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(The following is a letter written by my daughter, Ariana, which I wanted to share with all of you)
You may know Paul Hodes as a public servant, a lawyer, or perhaps as a musician. I know him as something entirely different and unique. With less than a week left to go before New Hampshire decides who they'll send down to the US Senate, I want to tell you what I know about my father.
My father is a man of integrity, thoughtfulness, and strength of character who can stand behind any decision he makes because it's his own. He's smart, kind, and genuinely sensitive to the needs of his constituents; the combination of which allows him to weigh different outcomes of a situation, see the big picture, and understand how individuals might be affected by different decisions.
Out of everything I know about my father, the one thing that proves his earnest desire to do good is a simple choice he made many years ago: the decision he and my mom made to raise their family in New Hampshire.
The Tea Party is coming to town. Yesterday, Sarah Palin--Kelly Ayotte's biggest supporter--kicked off the Tea Party Express' national tour.
The Tea Party's final stop on their tour will be on the steps of our state house in Concord the night before the election.
Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and their friends on the Tea Party Express are working hard on Kelly Ayotte's behalf. Ayotte proudly accepted Palin's endorsement and groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Glenn Beck-backed Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to boost her campaign
Mr. Sununu's petulant comments are partisan politics at its worst. Instead of engaging in a thoughtful conversation or offering any ideas for putting New Hampshire back to work, Mr. Sununu resorted to petty political attacks and childish name-calling. He showed disrespect to the Office of the Presidency.
As I travel across the Granite State on this campaign, there seems to be one thing the people of New Hampshire can agree on - Washington is broken. It doesn't matter if you're a Republican, Democrat or Independent. You've seen exactly what I see down there: a system that is simply not serving the needs of our middle-class families and small businesses any more. A system that has become rigged against the people it's supposed to support.
That's why yesterday I announced my proposals to change the Senate rules to increase accountability and break the partisan gridlock in Washington. Right now, Washington Republicans in the Senate are blocking a vote on a critical bill that will provide tax cuts and increased credit to New Hampshire's small businesses. My plan calls for an end to anonymous holds and gradually lowering the threshold needed to end debate and hold an up or down vote on Senate bills.
I just wanted to make sure you all saw the latest video from my campaign, which is about my time on the trail this week and my upcoming statewide tour:
(I'll have more later on Fred Malek. I took an especial interest in him during the 2008 Presidential race. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Kelly Ayotte and the Washington special interests behind her campaign are getting nervous. They're seeing the same things we are: my campaign is surging in the polls and the Sarah Palin endorsement is backfiring.
So what do they do? Launch an attack ad full of facts and figures so misleading I have a feeling they were taken straight off Glenn Beck's chalkboard. They're attacking me for standing up to the special interests and big oil companies and supporting efforts to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and address climate change.
The special interest group funding the ad, American Action, is headed by Washington insider Fred Malek, a top backer of the Ayotte-Palin team. He's a life-long K-Street Republican from Washington who wants to tell Granite Staters how to vote.
We knew this would happen. Ayotte and her special interest backers see that we're within striking distance of taking a senate seat that has been in Republican hands for the last 30 years. So they're throwing everything they can to stop my momentum. Plus, Republicans can't help themselves. They have nothing to offer this country but the failed policies of the past and nasty attacks.
For years, there's been an express train between Capitol Hill and K Street.
We have former employees of big corporations ending up in the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. We have former public servants securing high-paid jobs in the businesses they used to oversee.
That may be good for K Street, but it's bad for the American people.
Today I am announcing my plan to end the revolving door in Washington between public officials and corporate lobbyists.
Thought you might be interested in the announcement of candidacy for the NH House by one of our very recent inhabitants, I think he has lived in our district about a year. Made lots of money in real estate in CA, originally from Manchester, I understand, and would like to join several other Rs in our district who ran as soon as they moved in.
For some the shock of coming from outside the state, hearing that we have "no taxes," and then getting their property tax bill is an incentive to "cut taxes."
I have been watching the Democratic candidates discuss related crisis of rising energy independence and global warming with some interest. It has been encouraging to see each of them establish goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy also features largely in each of the candidates platforms. But many of the candidates also appear unwilling to take a firm position on the issue of nuclear power.
Politicians in Washington are working to redefine nuclear power as a sustainable source of energy. But there is still no proven way to safely dispose of or store nuclear waste. And public opinion skeptical about nuclear power. Any renewable energy legislation that features nuclear power could become mired in a long, divisive debate. America needs to moving forward on clean energy, not engaging in a long debate over nuclear power.
In order to help voters understand where the candidates stand on this issue I have created a user friendly website:
http://no2nuclear.googlepages....
I encourage readers to visit the site and then return here for a discussion the issue of nuclear power and the presidential candidates.
The ABC/Facebook debate came at a pivotal time in the presidential primary process. Untold numbers of undecided voters in New Hampshire tuned in to this debate. Other voters may have tuned in order to reconsider their loyalties in light of the results of last weeks Iowa Caucus. But the ABC did not provide voters with a complete picture of the race. The network decided to lock Democratic candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich out of the debate.
According to the Kucinich campaign, ABC would not allow the progressive Congressman to debate because he did not place fourth place or better in the Iowa Caucus. Kucinich emphasized the point that his campaign had decided to bypass Iowa, spending the majority of its resources in the Granite State.
The ABC lock out is particularly harmful to the Kucinich campaign in that it will leave New Hampshire voters with the false impression that their candidate has dropped out of the race. Kucinich was not the only candidate effected by ABC's decision making process. Had Joe Biden and Chris Dodd remained in the race they would have been denied a place in the debate as well. It is entirely possible that the fact they would be excluded made the decision to withdraw from the race a little easier for the veteran senators.
ABC used two other criteria in "narrowing the field" for the debate. Candidates had to have reached the 5 percent mark in at least 4 major surveys of New Hampshire voters. They had to reach the same mark in one of the last four major national surveys as well.
Voters should ask themselves why ABC should have the right to decide the criteria for "narrowing the field". That is the job of voters, not television network executives.
ABC has published a story about the events involving Kucinich and the debate on its website. I encourage readers to leave comments there:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics...
You can also lobby a general complaint with ABC here:
Instead of trying convince Inevitability to stop attacking all the other candidates, how about this idea to try to promote harmony? What if we each try to say something good about a candidate other than the one we are supporting, or, if we haven't decided yet, say something good about a candidate we know we aren't going to support? And to be fair, try not to pick a candidate someone else has already said something good about - and don't slip in something good about your candidate!
I'll start:
All of the candidates running for president have been invited to speak at a major global warming conference in Manchester October 12 and 13. From what I've been told its open to Rs and Ds - and each candidate is afforded solo stage time to communicate his (her) priorities on energy and global warming.
NH has communicated global warming as a priority in many ways this past year, right under the noses of the candidates. Here are the top ten reasons why every candidate should show up:
1.
A statewide poll showed 70% of likely Republican primary voters feel global warming is a serious threat and needs to be addressed (and most feel it is man-induced), while almost 90% of likely D primary voters feel the same way
2.
164 out of 177 towns passed a town meeting resolution calling on the next president to require national greenhouse gas reductions in ways that protect the economy (of the 164 towns, a majority performed republican in 2004)
3.
The governor & executive council signed a commendation thanking the 300 volunteers who made the resolution a statewide referendum.
4.
More than 40 civic associations and 9 newspapers endorsed the resolution (which has been endorsed now by Richardson, Dodd and McCain)
5.
Researchers in the science and economic disciplines came together for the first time and illustrated how inextricably linked local NH economies are to cold winters, and how northern communities will suffer from slushy winters.
6.
College students marched from Nashua to Concord and others climbed to the tops of the Presidentials to make their point and send a message that global warming action must be a priority for the next president.
7.
A spring conference on global warming and the NH forest economy drew a standing room only crowd of more than 300
8.
Thanks to hundreds of civic-minded volunteers, more than 50 local energy committees have emerged from the results of the town meeting resolution. These people are not your every-day branded enviros: they are civic leaders and taxpayers.
9.
Candidates are getting lots of questions and are talking about energy and global warming on the stump, and in some ways the retail politicking has helped candidates test their messages and reform a few policy directions. That said, the conference is the only chance between now and the primaries for candidates to really showcase their climate change and energy action plans with people for whom this is a priority (what people?-- see ## 1-8)
10.
The upcoming conference comes at peak foliage season - so get up here and enjoy the season .... while we still can.
Republican presidential candidates will gather tonight at the University of New Hampshire for another debate that's more of the same. Such debates rarely give voters the whole picture of how the candidate will solve the problems of New Hampshire. The Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP), the state's largest community organization, and its members are working to complete the picture and get real solutions to the problems that hit home.
GSOP is arranging a "Conversation with Our Next President" event on September 15 at Southern New Hampshire University that will cut through the political spin by translating this access into real answers to questions posed directly by New Hampshire citizens.
As the first-in-the-nation primary state, we all take our unique and early access to the candidates seriously. And to the candidates who participate in these regular old party debates: We can't hear you!!!!
Chris Bowers has written a hilarious piece on the new blog Open Left with groundrules for the media to use when discussing certain vitally important issues. For example:
What is the acceptable amount of money to spend on a haircut for a presidential candidate who makes poverty the focus of his campaign? Is it $30? $50? Is there a cost of living adjustment based on where you live? How about the tip-what is the recommended amount? Do candidates with different areas of issue focus have different maximum haircut limits? Accompanying guidelines for candidates running for Senate, Governor, House and state legislature would also be useful. (Note: In the interests of guaranteeing that I am not a hypocrite for even asking these questions, nine days ago I actually gave myself my most recent haircut. Since I am only on the Pennsylvania State Democratic committee, not to mention that I represent one of the poorest areas of the entire country, I knew that the amount of money I could non-hypocritically spend on a haircut was pretty minimal.)
Six and a half years ago, Al Gore narrowly lost his 2000 campaign for the Presidency. Since then, he has become an active and admirable public servant, among other things, forcing the issue of global warming into the forefront of world debate and speaking out courageously about the fraudulence of the Iraq War.
On paper, Al Gore is a lot of things going for him as a potential candidate. He won the popular vote in 2000; he has a best selling book and an award winning movie; he is smart, experienced, and with his mastery of technology, he is much more a man of the 21st century than many of the other candidates.
