Election Day Special: NH Progressive Voters Guide

by: Zandra Rice Hawkins

Tue Nov 02, 2010 at 08:56:37 AM EDT

Today's election is critically important for protecting and advancing the values that matter most to us. We thought it would be handy if there were an easy way to vote smart on all the races on the ballot, taking into account the endorsements and recommendations of some of New Hampshire's leading progressive organizations.

Nine organizations are reflected in the NH Progressive Voter's Guide, with participation varying from recommendations to endorsements to a sort-of "endorsement of the endorsements". There is a weblink to each organization for more information.

Since this is the first-ever Progressive Voter Guide we've put together we wholly anticipate some bugs. In fact, we'll be updating a bit more this morning in hopes of ironing them out - mapping this many house districts and endorsements has proved quite challenging!

What we suggest is that people download their sample ballot from the NH Secretary of State, then use the Progressive Voter Guide to fill-in the sample ballot and bring it to the polls with them. (That also helps in case there is an errant candidate listed on the page.)

What's really exciting about this effort is that even the more political of us may find recommendations for races or candidates that we knew little about before - some groups even have county races listed.

So, take a peek and see what it has for your district, then share it around with friends and family who would make good use of it today. We'd also love your feedback via the form on the site - we would really like to make this bigger and better the next time around. (And leave a note if you'd be interested in helping!)

The NH Progressive Voter Guide is a collaboration by America Votes NH, Granite State Progress, NARAL Pro-Choice NH, NEA-NH, NH AFL-CIO, NH Citizens Alliance for Action, NH Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and SEA/SEIU Local 1984.

Those are some great groups, and this is a great way to encourage people to vote smarter this Election Day.

WATCH: Highlights From My Debate

by: PaulHodes

Sat Oct 30, 2010 at 11:58:32 AM EDT

WATCH: Highlights From My Debate

by: PaulHodes

Sat Oct 30, 2010 at 11:58:32 AM EDT

A Letter From My Daughter

by: PaulHodes

Thu Oct 28, 2010 at 11:23:54 AM EDT

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 Keene Sentinel Endorses Me

by: PaulHodes

Mon Oct 25, 2010 at 17:20:11 PM EDT

The Tea Party is coming

by: PaulHodes

Tue Oct 19, 2010 at 15:57:34 PM EDT

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  

J Accuse President Obama Says Chamber of Commerce Using Foreign Funds to Influence US Elections

by: avengergop

Thu Oct 07, 2010 at 19:18:40 PM EDT

Democrats will hold the Senate and the House

by: avengergop

Tue Oct 05, 2010 at 10:23:06 AM EDT

Text removed for copyright violation. Please restrict use of copyrighted pieces to short excerpts. - Laura

Tea Party going to London?: Tea Party is just a sham.

by: avengergop

Tue Oct 05, 2010 at 10:13:06 AM EDT

Again, text deleted for copyright. And in both cases the link is to a site that's reposting pieces wholesale. - Laura

Standing up to Global Warming Deniers

by: PaulHodes

Wed Sep 29, 2010 at 11:34:32 AM EDT

It's puzzling. Why would someone who doesn't think global warming exists think that we need to enact a proposal aimed at reducing carbon emissions? Why would someone who supports things like drilling off the coast of New Hampshire all of a sudden try to convince us she'd be supportive of renewable energy efforts in the US Senate?

In her competitive primary, we watched Ms. Ayotte move to the far-right wing of her party. Now, with the general election less than a month away, she's trying to have it both ways. She's hoping New Hampshire won't notice that big oil and coal companies continue to fill her campaign coffers as she talks about drilling off the coast of New Hampshire.

The bottom line is that Kelly Ayotte has as many doubts about global warming as I have about her ability to stand up to her special interest donors in the oil and coal industry.

The Democracy Diet

by: James Boyce

Tue Sep 14, 2010 at 14:37:23 PM EDT

Last week, the Live Free or Die Alliance (LFDA) unveiled a massive warehouse of all-natural election information that is essential to consume regularly for a well-balanced perspective at the polls.  The way it works is this: we already have all of that unnatural, over-processed stuff in our system, so add Election Central, the LFDA ingredient, and it will immediately start working to break down those compound masses of unhealthy vitriol - which are often cancerous to the body politic - into their more simple and benign elements.  We immediately start to feel less anxious, and we can think more clearly.  It improves our vision too.

It is not easy to farm good, nutritious information for the body politic.  The good folks at the LFDA have been working all summer in the fields of knowledge to produce this harvest.  They dug up every single candidate for public office in New Hampshire, washed off the dirt and smears, and posted what they found in the warm light of day.

What do they charge for this political super-food?  Nothing.  So c'mon and get some of the good stuff, and help our body politic to have a better self image, to stop hating itself, and shed some of the unnecessary weight it has been putting on.

Next, consider enrolling in regular De-spinning classes by joining the Live Free or Die Alliance, and by becoming part of the community on the Facebook Page.

Sununu's Petty Political Attacks

by: PaulHodes

Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 17:35:30 PM EDT

"Coffee Talk" with Paul Baldwin

by: Ed Tracey

Wed Aug 25, 2010 at 21:04:08 PM EDT

... no, the Granite State's Paul Baldwin remains in jail after his 154th arrest - this time, for trying to pilfer 48 cans of beer from a store in Kittery, Maine. Hey now, wait a minute ..... doesn't it look like our local criminal (left) ...is descended from the late Merlin Olsen the NFL Hall-of-Famer?

By the way, while I'm in a pensive mood ...

HAIL and FAREWELL to former Ohio GOP senator William Saxbe who has died at the age of 94. For someone who later served as President Nixon's attorney general, he is known for this one quote about Nixon's claim that he knew nothing about Watergate:

That sounds like the guy at the bawdy house who says, "Hey, I just play the piano here; I don't know what's going on upstairs!"

It's Time To Reform The Senate

by: PaulHodes

Wed Aug 18, 2010 at 11:18:35 AM EDT

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.

Mark Whittington is an idiot

by: NatchGreyes

Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 01:48:43 AM EDT

On July 21st I Tweeted "I have to wonder if & or when @sarahpalinusa will learn the meaning of our state motto: "live free or die." #NowHamp #NH #NHSen" via TweetDeck.

According to Mark Whittington this means I think Sarah Palin should die.  WTF?

Apparently, Whittington wasn't privy to the prior Tweet (not 4 minutes before and left as unprotected and free floating as all my other Tweets) which noted how David Frum, a, if not the, leading Conservative intellectual, criticized Palin's endorsement strategy.  In addition, Whittington wasn't privy to the savage criticism of Palin offered on the Front Page (A1) of the Conservative Union Leader by the publisher, Joseph W. McQuaid.  The latter, for everyone else in the state concerned with politics, was the political news of the day.

Now, considering I speak English (or, more accurately, the mutant offspring known to the English as "American") and, supposedly, Mark Whittington does as well, I don't and can't contribute Mark Whittington's gross misinterpretation to some sort of translation error.  He deserves no benefit nor will he get any benefit from me now or in the future.

Despite this admission, it occurs to me that if Whittington's grasp of grammar hinges on his seeming inability to write on anything current other than Sarah Palin he may not have fully understood my Tweet, given that it occurred sometime after the end of the Cold War, unlike his fiction, then perhaps I ought to explain it to him.  So here's the email I'd send him if I had his address:

Dear Mark,

I'm glad that you've seen my Tweet fit to repeat but I must protest at your mischaracterization of my words.  I did not state or imply, nor will you find any reasonable person who would attest that I had stated or imply, that Sarah Palin should die (or any form thereof).  

As you should know, I currently reside in New Hampshire.  The state motto is "Live Free or Die."  This motto is derived from a toast given by (Revolutionary War) General John Stark who used it in the context everyone now uses it, in a kind of summation of Patrick Henry's statement on liberty and doing the right thing no matter the consequence (please find his speech "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" here).  Perhaps it is because we here in New Hampshire, the first state to vote in Presidential Primaries, have such a love of our country and our electoral system that we forget that Texans and other non-New Hampshirites, such as yourself, do not possess that same love of liberty and faith in the electorate that we have and so we recklessly explain our actions through our state motto.  I know I speak for all of New Hampshire, liberal and conservative alike, when I quote Mr. McQuade and say that "New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say."  

If you really want to know what I meant when I said what I said please refer to Mr. McQuade's editorial.  New Hampshire voters are not impressed by losers and losers are all those people we've already rejected as worthy of our votes.  And, if you've forgotten, McCain-Palin did not win our state.  In fact, Palin has never even bothered to try to convince us to part with our votes on her own.  She has never run for anything for which we were allowed to judge her ourselves.  She has never entered a primary or general election in our state where she stood on top of the ticket.  Until she does she will always be a loser in the eyes of New Hampshirites.  Why else would Kelly Ayotte's website drop all mention of her Palin endorsement?

You sir are a charlatan.  Your cheap tricks and pathetic excuses for news articles may attract page views but please don't think yourself clever.  What you write is not snappy political commentary, it's idiotic and worthless drivel.  Maybe in Texas, where the Governor hails secession, a treasonable offense, as a viable option where political disagreements are concerned, it is fine to self publish a few books and fancy one's self a writer and to disparage and slander the fine citizens of other states but that is not how things are done here in New Hampshire.  We don't have loud protests and riot police.  We like to hear out our opposition and debate their points in polite conversation, making sure that we understand what our opposition means.  You, sir, did not even bother to allow me that courtesy.  Instead, you preferred to attempt to savage me on Yahoo!'s Associated Content.  Unfortunately, you've failed and made yourself look like an idiot in the meantime.

That said I'd like to offer you an invitation.  Come up to our state and visit any political campaign, join any political event, or just hang out before the upcoming elections and you'll learn what I meant when I questioned if and/or when Sarah Palin would learn about New Hampshire.  I don't care what campaign you visit, what event you take in or where you visit, you'll find that eventually you will come to understand why we are so committed to liberty and you'll come to understand why we don't care about Sarah Palin or her opinions.  

Let me regal you with a story of an event that happened to me just today.  I was at the barber getting a haircut and a woman running for State Representative came in to campaign and ask to leave literature.  She never mentioned with what party she was affiliated.  She never mentioned if she was an incumbent.  She never mentioned if she had a lot of support.  She just came in and, beautifully framed in front of the American flag hanging just outside the window gave, in a quivering voice, her stump speech.  She told us what she believed was wrong at the State House and told us what she would try to do to fix it.  And you know what?  Not even those who vehemently disagreed with her interrupted or even attempted to refute her points.  That is what it means to live free or die.  It is the fundamental understanding that comes with the ability to express, entertain, and the free exercise of an idea even if one does not agree with that idea.  But it is so much more than even that encompassing description, it is, in essence, understanding what makes the political process in New Hampshire so potent.  It is something which escapes whatever paltry words I put to the page but something any New Hampshirite, no matter his or her political persuasion, can demonstrate, if not necessarily describe.

I realize that you are a Texan and the concept of liberty, as we understand it here the Granite State, is foreign to you, but please, in the future, do not mistake our references to our state motto, a potent and formidable authority, as threats.  They are not.  They are simply reminders of what it means to live in a free and open society.  

So, when I, or any New Hampshirite, wonders if and/or when Sarah Palin, or anyone else for that matter, will understand what it means to "live free or die" we mean to imply that the object of our ire is simply not espousing the values and concepts necessary to endear him or her to our hearts.  It takes a lot to win our votes and we ask a lot from our candidates.  That's what I want Sarah Palin to learn.  And I guess that's what I want you to learn too.

Politely,
Natch Greyes

Kelly Ayotte: The Police State Candidate

by: Thomas Simmons

Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 15:13:14 PM EDT

Anyone who has watched television in New Hampshire over the last few weeks has seen the barrage of Ayotte ads, each with the same theme: Ayotte put criminals behind bars. All but one of her ads features a uniformed police officer, and her latest shamelessly lauds her prosecution of the man guilty of killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs.

But it is her other activities as the Granite State's Attorney General that should bring one to pause, if not shudder, for what she would bring to the legislative table. On a consistent basis, AG Ayotte testified before the state legislature to curtail civil liberties and protect the power of the police state. Four important examples:

1) The most egregious must be her abject lies about Medical Marijuana, delivered at last year's legislative debate.

She wrote,

"In fact, marijuana is an addictive drug that poses significant health consequences to its users, including those who may be using it for medical purposes...The use of smoked marijuana is opposed by all credible medical groups nationwide."

In fact, several major national medical groups have taken positive views of medical cannabis, including the American Academy of Physicians, the American Nurses Association and the American Public Health Association. In a 2001 report, even the American Medical Association noted that marijuana helped those suffering from certain ailments including HIV wasting syndrome and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

It is too bad she didn't consider the testimony of Fremont, NH resident Dennis Acton:

"...I am a cancer survivor and successfully used marijuana to treat severe nausea when my $1600 prescription didn't work. I testified along with many others at the Senate HHS Subcommittee hearing back in April. After the senate passed it, we were able to set up a meeting with the Governor. He was "unavailable" so he sent two policy advisors. About 20 of use showed up for this meeting and told our stories. ... I really wish the Gov. could have been there to hear these moving stories. I wish other people like AG Kelly Ayotte... and others who dismiss the medicinal properties of marijuana (based on ignorance rather than science) could have heard this as well.

The bottom line is that terminally or severely ill people want to use marijuana to ease symptoms and to avoid becoming addicted to expensive and harmful opiate based drugs. It is just inconceivable that drugs like Oxycontin are readily available and are being abused terribly while marijuana is outlawed..."

Both the House and Senate adopted a medical marijuana bill, but the Senate lacked the votes to override the Governor's veto...a veto that relied, in part, on Ayotte's disgraceful testimony.

2) A second area is her continued opposition to permitting videotaping of police actions.

In 2009, House Bill 312 was submitted, simply permitting the recording (on a cell phone or other device) police activity. For years, police indiscretions have been brought to light through citizen vigilence (Even parking garages have video cameras these days!) The Bill was bipartisan, sponsored by 3 Democrats (Joel Winters, Susi Nord, and Maureen Mann) and 2 Republicans (Neal Kurk and Jenn Coffey), and passed the Democratically-controlled House.

Ayotte opposed the bill, likening the procedure to illegal wiretapping, and it died in the Senate.

3) In New Hampshire, "...Jury nullification is the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by the judge and contrary to the evidence." (State v. Hokanson, 140 N.H. at 721B906, cited in State of NH v Sanchez). This undisputed power is a check on a rule-oriented legal system that could result in terrible miscarriages of justice. And yet, when HB 906 was filed in 2007, simply requiring that jurors be informed of their existing, "undisputed" rights, Ayotte testified against the bill.

4)On two seperate occasions, Ayotte urged Governor Lynch to veto bills (2006 SB318 and 2009 HB160) that would establish the "Castle Doctrine" in New Hampshire. The Castle Doctrine gives a crime victim the right to use force when attacked when that victim is legally in a place where they have a right to be. Instead, Ayotte has supported the notion that a potential victim has a duty to retreat, rather than defend themselves...cold comfort to a woman walking home late at night and confronted in a dark street, or someone in a wheelchair, or a nightclub patron being surrounded by a group of thugs out to bash someone for fun.

Of course, this is also the Attorney General who advocated for the requirement that picture IDs be produced simply to purchase cough medicine...

Kelly Ayotte has spent her life enhancing and enlarging the power of the State and its Police and enforcement mechanisms as against its citizens. Having garnered the support of the GOP establishment, it is now no surprise that as the GOP primary nears, she is tripping over herself to embrace anti-immigration extremism, 14th-Amendment repeal nonsense, Sarah Palin, and the far-right elements that she needs to capture the nod.

But for anyone - Republican, Independent, or Democrat - who values New Hampshire's libertarian way of life, this candidate MUST be defeated. She does not, and must not, represent the people of New Hampshire.

On The Trail

by: PaulHodes

Fri Aug 06, 2010 at 17:39:50 PM EDT

We're Making Them Nervous

by: PaulHodes

Thu Aug 05, 2010 at 12:50:34 PM EDT

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.

Stop the Revolving Door

by: PaulHodes

Wed Aug 04, 2010 at 11:33:19 AM EDT

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.

Granite State Views on Afghanistan Rapidly Darken

by: Dean Barker

Wed Aug 04, 2010 at 08:54:23 AM EDT

A WMUR Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows that 65 percent of residents now say the war in Afghanistan is going badly. In April, 50 percent of those polled said the war was going well.

This is an uncomfortable thing - for both parties! - to admit going into the heat of an election cycle.  But a topic as life-and-death as war cannot, as Bush did in 2002, be warped around silly season concerns.

When the President announced his Afghanistan policy, I told Paul Hodes in person that, probably to the right of many on this site, I supported it.  I trust President Obama in a way I did not trust Bush, and I still cling to the notion of getting Osama bin Laden. But now I don't think I can any longer, because I no longer understand what connection that has to what we are doing over there.