O'Brien said his potential opponents, including young Mr. Groh, will "push transgender, euthanasia and more hate crime bills ..."
If you feel hate has no place in our General Court you should be doing what you can to the support Democratic Candidates in Hillsborough-4 Jennifer Daler, Andrew French and Theodore M. Groh.
(Is it true O'Brien could be in leadership if Dems loose the majority in the House?)
TAG TEAM. In 2007 and 2008, former ambassador and Democratic National Committeeman Terry Shumaker backed Hillary Clinton for President, while former state Democratic Chair Ned Helms backed Barack Obama.
...In an "open letter to New Hampshire Democrats" to be released before the end of the week, Helms and Shumaker say Kuster will bring "a new approach" to Washington.
They said she's right on the issues, particularly Iraq, Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts and a woman's right to choose, and she has the better chance of keeping the seat Democratic.
I've secured a copy of former NHDP Chair Helms' and former DNC Committeeman Shumaker's letter. It's really quite powerful. An excerpt:
We disagree with Charlie Bass on most issues. But here is one thing we agree with him on: If Democrats don't hold New Hampshire's second congressional district - a district that voted for Barack Obama by 13 points in 2008 - then our party is in serious trouble here in New Hampshire, and all across the country.
Dick and Katrina Swett have done tremendous work for New Hampshire Democrats over the years, and they deserve our respect. But it is hard to ignore the fact that since 1980, New Hampshire has never had an election in which Charlie Bass or Dick or Katrina Swett were not running for something. In 2010, voters have made it perfectly clear what they are looking for: a new approach in Washington. Annie Kuster will bring just that.
Annie has built an unparalleled grassroots campaign, held over 100 house parties across the district, set records for her in-state fundraising support, and she promises to put people over politics-as-usual. In contrast, Katrina Swett lost to Charlie Bass by 16 points the last time she took him on, has demonstrated relatively little grassroots support, and has relied almost entirely on out-of-state financial support to fund her campaign.
You can agree with Carol or disagree with her. But there isn't a mountain of gold high enough that can purchase the kind of credibility she has.
Even the wingnuts who plot day and night to come up with phony hit jobs on her know this.
Adding: Politics, of course, is the art of the possible, and compromises and calculations are inevitable even among those candidates one admires. Still, the degree to which Carol has steered clear of that in her two terms is remarkable.
"The John Stephen campaign has accepted $33,058 in contributions - including $23,000 from the Dunkin' Donuts franchises in Massachusetts and Connecticut - that appear to be exceed those allowed under state finance law and previous interpretation of that law," said Pamela Walsh, campaign manager for NH for John Lynch.
"We are asking the Attorney General to quickly clarify whether these contributions are acceptable under New Hampshire law, or whether they exceed legal contribution limits and should be returned," Walsh said.
And then there's this, which is appalling:
About 13 percent of John Stephen's campaign funds - $124,000 - come from a series of businesses that share two addresses in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Lynch campaign has called on Stephen to come clean about the donors, including their interests in New Hampshire, and about whether there are any New Hampshire businesses or citizens who are invested in these companies.
Kids in Keene are off to school today. My youngest is starts to Kindergarten, joining his sisters who are entering 3rd and 5th grade at Symonds School.
I've been thinking a lot about our Democratic Majority and why it matters. With back-to-school on my mind, let's try to run down some of the things we have accomplished over the past 4 years with our Democratic Majority:
House Bill 1523 will help protect kids from bullying on social networks and the like.
SB180 The final piece of a three-year legislative effort to define, determine the cost and ensure accountability for delivering an adequate education
SB 18 which ensures that all students either graduate from high school or otherwise continue their education until they are 18. This legislation has resulted in a 30% decline in the drop out rate in just one year!
Remember when we were the only state in the nation to not have public kindergarten available for all? How embarrassing was that! Kindergarten is now available to every 5 year old in the state!
These are the things I could remember and find online.
What other improvements to Education are our kids enjoying because of our Democratic Majority?
(Senate President Larsen sent a fundraising email out today looking for help in supporting the Democratic Majority in the Senate Chamber. You can donate via their Act Blue Page.)
The majority of New Hampshire voters firmly support Roe v. Wade, but you'd never know it from the rhetoric in the Republican primary for the 1st District Congressional seat. As the battle between Frank Guinta and Sean Mahoney goes down to the wire, both candidates are pandering to the party's radical right by accusing their opponent of being insufficiently pro-life.
The initial salvos are being fired by surrogates. The Mahoney camp claims Guinta’s record on abortion is at odds with his "stump rhetoric" and points to several votes in the New Hampshire House they claim are contrary to a pro-life position.
They trotted out an endorsement from Ed Holdgate, former president of New Hampshire Right to Life:
Some 10 years ago when Frank Guinta kept casting pro-abortion votes in the NH House, Sean Mahoney was marching in the January snow with hundreds of us at the annual Concord March for Life.
President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
In its latest quarterly assessment of the act, the CBO said the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points during the quarter ending in June and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. The higher figure would come close to making good on Obama's pledge that the act would save or create as many as 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.
Adding: I have a dream that someday I will be able to have a genuine policy disagreement with the opposing party's ideology that is grounded in reality.
One moment of dissent for Lamontagne came when the candidates were asked about the war in Iraq. Lamontagne, alone among the candidates, said he believed going into Iraq was a mistake.
"We went on a false premise" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, he said.
Thank you, Mr. Lamontagne, for not sweeping the biggest foreign policy mistake of my lifetime under the rug.
(Colin is campaign manager for Kuster for Congress. - promoted by Dean Barker)
As I write this, Annie is on her way back home - to her first night at home in the past 4 days - and I thought I'd share a glimpse into how hard she is campaigning because I think it tells something about what kind of a congresswoman she will be.
It's hard for me to write this, because you will probably think, of course you want us to support Jennifer Daler for state house in Hillsborough-04!
But believe me when I tell you it is much more than that. Because who here wouldn't be enthusiastic about a state house candidate running on the following:
My goals are to create affordable, accessible, quality health care, protect the environment, encourage affordable housing and provide opportunity for quality education for all. I also am dedicated to making sure people with disabilities are given every opportunity to participate in and contribute to the wider community.
But here's another huge motivator.
One of Daler's Republican opponents in none other than Bill O'Brien. When I think of a state house controlled by Republicans, and with people like O'Brien at the helm, I am frightened for New Hampshire's future. Here are just three small examples.
1) In June, 74 Republicans voted to adjourn without passing a budget fix in what was clearly an election ploy aimed not at the well-being of the state but for their own political advantage. The "ringleader"? Bill O'Brien.
2) O'Brien called the civil right of marriage equality an attempt "to pervert our society."
3) This one is the sickest of all. In an attempt to gin up support for a death penalty expansion on the heels of the Mt. Vernon murders, O'Brien, who co-chairs the House Republican Alliance, issued a press release with this title: "NH House Democrats: "Nothing Terribly Significant Happened in Mont Vernon on October 4, 2009." Of course, no Democrat made such a statement, or expressed such a sentiment. But that didn't stop O'Brien from putting out that utter slime.
Vote for John Stephen, and he'll save the state of New Hampshire billions and trillions of dollarsnothing:
Stephen says the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars by converting its Medicaid program into a "managed care" system, one that emphasizes preventive care for its recipients. Stephen refers to a report prepared by the insurance company Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in making his claim.
"They say, as a conservative estimate, the state would save $300 million with managed care," Stephen told a group of Monitor editors and reporters last week.
A conservative estimate!
And, if the experience of other states is any guide, any savings in New Hampshire are likely to be much more modest than those outlined by Stephen, according to the very report Stephen quotes on the campaign trail.
They're too chicken to go after Boomers and seniors - they know it'll cost them votes. Instead, New Hampshire Republican candidates for federal office are gunning to loot Gen X-ers and Millenials and the disabled, who they think are paying less attention.
"But the younger generations, they need to understand there should be other options. Your retirement age may be later in life than your parents' were."He also said younger people should "be able to have a private option, take some ownership over your own retirement."
Taliban officials know it's sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that's exactly what they're wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. "By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor," Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) "It's providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support."
Won't Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich make wonderful presidents?
