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Hillsborough District 4 Needs Your Help

by: Kelly Nordstrom

Sun Sep 12, 2010 at 00:08:06 AM EDT
(So Bill O'Brien's a Democrat now, huh? Riiiight. - promoted by Dean Barker)

So, today... in the mail, I received a post card from "my" representative, William O'Brien (R, Mt Vernon) asking for me, to write him in on the Democratic ticket in the primary on Tuesday.

Outrage, cannot begin to explain my feelings over receiving this mailing.

We're a large district in terms of the area we cover, but a small district in terms of resources and voters. We need help.

Is there precedence for this? What happens if he ends up on both tickets for the general election? What he if garners the 1st and 2nd most votes (we have 4 seats)?

We have our own write in candidate, Kary Jencks, and neeed help in New Boston, Mont Vernon, Wilton, Lyndenborough, and Temple to keep this most assuredly UN-Democratic candidate off our ticket.

(Trying to post scanned postcard, but can't remember how to do that)

MORE (Dean): A scan of the ridiculously deceptive mailer is below in the comments.

MORE-ER (Dean): Elect a REAL Democrat to Hillsborough 4 by helping out Jennifer Daler here.
Kelly Nordstrom :: Hillsborough District 4 Needs Your Help
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Hillsborough District 4 Needs Your Help | 34 comments
My understanding (0.00 / 0)
is that if the slate on one side of the ticket is not filled in the primary, anyone can have their name written in any empty slot.  This is why we try so hard to find people to run for each seat in a district.  

Of course, if you want to write in a candidate on the other side, you have to vote in their primary.  If you are already registered as a Republican you have to vote in that primary.  

Minor corrections (0.00 / 0)
1. Even if the slate is filled, anyone can launch a write-in campaign. But, their likelihood of winning is much lower.

2. If you are already registered as a Republican you cannot vote in the Dem primary (and vice versa). But you don't have to vote in your own; you can stay home.

(Maybe this is all obvious. But last primary, while registering new voters at the polling place, I got someone all registered as Undeclared and asked, "What primary would you like to vote in today?" "Both, of course!")

[ Parent ]
In NH-01 (4.00 / 1)
since we have so very few primary contests, I doubt many Republican-leaning undeclareds would take a D ballot, but in NH-02 I guess some might decide not to vote R, but even there the primaries are so full on the R side, I would imagine it would be hard to pass up voting in the R primary if you leaned that way.  
[ Parent ]
The post card (4.00 / 1)
obp
I take back my previous comment (0.00 / 0)
This is remarkably deceptive!  It looks like he could be a Democrat.  Talk about sleazy campaign tactics!  Yikes.
I gather the mailing was to registered Dems?
[ Parent ]
"I have focued on solutions and not political rhetoric." (4.00 / 2)
Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Shameless.

birch, finch, beech

[ Parent ]
Yes. (0.00 / 0)
Who would think that anyone who said that was a Republican this year when they all are focused on political rhetoric to the exclusion of ANY policies that could actually work!
[ Parent ]
For an example (4.00 / 2)
Of Rep. O'Brien's lack of political rhetoric, see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

at about minute 2:46.  I believe he also speaks on the related Youtube video  "NH House Judiciary Cmte on Marriage, part 3"  which is an earlier part of the repeal of gay marriage, which also features Rep. Elliott's now famous remarks.  (Just in case the link does not work, the tape I am trying to link to is titled "NH House Judiciary Cmte on Marriage, Part 4."

As for protecting the vulnerable, oh please.  Don't get me started.

[ Parent ]
Note also Rep. Mead's "five women, five men and a dog" rhetoric. (4.00 / 2)
from 7:30 to 7:46.

Note: I actually agree with Rep. Mead on a couple of points here: that "We as legislators have no right to bestow a religious term, which is the term "marriage" since time beginning, into our law..." and that it "is wrong for this legislature to force "that word" (marriage) upon the social conscience or social fabric of the state."(7:47-7:55)

However, the word marriage (better described as a social and religious term) is in our law -- even if the subject matter of loving and committed personal unions pledged before society and/or God is, and of right ought to be, utterly beyond its purview -- and as long as it remains there, it should be used justly.

Nor does or can the law require any person or religion to consider people who are married in the eyes of the state to be married in the eyes of God.  It is a grievous error of the modern religious right, and a vast departure from Christian tradition, to believe that a Christian faith is terribly damaged when Caesar fails to obsequiously genuflect to it.

[ Parent ]
Multiple typos and errors. (4.00 / 1)
...to have your write in my name...

To "write me in" please write: William O'Brien on one of the write-in lines...

[Instead of]

To write me in, please write "William O'Brien" on one of the write-in lines...

...thank you for your bipatisan support!

...the Democratic party...

When did this repugnant right-wing hitman last fail to refer to the party that he hates as "the Democrat party"?

[ Parent ]
Thanks for the kind words (0.00 / 0)
from Tim C. in your linked comment above, which I had not seen at the time you wrote it.  

The linked comment is an excellent first hand account.

[ Parent ]
O'Brien Is Very Anti-Gay (0.00 / 0)
Bill O'Brien is VERY anti-gay, and has said some rather deplorable things about gays and lesbians in the House Judiciary Committee and on the House floor.

I like Bill personally, and we have teamed up on a couple of right-to-know law bills -- but our agreements don't go much further.  He has a very warped sense of diversity and he could well be in Republican leadership so this isn't someone who we should let be able to call himself "bipartisan" anything.

Best wishes on stopping his write-in attempt.  He certainly doesn't represent any Democrat I know, and that he is even asking for the Democratic nomination shows a bit of  hypocrisy that shows he is concerned about whether he would win in November with just being on the Republican side of the ticket -- and that should upset the other Republicans in that race.  

a less slightly sinister explanation is... (4.00 / 3)
O'Brien probably just wants to keep Kary Jencks off the ballot and out of the legislature.  This is not shocking: she and O'Brien have very different agendas and they have done battle with each other on many issues.

She has done some great work for Planned Parenthood, and she would be a wonderful addition to the House.    

[ Parent ]
a more realistic explanation is... (4.00 / 3)
O'Brien wants to be able to point to having been nominated by both parties in his drive to be Speaker, and constantly refer to that as proof of his bipartisanship and bipartisan support.

And he hopes that straight-ticket voting will get him enough automatic Democratic votes to outweigh any distaste he has gathered in the general electorate for being a strident partisan bigot.

[ Parent ]
Dems fulfilled a promise (0.00 / 0)
by eliminating straight ticket voting when we were first in the majority in 2007.  Currently, every box must be checked seperately.
[ Parent ]
I was hoping nobody would mention that. (0.00 / 0)
I meant straight-ticket as it exists today: going down the column of one party or the other, checking every box.
[ Parent ]
Does anyone have his Republican mailer? (4.00 / 2)
It would be interesting to see if he hits different points of his, um, bipartisan message.
about the write-ins.... (0.00 / 0)
If Bill O'Brien gets 35 or more write-ins on the Democratic side, he can be on both tickets.  There are several D&R's and R&D's in the current legislature; including one of my own district's (Strafford 7) delegation, Janet Wall (D&R-Madbury).  She is a Democrat, but she got enough write-ins in 2008 to fill an empty slot on the Republican side.  (She and O'Brien were both on the House Judiciary Committee this session.)

There is a "sore loser" rule which says you can't be on the other party's ballot after losing your own party's primary.  Otherwise, anyone in the constituency, regardless of party affiliation, can be nominated as a write-in.


The only sore losers are the state parties. (0.00 / 0)
The so-called "sore loser" rule is an insult to the voters and benefits only the institutional parties as parties.

In essence, it allows a party to say, "If we don't want them, no one can have them."

It's not about a candidate having two bites at an apple.

It's about voters of any party having the right, when they have given a person enough votes to win a nomination, to see that person's name as a nominee on the November ballot.

[ Parent ]
Long time state Rep. Betty Hall (4.00 / 2)
is the mother of the "Sore Loser" Law.  She introduced it after winning the Republican nomination for state senate, her Republican primary opponent won the Democratic write in and went on to beat her as a Democrat in November.

2012 starts today.
[ Parent ]
That is bizarre beyond words. (0.00 / 0)
What year was this?  Who was her opponent?  Was she seen as being as liberal then as she is now?  If so, how did she win the GOP primary?  Why wasn't there a Democrat on the ballot (besides Ray being too young to be chair)? What level of publicity did this campaign have? Basically, what's the whole story here?

I don't question that she'd have been the better choice for Senator, but it's mighty hard to argue that democracy would've been better served by having one candidate on the ballot rather than two.

[ Parent ]
Pre 1990s (0.00 / 0)
it was common for incumbent state senators to discourage their party to field candidates against their colleagues of the other party.  More than once during that time I was screamed at by Democratic senators for recruiting candidates.

My redbooks are at the NHDP and I just got home from the office, I will check in the am.

2012 starts today.

[ Parent ]
From Betty's bio... (0.00 / 0)

http://web.mac.com/sidhall/www...

Won Republican Primary for Senate against Al Rock (r), Publisher and Fred Fletcher (r), Executive Councilor. Betty Hall was the Republican Nominee. No Democrat filed. There were about 150 write-in votes on the Democratic side. Republican Nominee Betty Hall (r) had 71 write-in votes on the Democratic side. Al Rock (r) had 72 write-in votes and was the Democratic nominee. Al Rock (r) running as a Democrat won the General Election. After a recount of both Republican and Democratic ballot, Al Rock (r) was declared the winner.

Her bio doesn't mention the year but it appears this happened mid 1970s.

I believe she passed the sore loser law in the early 1980s.

2012 starts today.

[ Parent ]
is the republican side contested? (0.00 / 0)
If so, this would be a way to slide in an extra republican on the November ballot.  You definitely need to find SOMEBODY Democratic to volunteer to have their name written in.

Also, I thought the D+R thing got eliminated.

Kary Jencks (4.00 / 2)
We HAVE someone to write-in... and she's been working with the other 3 candidates for the Democratic ticket (Daler, Groh, French).

We just need to make sure that the Democrats in the district write her in and NOT Mr. O'Brien...

And, the Republican ticket is contested... 5 people vying for 4 spots on the Novemeber ticket.


Feeling hopeful since 2004...now "Secretary" of the New Boston Democratic Caucus

[ Parent ]
Milford Cabinet Editorial (0.00 / 0)
A recent editorial in the Milford Cabinet demonstrate how Democratic (big-D) O'Brien and his pal Mead are

Feeling hopeful since 2004...now "Secretary" of the New Boston Democratic Caucus
Gene Chandler (4.00 / 1)
always used to do this - send out a mailer to ask you to write him in. He always rhapsodized about what an "independent" representative he was. This year, the Dems in his district only have 3 names on the ballot, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him do it again.

Pass the corn, please.  

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty

Ugh. Really? (0.00 / 0)


2012 starts today.
[ Parent ]
yup (0.00 / 0)
When I ran for state rep in 2002, my head nearly exploded when I pulled that mailer out of my PO Box. He'd done it in previous years, but that year it really got to me.  :)

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty
[ Parent ]
Susan (0.00 / 0)
I was told today that William T. Riley is running a write in campaign for your district.

2012 starts today.
[ Parent ]
Yup (0.00 / 0)
former perennial candidate William T. Riley, on the ballot again.


sanctimonious purist/professional lefty
[ Parent ]
John H. Sununu (0.00 / 0)
was a perennial candidate at one time...he lost for state senate in 1976, executive council in 1978 and US Senate in 1980.  Wasn't Abe Lincoln considered a perennial in Illinois?

2012 starts today.
[ Parent ]
the difference being (0.00 / 0)
that Bill Reilly is 80. :)

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty
[ Parent ]
He would still be younger (0.00 / 0)
than several of his House colleagues!

I so enjoyed my time in the House talking to folks about the 20s, 30s and 40s. My gradparents lived in such amazing times

2012 starts today.

[ Parent ]
Hillsborough District 4 Needs Your Help | 34 comments

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