candidate forums, Maggie has matured as a speaker and politician and is going to be tough to beat. I’ve been told that insider polls show Maggie is vulnerable; but, the question is too who. I think Maggie will hold on to her seat.

STATE REPS RACE: Where do we start? The democrats have the best field of candidates they have had in years. The republicans are struggling for control of the party, process and candidates. In other words divided and looking like rookies, Oh, I think they are. Although both Matt and I are running for state rep, we are not part of the tri’town debacle and have a totally different philosophy of our constituents first. It is always hard to take on the entrenched establishment and realize if we can’t get bought off, scared off, what is left, try calling us names. If that doesn’t work, tear down our signs and call us more names. Matt and I are running our own campaign independent of the establishment; the voters are our campaign staff and call the shots and the direction that we will go.

There are some good people running for state rep that are republicans; but, they are too new to the process to know how to think independently. BEST GUESS: 4 and 4, 4 republicans and 4 democrats in this race. The democrats are predicting 8 & 2; but, I think it will be 4&4 or 5-3 with 5 republicans.

As the races tighten my predictions might change based on proposed voter turnout and I will try to stay on top of the projections.

IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE AND ISSUES STUPID!!!

Politicians seem to be afraid of those people who identify as “Tea Party Followers” or supporters. If I’m paying attention they are disenfranchised republicans and moderate to conservative democrats who have had it with the political machines. They do not like where both parties have taken our country and state.

By their very purpose in life political machines are like government bureaucrats, trying to expand their power and influence to feed their feelings of self-importance. As people are coming to realize they don’t care about us; but, simply want to use us to feed their egos and feelings of self importance.

I was talking to some democrats and they couldn’t believe why the republicans have so much infighting and attacking each other. Obviously, they have been hearing the same things that Matt, I and our supporters have. I guess when you tell the establishment to bug off, they have to try to hurt you so anyone else who sees the problems within the political structure power brokers and king makers try to make sure the rebellion comes to an end.

If you noticed the democrats haven’t been wasting a lot of time attacking republicans, on a local level, because they know they don’t have to because we have a toxic venomous group attacking other republicans. So it is no longer important to promote republican principles and ideas, it has to be choreographed by the political power brokers. What you are seeing is the last gasps of antique thinking and emergence of people who are no longer listening to them.

Maybe it is just the people I talk to; but, most say they care more about the candidate and their message than they do who what party they belong to. Once the republicans adapt to this political change they will be able to come out strong. The democrats, in my opinion, have not been able to stand alone on the issues. Their candidates are being fed the standard line cool aid and everyone knows their arguments cannot defend their political positions. For whatever reasons they cannot admit that they screwed up the state and federal government and are just being fed info to justify what they did. The voters can see through this and it will cost the democrats major votes. If they are unwilling to realize and admit what caused the problem it is going to be hard to work with them to fix it.

The republicans will probably win by default, no matter how dumb we act or who attacks who. Where the problem lies is will they work together should they get elected. The answer will probably be no, the newbie’s will follow the republican platform and leadership right over the cliff. In other words, as one of my supporters put it, every nut that signed up will win. She actually made me chuckle for quite awhile over that one.

Exeter-Stratham and North Hampton have a tendency to buck the political trend and vote for the candidate and the message instead of the party so I would be quite cautious in having victory parties before the votes are counted.

I think the break for the district 13 states rep races will be somewhere around 4-4 or 5-3, breaking even or in favor of republicans. I’m still watching the state senate race and the governor’s council race.

I believe the voters will stay with the candidates that have the best message and who and what candidate and message the voters relate too.

MATT'S EMAIL!!

For anyone who has sent Matt an email and didn't get a response here is why. Matt's lap top has been down since July and now that it is up and running he had over 3,000 emails going back to July. Most of which got deleted so if you wonder why you didn't a response you know why; please resend your emails to mjquandt@comcast.net and he will get to them. Matt was trying to answer his emails off of his blackberry; but, that didn't work out very well. He is up and running and waiting for your discussions.

Thanks,

Lee

THE QUANDT PARTY!!!

When Matt and I decided not to run with the tri town, supposedly, one of their co-chairs referred to us as the “Quandt Party”; everybody that heard that including us thought that was hilarious. We just wanted to be left alone and run our own campaign; but, that was not to be.

As the word went around the state that we formed a new party, all two of us, the laughs became louder, and everyone who heard of this knew where it was coming from.

Matt and I have held an election of officers and Bill Binnie was unanimously elected chairman and Bob Clegg is vice chairman (by two votes).

During the campaign the establishment attacked Bill for not backing off of his senate run against the hand picked choice to run. I like Bill, supported him and though overall he did a good job, had a good message and was the one to help get us out of the financial mess our country is in. But once again the message was over shadowed by the best smear campaign I’ve seen in years.

I’m a firm believer if you run a campaign that is based on lies, distortions and misinformation and should you win you forfeit the right to ask for unity from the people you smeared. This will be a very interesting general election. When Bob Smith was attacked and smeared by the republican establishment about 12 years ago a number of Smith supporters would not vote for the person who beat him, that person needed those votes in the last election and they were not there and now we have a democrat in that seat. That may not be reflective in this general election; but, in a close election down the road it will be.

Bob Clegg is a very kind rough and tumble construction company owner. He started digging ditches with a shovel and worked his way up. He can be generous to a fault but, always called in by the state house republican leadership to clean up the messes; I know I was there. Unfortunately, he is being attacked because of his support for Bill Binnie and his outspoken forth right style. Bob, who was the senate majority leader and cleaned up the state senates image of selling your vote for special interest money, is now a lobbyist and doing quite well. An honest lobbyist we can deal with a crooked one, no thanks.

Bob is under attack by establishment republicans who are mad he went against the establishment’s candidate, well get over it and let the voters pick their candidates and stop trying to control us all the time. Now we have to go through the punishment phase to show everyone what happens when you don’t bow to the elitists who are giving the orders and making our decisions for us.

But to Bob and Bill, not to worry you are now part of a different party, a party that puts people before politics and cares about doing the right thing, there may only be 4 of us right now but the message will catch on.

IT IS TIME FOR A SHORT WREST!!!

At least the negative campaigning and name calling should subside in the republican ranks while the democrats can crank up the rhetoric. It was interesting that I was targeted by republicans; it appears originating out of Stratham, making false accusations of some of my positions. Since it had to deal with abortion, I knew where it came from; couple that with a prominent member of a local political group supposedly made the statement, before the primary, that their mission was to see that the Quandts did not make it through the primary.

I knew when Matt and I decided to run independent of the establishment stuff like this would happen; I guess the local establishment doesn’t take rejection well.

The important thing is that the bond between the voters and the Quandts is still strong and our respect, affection and gratitude to the voters of Exeter-Stratham and North Hampton is still our commitment of putting you before the establishment.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your wonderful support in the primary.

Lee and Matt

ABSOLUTELY TASTELESS!!!

I enjoy creative political ads and the more humor they put in them the better I like them, even if it is bad humor. Bill Binnie stayed positive until his numbers started to eclipse CK’s then the Cornerstone group started attacking him, then he came back after CK Aoyette, then CK came after him.

Binnie stopped the negative ads while CK is still doing them attacking Binnie. Then Lamontagne starts in on his ads against Binnie alluding to Binnie having money and trying to buy the campaign (Ovide doesn’t seem to have any money so he is attacking the one who does). OK, we all know money is evil and we all wish we had more of it so what’s the problem? I don’t care who has money or not, I want to know what they are going to do to fix the mess our country is in; it’s about issues stupid.

But what sticks in my craw, and I might just be sensitive to the situation, is CK doing campaign ads on the tragic death of a police officer in Manchester. There are some things that go far beyond common decency and political campaign protocol and campaigning off of a dead police officer or military person is one of them. This speaks volumes about the candidate’s character.

MY FRIEND MIKE DOWNING!!!

Mike is running for Sheriff of Rockingham County in a crowded field. Mike is from Salem, NH and I knew him when he was trooper out of Troop A and also as a Salem Police Officer, when I was working as a State Probation/Parole Officer out of Derry.

Mike was always a good guy to work with, quiet, organized, capable and efficient. You couldn’t ask for a better person to work with, if you needed support on the street or police reports he made sure you had them.

Then when I and then Matt got elected to the house we found Mike in there as a legislator. We worked well together and Mike had an abundance of, not only brains; but, common sense. Mike was in the legislature for about three terms and then ran for the senate when Chuck Morse vacated the position to run for another office. Mike then did about 3 terms as a Senator. He was the assistant republican leader in the senate for the last couple of years. I could not tell you how many times Mike carried the republican message on legislation that made it to the senate. In other words he carried the republican water and party message.

Now he is coming back home to run for Sheriff. After all the hard work and message carrying he did for the republicans he is deserving of all of our support. After what has happened in the state politically it would have been a lot worse without Mike fighting for us. Now it is up to us to thank Mike for all of his hard work and his support for the people of Rockingham County.

Mike is an administrator, his quiet but effective style of management will be just what we need on the country level. His understanding of the duties of the Sheriff’s Office, emergency preparedness, process service, superior court security and inmate and criminal transportation for the courts (to name just a few), will go along way to improve the mission of the Sheriffs’ Office.

Please give Mike your vote on Sept. 14th.

Thank you,

Lee

THE ARROGANCE OF ELITISM!!!

There was a recent letter to the editors from the treasurer of the Tri Town Republican group attacking Bill Binnie for having too much money and calling republicans who disagree with the tri-town malcontents. That’s a lot of name calling for one letter; I don’t think I can match that.

The letter writer, when he was chairman of tri-town, if I remember right was a big backer of Craig Benson. I don’t have anything against Craig; but, I think he was rich and spent about 13 million dollars to win the governor’s seat only to find out that politically it was one of the weakest positions in the state.

Then he talks about lobbyists. I don’t think Binnie is taking a lot of money off of lobbyists while his opponent Kelly Ayotte’s campaign is pretty much funded by special interest, political machine and out of state money. So it makes me chuckle when someone from Westchester County, NY (I think that is where a lot of rich hoity toitys live) complains about people who have money, spend it the way they want and do not run around like beggars to lobbyists and big corporations.

This very attitude is why Matt and I decided after the last election not to run with the tri-town. We are not and have never been supportive of this kind of attitude. If you read my blog I have worked hard at explaining what I think is wrong with our political structure/parties in NH. I love it when someone steps and gives a good example of what I’ve been talking about.

The following link sums it up: http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/214899/charged-business-gave-to-ayotte

BILL BINNIE A LIBERAL???

The republican political machine is continuing making the same old mistakes. We all have to pass a DNA or litmus test to prove we are conservative enough to be a republican. The further to the right you go, the more republican you are. So now we have the test questions to our final exam on how to be a good republican. I always thought that a strong fiscal conservative and keeping government as small and efficient as possible was a conservative.

We are not the only party having identity problems. Just look at the fight going on in the second congressional district between Katrina Swett and Annie Kuster. Kuster is running as the screaming liberal progressive trying to paint Katrina as a moderate democrat. I guess poor Katrina is just not good enough to be a democrat.

We have so many special interest groups that are off the radar for common sense. Pro life, pro abortion, pro capital punishment, anti capital punishment, tree huggers, tree choppers, speed limits on the lakes, water shed advocates, protect our lakes, right to work, pro worker; the list can be enormous. Unfortunately, most are out of state groups that about as crazy as an out house mouse. If you disagree with any of them they’ll come after you politically with outrageous attack ads. Unfortunately these attacks can be affective because the readers do not know the full facts and buy into the message.

Kelly Ayotte did get Governor Lynch to kill the castle doctrine bill. The message was that it would cause kids to get killed in shopping centers because of shoot outs and drug dealers killing each other. It was off the wall; but, now she is denying it and has a couple of State Senators attacking the messenger, Senate majority leader Bob Clegg by trying to paint Clegg as a liberal. I like talking about this because Clegg is one of the strongest common sense conservatives in the state. This is what is going on in both parties, why would anyone with good old Yankee common sense want to be part of this?

I’m a conservative republican, I like to think that I am mostly a main stream conservative republican who supports my constituents more than I do the political king makers. I like working with and helping people. I think that is what we should be doing and stop wasting our time name calling and infighting. In short both parties have lost their message and direction and that is why we have the infighting and name calling. When C.K. Ayotte went negative when Binnie started to pass her by in the polls, created a situation nobody wanted. Now, Bill Binnie has taken the lead on getting back on track while C.K. is still running the negative ads and wallowing in the mud.

Bill Binnie is main stream republican that will work with anyone. Has he donated to democrats, YES. Just because you’re a democrat it doesn’t mean you can’t have republican friends. I have some good democratic friends that I personally like and respect that allow Matt and me to put signs up on their lawns and I have done very well by working with both sides of the isle in the legislature to get the job done. Who I talk to or buy a cup of coffee for or sit and talk to, is not as important as to getting the job done and, the job that the voters elect us to do; Bill Binnie is just such a man, he is focused on getting the job done. I believe he is a person that I can trust and I know he cares about people and that means a lot to me.

I think that C.K.’s campaign is out of control and it is her campaign managers and the republican political machine that owns this. I never knew C.K. as being a mean, nasty individual when I was working with her in the legislature this campaign is totally out of character for her.

IF YOU ARE CRAZY, DON’T ACT CRAZY AND NOBODY WILL KNOW!!!

As a young police officer back from Vietnam a much older cop told me, never be the first one into a fight, never issue a ticket in the rain or snow, and always know where the best luncheon specials are. In a strange sort of way it all made sense to me.

Now we have C. K. Ayotte’s campaign attacking the state workers for being liberal. Well I have some news that many people do not understand. There are roughly 10,000 state workers. They are pretty much broken down along the same lines and numbers as the general population of NH; about 3,000, 3000 and 3000. That is Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Totally, they have connections or input to between 35,000-50,000 voters. So, in my opinion you have to be crazy to go out of your way to pick a fight with them. C.K., you started this and was the first one into the fight.

Now Kelly who I always liked seems to have slipped a gear and in my opinion is nuts to do this. So her campaign is calling everyone names that disagrees with her and calls them liars. The strain of the campaign could be getting through to her or the other theory is that she is not running her campaign and the state party and D.C. insiders are because this is not the NH way.

A good example is calling Senator Bob Clegg a liberal. If they wanted to call Clegg a southern end of a north bound horse, I could find some agreement; but, a liberal come on CK and party establishment, that is not even close to being believable.

Because of the attack against our hardworking state workers the State Employees have issued a press release which follows:

“Contact: Jay Ward, Political Organizer

(603) 271-3411 x110

SEA Responds to Ayotte Campaign
Statement by State Employees' Association Political Organizer Jay Ward

Kelly Ayotte's campaign is attempting to marginalize the 10,000
hardworking New Hampshire residents who are members of the State
Employees' Association. But her campaign got the facts wrong. The SEA
is not "left-leaning" - our members include Republicans, Democrats and
Independents in almost equal portions. One-third of our membership is
registered Republican - and we have endorsed both Republican and
Democratic candidates in elections.

We find it offensive when any candidate's campaign takes shots at our
members and their politics. SEA members work for the residents of New
Hampshire - plowing roads, digging trenches, taking care of our elderly
veterans, helping at-risk children. Our members respond to the floods
and the ice storms when everyone else heads home and seeks shelter. Yet
Kelly Ayotte's campaign is now taking aim at the SEA.

If Kelly Ayotte believes that the Republican and independent members of
the State Employees' Association aren't good enough to vote for her in
the primary, then we have heard her message loud and clear. We will be
certain to pass that message on to anyone who might have thought she was
open to representing all citizens of New Hampshire - including those of
us who belong to organizations like the SEA”

Anybody that goes out looking for fight they don’t need, I think might slipping away from reality or reading too many of her own press releases, in other words and in my opinion, crazy.

When I was a Probation/Parole Officer I use to tell people on my caseload, “if you don’t act crazy I won’t treat you like you were. If you act crazy, I will treat you like your crazy and you are going to a shrink, the choice is yours”. You would be surprised to see how many people self adjusted.

So C.K. stop with the crazy name calling routine, you are just wasting a lot of money and making people mad. Please talk issues so everyone can have a clean issue oriented debate and respect the candidates.

WHO CARES????

Bill Binnie is closer to winning this senate race than I realized. At one point, I was told; his polling numbers surpassed his opponents. Then the surrogate right wing groups started attacking him. They do this at the request of the political establishment in conjunction with the candidate’s knowledge; but, the candidate who ok’s this feigns ignorance so to look like their hands are clean. Then the candidate who gets smeared fights back and the candidate who started it claims they are resorting to mud slinging or negative campaigning. This happened to me once and it was done and directed by the Republican State Party.

If we all remember Bill Binnie ran a squeaky clean campaign before his numbers closed on Kelly Ayotte. In panic the “political mean machine” establishment started attacking Bill for being a liberal. So it is obvious that my fellow republicans are ambidextrous, they not only can call democrats names; but, are good at calling each other names. Bill fought back and threw a few in their direction. Now the people who started this and keeping it up behind the scenes are (at least in public) calling for an end to this while they are still promoting it. Trying to paint Bill Binnie as a liberal is like painting the statute of liberty pink, the color just doesn’t work.

This is the politics of personal destruction, name calling and causing the voters to continue to go independent to get away from the political establishments (both democrat and republican) who are doing this.

Who really cares about the name calling? I want more discussion on the issues that are going to put people back to work, I want more discussion on reducing the costs of health insurance and health care delivery. I want to hear more about protecting our borders, finishing up the mess in Afghanistan, and taking care of those veterans who are coming home with wounds and stress issues. I want to know, and hear, more about their plans to motivate the economy so my retirement accounts stop hemorrhaging.

I was talking to a well placed democrat who supports Matt and me, and he said how this fight is unbelievable and the talk of the town amongst the democratic activists. They agreed with my last blog about not being able to come together and also invigorating the democrats for reducing their political losses in the next election.

Even the big shots at the Manchester Union Leader jumped in attacking Binnie with some very fuzzy facts; alleging Bill moved some of his plastics production to Mexico while keeping some in LA. Okay, we are no longer a producing country (unless you want to count the dummies that are doing all the name calling and the phony candidates behind them). Go to Wal-Mart, Target, and Arjays, find something made in the US, and don’t count the cashiers. Why is this happening? It’s the government forcing our production overseas. Our car parts are made in Mexico, our vans are made in Canada and we have to push 1 for English. I want to hear how they are going to turn this trend around and our country can again become friendly to small business to hire more people and get our country back to work.

I am not trying to tear down the Republican Party. I want them to LISTEN and hear what people want and are saying. I want the party to regain their political footing as the party of the people. Not just bar room brawlers who like to call people names and diminish the cherished respect we once had.

BILL BINNIE STANDS FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!!

To my supporters:

Today Governor Sununu, Chairman of the Republican Party, sent a letter to all candidates for US Senate and other offices, urging the campaigns to stick to the issues and not to engage in comparative or negative campaigning. It is a great idea, but sadly too late.

During the last year we have run a positive campaign only on the issues. Every commercial we’ve done, every speech I’ve given through August 16th has been positive to the issues or properly comparative on issues: jobs, spending, the economy – great challenges that need to be fixed.

In return, five of the last six state chairmen have written viciously negative attacks on me that were untrue. An outside group was brought in by my opponents to engage in negative advertising, which were found by the nationally-recognized and respected organization Factcheck.org to be distortions and lies.

The state party itself even reprinted and sent out the negative press release from the attack group that came into our state to hurt us.

To ask for candidates to be positive and not to recognize that some campaigns have been viciously negative for weeks is to blatantly close one’s eyes to reality.

I am proud of my campaign, I am proud of what I believe in and I believe the people of New Hampshire want someone who will fight for his ideals and fight for the state.

I will not back away from my engagement in this campaign on the issues and I will not walk away from defending myself.

The people of New Hampshire want and deserve someone who is not part of the insider machine and who will be their voice in Washington.

I will, with your support, continue to fight for everything we believe in and most importantly good government and common sense solutions to our problems.

In the coming days I will need your help and support.

There are rough days ahead and I am ready. With your help we will bring the sweeping reform to Washington and New Hampshire we deserve.

Sincerely,



Bill Binnie

CAUTION: POLITICS CAN BE HAZEDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH!!!

Politics has taken a noticeable turn for the worst in NH with the new attacks by the surrogate Republican Party affiliates. People knew from this year’s political beginning that the Republican Party picked candidates in the primary. I hear them say this isn’t true; but, the fingerprints are on the murder weapon. Kelly Ayotte was actively recruited by the establishment and supported by the, not only the state but the national republican party. Then along comes Bill Binnie and decides to run also. Binnie runs a clean issue oriented campaign; I met him, talked to him, listened to him and endorsed him.

His message and knowledge of business and doing business internationally is respected. As his message resonated and polling numbers drew closer between Binnie and Ayotte the vicious attacks began; there went the clean issue oriented campaign that drew my attention. One of the far right republican attack groups went after Binnie with TV and radio adds only to get body slammed by factcheck.org as being mostly distortions or lies. Now he’s being attacked for supposedly closing a factory and moving it to Mexico when the reality is he moved the factory to a newer facility 7 miles from the old one, and he opened a factory in Mexico. How this became a bad thing in the minds of the party leaders; I’m still trying to figure this one out.

Many of us older republicans can remember when the national republican party went after Bob Smith and left a huge credibility deficit within the party. Bob lost his primary against his opponent. Then more recently they went after Bob Clegg, a state senator and respected republican leader from Hudson when he ran against the party chosen candidate from the second congressional district. Now I hear they are doing the same thing to Bob Guida from Warren (remember these are all republicans) who is running against their chosen candidate in the second CD.

Although the republican establishment denies this; please don’t call me stupid unless you were one of my teachers at the Exeter Public Schools. It is obvious what is going on and the talk of the political town behind the scenes.

My suspicion is the party will not come together after the primary, end of argument, won’t happen. The philosophical split between the old style political machine and the people first philosophy may cause the organization of a new party. A party of fiscal conservatism, inclusiveness and concern for what is good for the voters not what is good for the king makers that are calling the political shots in NH.

I don’t like being controlled; I am a firm believer in freedom of speech, expression and thought. Our State and country are in very deep trouble, I think we all can see and feel it on a daily basis. We see jobs lost, government expanding as well as government spending, debt climbing through the roof and our political leadership reading from a 30 year old political handbook. We need every bit of common sense we can find to solve these problems let's pick the best most qualified candidates.

Lee

A GREAT MAN PASSED THIS WAY!!!

GEN Stanley McChrystal’s remarks on the occasion of his retirement ceremony, 23 July 2010, Fort McNair, Washington D.C.

GEN. MCCHRYSTAL: This is frustrating. I spent a career waiting to give a retirement speech and lie about what a great soldier I was. Then people show up who were actually there. It proves what Doug Brown taught me long ago; nothing ruins a good war story like an eyewitness.

To show you how bad it is, I can't even tell you I was the best player in my little league because the kid who was the best player is here tonight. In case you're looking around, he's not a kid anymore.

But to those here tonight who feel the need to contradict my memories with the truth, remember I was there too. I have stories on all of you, photos on many, and I know a Rolling Stone reporter. (Laughter.) (Applause.)

Look, this has the potential to be an awkward or even a sad occasion. With my resignation, I left a mission I feel strongly about. I ended a career I loved that began over 38 years ago. And I left unfulfilled commitments I made to many comrades in the fight, commitments I hold sacred.

My service did not end as I would have wished, and there are misperceptions about the loyalty and service of some dedicated professionals that will likely take some time but I believe will be corrected.

Still, Annie and I aren't approaching the future with sadness but with hope and iPhones. And my feelings for more than 34 years I spent as an Army officer are a combination of surprise that any experience could have been as rich and fulfilling as mine was and gratitude for the comrades and friends we were blessed with.
That's what I feel. And if I fail to communicate that effectively tonight, I'll simply remind you that Secretary Gates once told me I was a modern Patton of strategic communications. (Laughter.) Fair point.

So if we laugh tonight, it doesn't mean all these years have not been important to me. It means the opposite; that every day and every friend were gifts I treasure and I need to celebrate.

But first, I need to address two questions that we've been asked often lately. The first is: What are you going to do? Actually, Annie is the one who's asking me that. I'm thinking I'd be a good fashion consultant and spokesman for Gucci -- (laughter) -- but they haven't called.

The other question is always asked a bit tentatively. How are you and Annie doing? We did spend some years apart, but we're doing well. And I am carrying some of what I learned into retirement.

First, Annie and I are reconnecting. And now, we're up on Skype with each other. Of course, we never did that all the years I was 10,000 miles away, but now we can connect by video link when we're 15 feet apart. And I think she really likes that. (Laughter.)

I was so enthused I tried using Skype for a daily family VTC -- (laughter) -- where I could get updates and pass out guidance, but there's some resistance to flatter and faster in the McChrystal household.

The same is true for the tactical directive I issued soon after my return. It's reasonable guidance: One meal a day, early-morning PT, the basics of a good family life. (Laughter.)

But I've gotten a few night letters, and Annie's stocking up on ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- (laughter) -- which is strange since our new yard is smaller than this podium.

Although the insurgency is relatively small -- one woman -- she's uninterested in reintegration. (Laughter.) I assess the situation as serious and, in many ways, deteriorating. (Laughter.)
Mr. Secretary, look at her. I'm thinking at least 40,000 troops. (Laughter.) (Applause.)

Let me thank everyone for being here. This turnout is truly humbling. Here tonight are my wife and son, my four brothers, two nephews, mentors, comrades from countless phases of my career, and some special guests whose service and sacrifice are impossible to describe with words.

But because this crowd is pretty big, for good order and discipline, I've divided you all into four groups. Please remember your group number. (Laughter.)
Group 1 are all the people who accepted responsibility for making this ceremony work from the planners to the soldiers on the field. My apologies for all the time you spend in the heat. You're special people. And in my mind, you also represent soldiers all over the world. You have my sincere appreciation.

The second group -- (applause). The second group is distinguished servants of all
nations who have taken time from your often-crushing schedules to be here. And thanks for your years of support and friendship. I got you out of the office early on Friday.

Group 3 are warriors of all ranks, and that includes many who don't wear a uniform but defend our nation with whom I have shared aircraft, VTCs, remote outposts, frustrations, triumphs, laughs and a common cause for many years. You are not all here. Some of you are deployed and in the fight. Others rest across river in Arlington. Most of the credit I've received actually belongs to you. It has been your comradeship that I have considered the greatest honor of my career.

Finally, Group 4 is all those who've heard we're having two kegs of beer in the backyard after my ceremony. This group includes a number of my classmates from West Point, old friends, most of the warriors from Group 3, and some others who defy accurate description. Anyone already carrying a plastic cup might be considered the vanguard of Group 4. (Laughter.) Everyone here today is invited to join.
To Secretary Gates, I want to express my personal thanks, certainly, for your generous remarks but more for your wisdom and leadership which I experienced firsthand in each of my last three jobs. Your contribution to the nation and to the force is nothing short of historic.

Similarly, I want to thank the many leaders, civilian and military, of our nation beginning with President Obama for whom and with whom I was honored to serve. Whether elected, appointed or commissioned, the common denominator of selfless service has been inspiring.

As COM ISAF, I was provided a unique opportunity to serve alongside the professionals of 46 nations under the leadership of NATO. We were stronger for the diversity of our force, and I'm better for the experience.

My thanks, also, to the leadership and people of Afghanistan for their partnership, hospitality and friendship. For those who are tempted to simplify their view of Afghanistan and focus on the challenges ahead, I counter with my belief that Afghans have courage, strength and resiliency that will prove equal to the task.

My career included some amazing moments and memories, but it is the people I'll remember. It was always about the people. It was about the soldiers who are well-trained but, at the end of the day, act out of faith in their leaders and each other; about the young sergeants who emerge from the ranks with strength, discipline, commitment and courage.

As I grew older, the soldiers and sergeants of my youth grew older as well. They became the old sergeants, long-service professionals whose wisdom and incredible sense of responsibility for the mission and for our soldiers is extraordinary.

And the sergeants major -- they were a national treasure. They mold and maintain the force and leaders like me. They have been my comrade, confidante, constructive critic, mentor and best friend.

A little more than a year ago on a single e-mail, Command Sergeant Major Mike Hall came out of retirement, leaving a job, his son and his amazing wife Brenda to join me in Afghanistan. To Mike, I could never express my thanks. To Brenda, I know after all these years, I owe you. I also love you.

To true professionals like Sergeants Major Rudy Valentine, Jody Nacy, Steve Cuffie, CW Thompson, Chris Craven, Jeff Mellinger and Chris Farris, your presence here today is proof that, when something is truly important, like this ceremony, you're on hand to make sure I don't screw it up.

I've been blessed with the presence of old friends throughout my career, friendships that began long ago at West Point, Forts Benning, Bragg, Lewis or countless other locations and shared years of Army life, moving vans, kids, laughs, disappointments, and each other's successes which grew into bonds that became critical on the battlefield.

I treasure a note I received during a particularly tough time in Afghanistan in 2007 from fellow commander, Dave Rodriguez, that quoted Sherman's confidence that, if he ever needed support, he knew his friend Grant would come to his aid if alive. Serving with people who say and mean such words is extraordinary.

I served with many. Many of you are here tonight. And not all the heroes are comrades are in uniform. In the back of a darkened helicopter over Kunar, Afghanistan, in 2004, a comrade in blue jeans whose friendship I cherish to this day passed me a note. Scribbled on a page torn from a pocket notebook, the note said, "I don't know the Ranger Creed, but you can count on me to always be there." He lived up to his promise many times over.

To have shared so much with and been so dependent on people of such courage, physical and moral, integrity and selflessness taught me to believe.
Annie's here tonight. No doubt she walked the 50 feet from our front door in cute little Italian shoes of which we have an extensive collection. (Laughter.) In Afghanistan, I once considered using Annie's shoe purchases as an argument to get Italy to send additional forces. (Laughter.) But truth be known, I have no control over that part of the McChrystal economy. (Laughter.)

But she's here like she's always been there when it mattered. Always gorgeous. For three and a half years, she was my girlfriend then fiancée and, for over 33 years, she's been my wife.

For many years, I've joked, sometimes publicly, about her lousy cooking, terrifying closets, demolition derby driving and addiction to M&M candy, which is all true. But as we conclude a career together, it's important for you to know she was there.
She was there when my father commissioned me a second lieutenant of infantry and was waiting some months later when I emerged from Ranger School. Together, we moved all we owned in my used Chevrolet Vega to our first apartment at Fort Bragg. The move, with our first days in our $180-a-month apartment, was the only honeymoon I was able to give her, a fact she has mentioned a few times since.

Annie always knew what to do. She was gracious when she answered the door at midnight in her nightgown to fight Sergeant Emo Holtz, a huge mortarman, carrying a grocery bag of cheap liquor for a platoon party I'd hastily coordinated that evening and not told Annie about following a Friday night jump. I got home not long after to find Annie making food for assembling paratroopers. Intuitively, Annie knew what was right and quietly did it.

With 9/11, she saw us off to war and patiently supported the families of our fallen with stoic grace. As the years passed and the fight grew ever more difficult and deadly, Annie's quiet courage gave me strength I would never otherwise have found.
It's an axiom in the Army that soldiers write the checks but families pay the bills. And war increases both the accuracy of that statement and the cost families pay.

In a novel based on history, Steven Pressfield captured poignantly just how important families were and, I believe, are today. Facing an invading Persian army under King Xerxes, a coalition of Greek states sent a small force to buy time by defending the pass at Thermopylae and were led by 300 special, selected Spartans.

The mission was desperate and death for the 300 certain.
Before he left to lead them, the Spartan king, Leonidas, explained to one of the Spartan wives how he had selected the 300 from an entire army famed for its professionalism, courage and dedication to duty.

"I chose them not for their valor, lady, but for that of their women. Greece stands now upon her most perilous hour. If she saves herself, it will not be at the gates. Death alone awaits us and our allies there but later in battles yet to come by land and sea.

"Then Greece, if the gods will it, will preserve herself. Do you understand this, lady? Well, now, listen, when the battle is over, when the 300 have gone to death, then all Greece will look to the Spartans to see how they bear it. But who, lady, will the Spartans look to? To you. To you and the other wives and mothers, sisters and daughters of the fallen.

"If they behold your hearts riven and broken with grief, they too will break and Greece will break with them. But if you bear up, dry eyed, not alone enduring your loss but seizing it with contempt for its agony and embracing it as the honor that it is in truth, then Sparta will stand and all Greece will stand behind her.
"Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the 300? Because you can."

To all who wear no uniform but give so much, sacrifice so willingly and serve as such an example to our nation and each other, my thanks.

As I leave the Army, to those with responsibility to carry on, I'd say, service in this business is tough and often dangerous. It extracts a price for participation, and that price can be high.

It is tempting to protect yourself from the personal or professional costs of loss by limiting how much you commit, how much of belief and trust in people, and how deeply you care. Caution and cynicism are safe, but soldiers don't want to follow cautious cynics. They follow leaders who believe enough to risk failure or disappointment for a worthy cause.

If I had it to do over again, I'd do some things in my career differently but not many. I believed in people, and I still believe in them. I trusted and I still trust. I cared and I still care. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Winston Churchill said we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. To the young leaders of today and tomorrow, it's a great life. Thank you. (Applause.)

NO POLITICS TODAY!!!

I need to tell you why I have not been around as much as I use to. During the last legislative session the democrats stuck it to the state retirees so bad it raised concerns with many of us retirees if we would even have a retirement. The state’s word is like most politicians, it is meaningless so we just don’t know what to expect in the future. So what I did is went to real old fashioned scissors, comb and razor barbering school. It is located in Concord and the only old style barbering school in Maine, NH, and VT.

I could have sat back and waited for the Obama entitlement programs to catch up to me; but, I’ve always worked for what I wanted and needed and didn’t take much to hand outs, oops, entitlement programs.

The school was 10 hours or more a day and two hours of traveling each day and about 4 hours a day studying didn’t really leave me much time for blogging or reporting on what is going on politically.

Matt and I have been busy putting signs together and trying to make our political office presentable; I don’t know if we can ever make it presentable; but it is cleaner and there is beer, wine, soda and water in the refrigerator.

Bill Binnie came down to the office and gave a presentation to about 15 of our friends and supporters. I never had a chance to talk to Bill before that day; but, I liked him. He spoke for about 20 minutes and never once referred to the canned republican talking points about the evil democrats, etc, etc, etc. He spoke of things I wanted to hear about, the economy, veterans, and social security putting people back to work and just did a great job. I liked him and will be supporting him.

The next person I really like is Mike Downing who is a state senator and prior to that a state rep. Mike, Matt and I worked together in the legislature and he is a great person with an extensive law enforcement background and has administrative abilities. He is a former state trooper and Salem, NH detective and quite capable. I did deal with Mike before I retired as a probation/parole officer and he was a good person to deal with. He’ll make an excellent Sheriff.

I don’t know much about the candidates for state rep in district 13, Exeter, Stratham and N.Hampton, except they all seem nice enough and are out there working.

Matt and I went to the Stratham Fair and met huge numbers of people from this area that new us and gave us great words of encouragement. Matt ran into three guys who told him that they heard we were not running with the political establishment or machine and Matt told them that they heard right. One of them told Matt that he heard that the “Quandts started their own party”. Matt laughed and said he had heard that too. The gentlemen then said that the republican party is all over the place and they didn’t know what they’re thinking, the democratic party are all nuts and the only party that is consistent is the “Quandt Party”, now this drew some deep laughs from Matt and a couple of others who heard it. I guess what started as sarcasm and someone from the tri town throwing digs into us has turned into campaign material.

We will recruit disenfranchised democrats, independents and republicans who are looking for stable, consistent leadership that puts you and your families before party and special interests, with a history to prove that; WITH YOU WE CAN GET THE JOB DONE. Let’s show the political machines on both sides what can be done when the voters and their elected officials work together to resolve the issues. WE CAN DO IT, PEOPLE FIRST!!!

ROCK A BYE BUDGET: A LULLABY!!

By Jeb Bradley

The Democratic authors of New Hampshire’s budget and its current $300 million deficit have accelerated into full spin campaign mode. They are chanting across New Hampshire that tough decisions were made, the budget is balanced, taxes are low, and the economy will recover.

Democrats are hoping to lull voters to sleep until November so nobody realizes the budget cradle is about to fall.

What did the budget package do and what are its authors not telling you?
First and foremost, overall state spending increased dramatically from $10.4 to $11.5billion, or 10.5% on top of a similar 11.2% increase in the previous budget.
Second, 38 taxes or fees were raised in this budget on top of 29 in the previous budget. Some of the most notable hikes were the LLC Income Tax on small business owners, the Camping Tax, higher Rooms and Meals Taxes, more cigarette taxes, a tax on gambling winnings, higher boat and car registration fees, and higher highway tolls. Many Democrats also tried to implement a capital gains tax, an estate tax, remove a key business tax credit, and raise the gasoline tax. They also shortchanged cities and towns by nearly $100 million which has the perverse impact of raising homeowner’s property taxes. The LLC and Camping Tax proved so toxic to the NH economy even those who proposed them without a public hearing, capitulated and joined Republicans in repealing them.

Third, this budget relies on unprecedented one-time money which according to the non-partisan Legislative Budget Assistant approaches $800 million. These one-time dollars include unspecified sale of state assets, unsustainable amounts of abnormal borrowing, and federal stimulus funds exceedingly unlikely to ever be replicated. In fact, $48 million federal dollars that New Hampshire budget authors relied upon to fill the current $300 million hole has been tabled by Congress.

Fourth, due to one-time money the next budget confronts a much more daunting deficit. Having already voted for and implemented 67 separate tax and fee hikes in the current and previous budgets and having tried to pass several more notable tax hikes, it’s no wonder why Democrats are trying to lull voters to sleep.

If Democrats control the Legislature in 2011, voters can expect they will have the Tax-Man on speed dial. Facing unprecedented budget deficits, they are likely to call for income and sales taxes – perhaps both.

With 50,000 of our neighbors recently unemployed in New Hampshire the stakes for economic recovery in November could not be higher. The key question for voters: does New Hampshire succumb to Democrat’s yearning for income and sales taxes? Or do we restructure and shrink state government to make it less costly?
Voters deserve choices.

So what might less costly government involve.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, New Hampshire has the 10th most costly Medicaid system in the nation, 38% above the national average. Implementing managed care as many other states have – Blue and Red – and reducing costs to the national average, could save nearly $300 million. Our current fee for service Medicaid structure encourages over-utilization. States that have implemented managed care have saved money and maintained quality. It can be done here too.

Legislatively mandated changes to education funding will cost state taxpayers $140 million in the next budget. But 123 communities will lose funds and the statewide property tax will return with vengeance for 42 communities. Maintaining the existing formula saves $140 million until a Constitutional Amendment that allows targeted state aid to communities most in need can finally be presented to voters.
Budget reform is long overdue. Currently department heads must submit budget proposals which maintain existing services – a built-in prescription for ever-more costly government. The law should be changed to require department heads to also propose a 5% budget reduction so that the Legislature can set priorities and achieve savings.

With a $7 billion unfunded liability in our public employee retirement system, reform is also overdue. Taxpayers can no longer shoulder the overwhelming burden of paying for retirement benefits most taxpayers can only dream about for themselves. Further we should look to states like Indiana to achieve significant savings in health care costs for public employees.
Other ideas for savings include consolidating human resource functions across departments, consolidating contracting for human service providers, and increased home confinement for non-violent offenders.

Structural reforms are necessary to protect taxpayers including a line-item veto for governors and protection from frivolous legal challenges for voter approved local tax caps.

So let’s have this debate about the looming budget train wreck. It’s healthy to debate big ideas – higher taxes vs. shrinking government. Please remember, those humming the Rock A Bye Budget Lullaby also know the bough is breaking and when the cradle falls --- it will be right into taxpayer’s pockets.

PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF JEB BRADLEY FOR STATE SENATE, EUGENE LEONE TREASURER

Jeb Bradley for State Senate 645 SOUTH MAIN STREET WOLFEBORO, NH 03894

TO THOSE REPUBLICANS!!

Well, we continue doing it to ourselves. The Nashua Telegraph, Kevin Landrikan’s column had an article about how Judd Gregg was able to use his office to stop a Bill Binnie fund raiser and got it turned to a Kelly Ayotte fund raiser. We all know Kelly is an establishment candidate, recruited and supported by the NH. Republican Party establishment; but, this is outrageous and show why so many republicans are going independent.

I’m not worried about the exodus because those who go independent are still followers of the republican philosophy of less government, less spending, educational competition and believers in you as individuals not cattle or sheep to be herded around by those who think they are smarter, richer and better than the rest of us. It is going to take a little more time before the establishment realizes they are about 30 yrs behind the times in trying to control the political process and candidates.

After being attacked and threatened by some members of the political establishment, mostly coming out of Stratham, more and more people are realizing that the political establishments in both parties are losing support. They are also losing respect and this can cause control freaks to panic and continue to dig a deeper hole. I don’t now who said it; but, the old saying of “if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” comes to mind. The bottom line is, you get it, I get it, and the establishment doesn’t get it.

I sincerely thank those people who understand the problems with the establishment and thank you all for your continued support of our efforts to bring about change from within.

Matt and I are gearing up for a tough primary and are looking forward to the challenge of once again, running as republicans with out the support of the king makers. Our philosophy of “people first” is going to be in the for front of our campaign.

A WISH AND A PRAYER!!

"A Wish and a Prayer"

By Jeb Bradley

So said the Concord Monitor in their June 13th Editorial titled “Not a State Budget to be Proud Of.” How did the Democratic controlled New Hampshire Legislature get into such a predicament?

Spending has jumped by 10.5% while revenues fell through the floor --- $102 million behind the estimate for the first eleven months of this fiscal year. Leading the revenue plunge are business taxes – off $43 million, rooms and meals taxes ---off $20million, and interest and dividends taxes --- off a whopping $27 million. With the economic recovery anemic at best, revenues are not likely to improve any time soon.

On top of that, the effort to simply expropriate $110 million from a doctor’s medical liability fund (JUA) was deemed to be an unconstitutional taking of private property. All of which created a budget deficit estimated at $300 million by June 2011 when books close – up from a $220 million projection just in April.

Governor Lynch recently called a ‘Special Session’ of the Legislature to confront this alarming deficit – about 10% of the state’s General Fund. The package that emerged from the Special Session includes unprecedented borrowing and one-time revenue sources, uncertain receipt of federal funds, and unspecified sale of State property: The Credit Card.

The non-partisan Legislative Budget Assistant projects one-time revenue sources in the original budget and in the recent deficit package exceed $1 billion. Even excluding the $110 JUA raid and a $50 million reduction of funds that traditionally has gone to cities and towns to lower property taxes – this combined budget package relies upon a whopping 27% of one-time revenue for the General Fund. Nearly $200 million of that amount is unprecedented borrowing for operating expenses rather than capital investments such as buildings or bridges. Much of the balance of one-time revenue was federal stimulus funds.

Even stimulus funds may have reached their limit. Americans, fearful of a Greece-like debt crisis have sent Congress a message. Several incumbents have lost or barely survived recent primaries so Congress has yet to authorize more state aid. Thus $48 million of even more one-time federal money Legislators counted on is in limbo. Whoops – the check is not in the mail even though desperate Legislators are declaring it will be.

The deficit package also relies on unspecified sale of State property. While this idea may make sense, in a very soft real-estate market how likely is the State to receive reasonable value? When this idea was first proposed several weeks ago the estimated revenue proceeds were $50 million. Like magic, the revenue projections just jumped to $60 million. Presto: revenue grows when Legislators simply deem the real estate market has improved.

What about cuts? There were some cuts totaling $52 million but only 1.6% of the General Fund. This so-called $300 million deficit fix in reality is limited cuts, huge borrowing, and one-time revenue --- some of which may not even be real.

Where do all these maneuvers leave the budget? The authors claim the budget is now balanced, precisely what they predicted a year ago before it became a $300 million deficit. For the budget to balance now, they are counting on the unlikely prospect of revenue recovery.

The Prayer: what all the borrowing and one-time revenue does is allow the budget’s authors to cynically claim it is balanced for political purposes in November and pray they avoid the voter’s wrath for their spendthrift ways. But next year---facing nearly a billion dollar one-time revenue shortfall, New Hampshire will confront a fiscal train wreck.

While spending soared and the deficit grew, the numerous tax hikes over the last four years have hurt struggling families, besieged small businesses, while leaving New Hampshire less competitive for job growth or able to confront this looming deficit. In the previous budget, 29 taxes or fees were hiked. In this budget, 38 taxes or fees were raised including the job killing LLC Tax -- nothing more than an income tax on small businesses. The LLC Tax turned out to be so toxic to both small businesses and the Democrats who voted for it, that it was repealed. Even with the repeal, New Hampshire still has the worst corporate tax laws in the nation according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation.

Other warning signs from the Tax Foundation for our State include one of the highest levels of state debt per capita, being only slightly below the national average for state and local tax burden, and having among the higher levels of property taxes in the nation.

All these new taxes and warning signs in terms of national rankings are against the recent backdrop of 50,080 New Hampshire people being unemployed and the national pace of job growth anemic at best.

Four short years ago when change came to both Concord and Washington, the unemployment rate in New Hampshire was 3.6% and 26,865 people were unemployed. In April, the unemployment rate had soared to 6.7% and 50,080 were out of work. Having the worst corporate taxes and a Legislature willing to levy an income tax on small business owners is no way to get people back to work.

There are those legislators -- and now candidates -- who want to ignore the taxes, spending hikes, and deficits of the last four years and claim their stewardship of New Hampshire has been responsible. They point to other states in worse shape than New Hampshire, but ignore the fact that these other states have even higher levels of spending and taxation. Comparing New Hampshire to even more profligate states is no way to govern or help struggling families and small businesses.

The Wish: many of these same folks have always wished for income and sales taxes. Next year they will likely propose an income tax and a sales tax to close the budget hole they created. There could not be a clearer choice in November or a more important election for our State’s future.

PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF JEB BRADLEY FOR STATE SENATE, EUGENE LEONE TREASURER

WHEN REASON FAILS, TRY THREATENING!!!!

After a few years and campaigns of strained relationships Matt and I decided to run independent of the republican political machine. WOW are they upset that they cannot control the process and the candidates. They have to try to stomp on us because if they don’t they will lose control of process and people might see that they do not represent them.

We told the Tri Town Committee that we would run our own campaign and did not want to run with them; we just wanted to run our own campaign and be independent of the establishment. There are people in the tri-town that we like and respect very much and those who we think are a little off psychological center. Then we signed up, like we did on so many other campaigns as republicans, had a very nice interview with Josh Clark from the News Letter and I thought our position was well articulated and reported (although a lot was discussed in the interview it couldn’t all be put in). The very next day a republican from Stratham was at the Lilac Luncheon in Nashua bashing us to anyone who would listen; claiming we called them all pigs and elitists, etc, etc and etc. Some humored her and others called us claiming they thought she was crazy and losing it. This is the same loyal republican that after the last election told people that she voted for Maggie Hassan. That is why we have the freedom to vote and support whomever we choose; but, stop being a hypocrite. I feel so sorry for her husband; he’s not a bad guy.

Then we get bashed by the good old boy Stratham clique telling friends of ours that they should stay away from us because we are going to lose the election because the republicans going to vote against us. I think this was the same little republican group that was working against us behind the scenes during the last election. I have a question; are we suppose to lose the primary or the general election?

We could very well lose the election; but, that choice is up to you the voters and not the animal farm clique of elitists that are trying to control the process and you the voters.

Just to define what I think an elitist is, it is not someone who has a lot of money, that is called being a capitalist and capitalism is good. It is an individual who thinks they should be part of the ruling class and are better than anyone else and since they are better than anyone else or (in their minds) better than anyone else, we should do what they tell us to do. These are the kinds of people you can’t work with but can only work for and are political control freaks.

If they want a real fight bring it on, we can talk about a republican house speaker who killed an effort, at the request of the special interests, to study combining, Securities, Banking and Insurance so the 80 million $’s in invested life savings probably wouldn’t happen like with the FRM scandal. We can talk about the effort to redefine what an unfair business practice was so we could close loopholes in the consumer protection law that was killed by our own republicans, and a candidate running for state senate, at the request of the lobbyists representing the special interests that Matt I fought on a daily basis. Bring it on and let’s make this a campaign of issues and not threats or attempted intimidations.

The democratic establishment is just as bad, it is all about money, power and influence so please don’t think the republican establishment has a lock on this type of bad political behavior.

To those people all I can say is your thinking is about 25-35 years behind the times and you have lost touch with the people of NH.

When Matt first ran I bought and made him read George Orwell’s Animal Farm book. I thought it would give him a better perspective of what he has to be careful of in politics specifically, don’t become what your replacing. In Matt’s case it worked, for those important people who are attacking us, my suggestion is read the book and stop acting stupid, throw some cold water on your face, take a couple of deep breaths and listen to yourselves.

STRONG PROVEN REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP SIGN UPS FOR THE LEGISLATURE!!!

SEA Members Looking to Lead in the Legislature

This week, SEA members continued to file to be candidates for the New Hampshire Legislature.

Last Friday, retired Probation and Parole officer Lee Quandt filed seeking a return to the State House from Exeter. Lee had served in the Legislature for eight years from 1998-2002 and 2002-2008. When Lee served in the House, he never forgot his roots, supporting SEA and union members while also holding true to his roots as a fiscal conservative. Matt Quandt also filed for re-election, seeking his sixth term in the House.

Lee and Matt also accompanied Chapter 1 member Tim Copeland over to Stratham Town Hall, where Tim filed for his first run for the State Legislature. "I'm excited," said Tim. "I think that state employees and retirees were treated unfairly these past two years and I look forward to standing up for them in the Legislature if I get elected."

Also filing for a re-election to the State House was Chapter 1 member John Tholl, Jr., retired from the Department of Safety, who recently won a special election in Coos 2 with strong support from SEA members in the North Country. John had previously served five terms in the State House.

Rep. Deb Wheeler, a Chapter 1 member who previously worked at the Department of Revenue, filed for re-election as well. Deb has served two terms in the Legislature and has been a steadfast supporter of New Hampshire public employees and retirees. Deb went to SEIU candidate school this year and is ready to run her strongest campaign to date.

The filing deadline is tomorrow, Friday, June 11th. Contact SEA Government Relations Coordinator Brian Hawkins at 271-3411 x120 for more information about how SEA can help candidates run for office.

MATT, LEE AND TIM COPELAND SIGN UP FOR STATE REP!!!

On Friday morning Tim Copeland, Stratham Selectman, Brian Hawkins, SEANH governmental affairs person, Lee and Matt Quandt met at the town offices for Matt and Lee to sign up for state rep. Tim and Brian, as well as Josh Clark from the Exeter News Letter, were there for the signing of the forms. After we signed up and was interviewed we went to Stratham with Tim to be with him when he signed up, that’s what friends do.

It was a cordial interview with Josh and he was quite probing on issues. Matt as usual came out with his Matt wisdom and likened the political establishments as pigs in George Orville’s book, Animal Farm. Some people are complaining that they were referred to as “pigs”, anybody with and ounce of brains that read the article could clearly see what the reference was. If they have never read the book then they should and maybe we wouldn’t have this discussion now. I bought Matt that book when he first ran. I wanted him to understand the downside of politics and power politics I think he has learned well and has done a good job in Concord representing his constituents. I know some of the book has stuck with him.

There appears to be a number of tweaked noses on our decision to run as republicans independent of the party machine. This has been a long time coming and the decision was not made lightly. Just to clarify our position, we are republicans, have always been republicans and I will die a republican. Both of us believe in the basic republican philosophy of the lesses: less spending, less government interference in your lives and less burdensome laws.

We are not supposed to know who; but, we were stabbed in the back by some so called loyal republicans in the last campaign. It is a small area and some who did told some of their friends who told us. OK, no problem both Matt and I are veterans, we defended their right to vote for whom they wish. On the other hand we fought for the right for us to make our own decisions and support whatever philosophy we want.

I have respect for both political parties and their leadership, as I do any candidate that runs for political office. I might think some of them are nuts; but, they’re willing to step up to the plate and do a thankless job for their constituents.

Matt and I signed up as republicans because that is who we are; we are just not establishment career politicians. We are not career politicians who want to use being a state rep as a stepping stone to higher office or as proof of our importance. You are the important ones because by voting for us we are obligated to represent you as the very best we can.

If the republican or democratic establishment is offended by our political assessment and wants to fight us politically, then that is their right. If they are smart they will look introspectively and see why there is some much disillusionment of both parties maybe this independent feeling from the political establishment of both parties will subside.

Although both parties want to control the voters and influence their votes, the choice of how you vote, what issues you support and what candidates you support is still a choice of a free electorate, a freedom that Matt and I have literally fought for.

I also have a daughter in Kabul carrying on the Quandt tradition of fighting for freedom and what we believe in.

FRM JEB BRADLEY!!

Our core beliefs of limited government, fiscal restraint, low taxes, personal responsibility and individual freedoms are being pummeled by the Democrats. Our fight must start right now to save our state values!

The news from Concord could not be more alarming. Our state long known for prudent fiscal management currently confronts a $220 million deficit in this budget. The deficit picture in the next budget gets even worse – an almost unimaginable $600 million and counting as federal revenue disappears.

Given that backdrop – one might think that the Democrats who control the state Legislature would do what hard working families and small business owners across our state are doing: cutting expenditures.

Unfortunately that is not the case. In the last two budgets spending has increased by 23% followed by over 70 tax and fee increases including the job killing income tax on business owners, the LLC Tax, and numerous other taxes that have made New Hampshire less competitive.

Now it is time to pay the piper, but as I write this Concord Democrats are looking for clever ways to dig deeper into everyone’s wallet rather than trimming runaway spending. Under consideration are a Capital Gains Tax, an Estate Tax, the fifth increase in six years on tobacco and additional tax hikes on other tobacco products, increases in pet shop licensure fees, a new tax on electricity, hikes in the insurance premium taxes, and the old-standby, down shifting costs to cities and towns causing property tax hikes.

The Democrats who control the Legislature do not comprehend two simple facts: as a state we cannot continue this spending binge and hard working taxpayers are already maxed out.

The unemployment rate is out of sight and working families are struggling to find jobs and keep their jobs while small businesses across the state are fighting to stay in business.

What the folks who control the Legislature also don’t comprehend is the devastating impact these job killing taxes – especially business owner income taxes – are having on our economy. 52,508 of our friends and neighbors in New Hampshire are out of work. While national unemployment has begun to inch downward, ours has stubbornly stayed near its high. All these new taxes have already hurt our chances of recovery. Adding a Capital Gains and Estate Tax makes it ever more likely an income and sales tax are just over the horizon and these taxes will ensure that our economy continues to deteriorate while New Hampshire citizens remain out of work.

If you have been receiving these email updates over the year that I have served in the New Hampshire Senate you know what my top priorities are: economic recovery, cutting spending, repealing job killing taxes and curtailing the reach and control of big government into every corner of our lives.

It's time to say loudly and clearly that enough is enough!
If you believe as I do that we need to change priorities in Concord --- then I need your help. Please click here to visit my website and visit the Contributions page to make a contribution today.

Please consider donating $25, $50, $100, or even $250, $500, $1000 to my campaign for re-election to the New Hampshire Senate from District 3 in the Lakes Region and Mount Washington Valley.

Never has an upcoming election been so critical for our State’s future. Critical to assure we make tough spending decisions and reduce the growth in government.

Critical to assure we maintain our family values. Critical to assure New Hampshire does not enact a sales and income tax or new business taxes that will drive even more jobs away.

Thank you very much for your consideration and financial support. Together we can turn our state around in 2010.

House Democrats Ignore Revenue Warnings….Again

Republicans Predict $360M Shortfall



Concord—Ignoring their mistake of three years ago when over-exuberant revenue estimates led to a huge state budget deficit, House Democrats are once again basing their budget on revenues that are totally unrealistic, given the current state of the economy.



Rep. Norm Major, a seven term veteran of the New Hampshire House and a former chairman of the House Ways & Means committee, first warned the majority party in April, 2007 that their revenue projects were much higher than economic forecasts could possibly support. This week the majority party chose once again to ignore history and turned their backs on Major’s revenue predictions a second time by refusing to allow him to present his updated estimates on the floor of the House.



“If we are going to be dealing with the budget over the next week in a committee of conference, shouldn’t the House be made aware of an additional $57M problem? Shouldn’t we know about a potential $360M deficit? But we were prevented from bringing these figures to the House floor. When I asked Speaker Norelli she told me that we were, ‘Running out of time and that there was a race getting ready to start.’ What is more important, the start of a road race or a budget deficit that is pushing New Hampshire toward financial disaster?” asked Major.



According to Rep. Major, the Democrats over inflated estimates on three major taxes will result in an additional $57M shortfall, increasing the budget deficit to $360M, a jump of 19%.



Democrats are estimating $503M in business taxes for 2011, $40M higher than Major’s estimates and a 13% increase overall. This comes despite the fact that all businesses filing with money in April this year are down 10.5%. When it comes to Meals & Rooms taxes, the Democrats have actually increased the tax rate by 12.5% while revenues have only seen an 8.3% increase. Reasonable growth in this economy is no more than 3%, but Democrats are anticipating a growth of $10M in meals and rooms, or a 7.3% increase. Said Major, “This state has never realized a 7% increase in growth in this tax and we certainly cannot anticipate that happening in this economy.” Finally, Democrats are projecting a $9.7M increase in lottery revenue in 2011, or 14.3%, when normal increases fall in the 3% to 5% range.



The end result will be another $57.7M tacked on to the budget deficit because House Democrats once again want to increase spending to match their inflated estimates, just as they have done for four years. When their spending has fallen short of the revenue, they have resorted to raising more than 60 taxes and fees.



“It is clear that the Democrats are looking to leave us in such a hole that only a broad based tax will dig us out of it,” said House Republican leader Sherm Packard of Londonderry

GUEST SHOT FROM JIM KNIGHT-A DEFENDER OF OUR VANISHING FREEDOMS!!

Last week The New Hampshire Senate and House of Representatives passed HB53. This Bill was sponsored by Kim Casey Democratic Representative of East Kingston. HB 53 amends the RSA 91A “the right to know” statute. The amendment all but eliminates the public’s right to access information from government agencies. The revision exempts Mayors, Town Managers, department heads, executive officers, superintendants and associated government political agencies as public bodies from complying with a “right to know” request.

This draconian annihilation of the “Right to Know” law will allow these extensions of government to operate under a Vail of secrecy. The only information that we the people would be entitled to scrutinize is that which these agents would elect to disseminate.

How many crimes would have escaped legal consequence if the public’s “right to Know or the freedom of information” was fettered by government agents who operate outside of the law? It is exactly why those who contemplate such acts fear the possibility of exposure through this mechanism of accountability.

In 2000 my attorneys and I sued SAU16 for a parent’s right to know what websites our children were accessing on school computers. Dr. Skip Hanson SAU16 superintendant of schools denied our request, sighting a child’s right of privacy.

Superior Court Justice Julian Abramson ruled in our favor. Unfortunately, the computer records were destroyed after the Judge ruled that the information must be released, a harm that found SAU16 in contempt of court. SAU16 actions required an amendment to RSA91A criminalizing those who would knowingly and willfully destroy public documents for the purpose of avoiding prosecution. None of this would have been possible without a formidable RSA 91A and the public’s “right to know”.

It should come as no surprise that Kim Casey would sponsor HB53, as she was an ardent opponent to the release of the computer records even at the elementary schools, when she was a Cooperative School board member.
Governor Lynch has on many occasions professed to be a fervent supporter of open and transparent government.

We should therefore, call upon the Governor to honor this commitment and compel him to veto this amendment.

Jim Knight