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NH-Gov: Karen Testerman's Cornerstone on DADT

by: Dean Barker

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 21:51:54 PM EST
Republican Karen Testerman is running for governor of New Hampshire.

Back in the day, Ms. Testerman was head of Cornerstone Policy Research, which opposed the current, discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell military policy.  Opposed it not for going not far enough, but for going too far.

Here are some statements from Cornerstone's document (click on the .pdf at the link) on "Gays in the Military":

The presence of homosexuals in the armed services threatens the military's highly regarded merit-based system.  Sexual attraction encourages special relationships without regard to rank and increases the risk of favoritism.
and concerning HIV/AIDS:
Military men and women willingly accept risks not found anywhere else in society, but should they be needlessly exposed to a disease that is 100 percent fatal?
and my personal favorite:
Other behavior that harms military effectiveness, such as drug abuse and sexual harrassment, is not tolerated in private; there is no reason why homosexuality should be dealt with differently.
To repeat, Karen Testerman is a Republican candidate for governor of the Live Free or Die State.
Dean Barker :: NH-Gov: Karen Testerman's Cornerstone on DADT
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NH-Gov: Karen Testerman's Cornerstone on DADT | 1 comments
As a rule, I frown on guilt by association and note (0.00 / 0)
that a cursory perusal of the nhcornerstone.org web site gives no indication that Ms. Testerman is associated with the group.  On the other hand, there are no people identified as being responsible for the positions or issues being promoted.
And, it's a rather wide-ranging assortment of issues from sexual orientation to the management of federal lands.
The latter issue might well be one about which a candidate for governor might be queried.  I'd start with asking whether the candidate understands that all lands managed by governmental entities are essentially owned by the people resident in the particular political subdivision.  So, if federal or state lands are not well managed, that's because our agents have fallen down on the job.

Then I'd make the point that while it was hoped that individuals could be bribed to manage lands well--i.e. to benefit human and other populations--by bribing them with the benefit of exclusive use, there's little evidence that this hope has been borne out by conditions on the ground.  Indeed, the landscape is littered with parcels of land and falling down buildings that have been abandoned after their exploitable usefulness ran out.  And that should lead to the question about what land management expertise any candidate for governor brings to the discussion of how New Hampshire's natural resources should be managed.  Should DES and/or NHGF be beefed up?  To what extent should logging cover the cost of reforestation?  

NH-Gov: Karen Testerman's Cornerstone on DADT | 1 comments

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