Good news. Election Day is fast approaching. No more ads, nomore robocalls or polls, no more emails, and no more debates. The last twoyears of national politics have been unbearable for all who aren’t marching inTea Party lockstep. The last two years of NH politics have been unbearable forthose who love the state and don’t care to see it continue to be the butt ofjokes made by the rest of the world. The opposite of progressive is regressive,and the regressives have had too much control for too long.
Ovide Lamontagne is the regressive running for governor ofour state. Ovide is opposed to abortion in cases of rape and incest. Hesupports the so-called personhood legislation that would make a clump of cellsthe legal equal of an adult woman. He’s also opposed to marriage equality, andwants to repeal Obama’s health care law. Despite his obvious religious extremism, Ovide manages (withthe help of the complicit media) to be presented as a moderate. All of theextremist legislation we’ve seen enacted during the last 2 years will becompounded with Lamontagne in the corner office. He’s no friend to education orinfrastructure, the two biggest needs in our state.
Just this week, a report shows that NH is home to a hugegender based pay gap. On average, women earn $0.65 for each dollar a man earnsin NH. Ovide said he didn’t think government should micromanage business, bytelling them what to pay people. In other words, Ovide supports the right of employersto pay women less because of their plumbing. At the same time, Ovide doessupport the right of government to micromanage female reproduction. I’ve beenseeing a bumper sticker around that reads, “Got Ovaries? Avoid Ovide.” It’sgood advice for everyone, regardless of their ovarian status.
Frank Guinta is trying for another term in Congress. Frankran in 2010, firmly clasped to the bosom of the Tea Party. In 2012, he’srunning away from that bosom as fast as he can, and attempting to reinventhimself as a moderate. Frank in 2010 campaigned on alleged abuses on the partof Congresswoman Shea-Porter’s use of the Congressional franking system. In2012, we learned that Guinta is one of the top franking abusers in Congress. Heopposed Obama’s stimulus spending, but couldn’t wait to get his paws onstimulus funding as Mayor of Manchester. We’ve all seen the pictures of him atthe infamous ribbon cutting ceremony for the road to the Manchester Airportthat was built with stimulus funds. Above all, we’ve seen no resolution of theinvestigation into the “forgotten” bank account used to bankroll his 2010campaign. No wonder Guinta’s regarded as one of the most corrupt members ofCongress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Speaking of corrupt - disgraced former Carroll County GOPChair Maynard Thomson is running for the NH House. Thomson resigned from hisposition as County Chair on the day he received a “cease and desist” letterfrom the NH Attorney General’s office. It seems that Thomson (retired attorney turnedromance novelist) was either too inept or too arrogant to properly file theexpenditure forms by the state. Political committees and individual candidatesare required to send in itemized receipt and expenditure forms once they’vetaken in $500 before an election. I suspect Thomson didn’t want anyone to knowwho was bankrolling all those ads that the local GOP ran in the newspaper in2010. In any case, Thomson was either unwilling or unable to fill out theseforms – and it really doesn’t matter which one it was. Either way, his actions shoulddisqualify him from holding higher office.
State Senator Jeb Bradley is running radio ads that urge usto vote for him. In his radio ad, he mentions that he worked to save 5000 jobsat the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In the interest of honesty and fulldisclosure it’s important to note that he didn’t do that as a state senator.That was done in 2005, when he was in Congress. In the state senate he’s workedagainst the workers at the shipyard, by supporting out of state specialinterest groups trying to turn NH into a right to work state. Apparently evenBradley doesn’t think his record in the NH State Senate is attractive enough towin voters over, so he’s trying to blur the lines between his former role inCongress and his current $100 a year position in the NH legislature.
Former Rep. Norm Tregenza is worried about perverts. He’sbeen running ads (big expensive ones, who is funding those?) in the ConwayDaily Sun all week, to tell us of his concern about perverts in bathrooms. Why?It’s all he’s got. He certainly can’t run for reelection on his own record, sohe’s attacking fellow floterial district candidate and former Rep. Ed Butlerfor supporting a bill that would have provided some protections fortransgendered persons. One of Tregenza’s ads shows a picture of Norm himself(looking rather Hitler youth-ish) telling us what an upstanding guy he is forwanting to keep perverts out of ladies rooms. The ad in Saturday’s papersuggested that the entire ad (squirrelly photo and all) be taped to the back ofthe ladies room door. Norm’spicture on the bathroom door? Eeeeuuuww! That’s REALLY perverted.
Women know who the real perverts are. I’ve never spoken to asingle woman who is afraid of encountering a transgendered person in abathroom. The real perverts are the Republicans running for office trying toredefine and normalize rape. Thereal perverts are the men who want to regulate women’s reproductive organs andmake their most intimate decisions for them. Tregenza is one of those perverts.He’s voted against a women’s right to bodily autonomy and reproductive freedomevery time he had the opportunity.
Norman comes across as a “nice young man.” As such, peopletend to overlook the fact that he doesn’t appear to have ever had a full timejob, never mind a career. He’s a member of the red baiting, racist,anti-Semitic John Birch Society, and was a supporter ofracist/homophobe/misogynist candidate Ron Paul. He’s being presented as asterling character – so please be sure to ask him exactly when he moved out ofhis district, and why it took him so long to resign his seat after moving.
As for the three Constitutional Amendment questions, my ruleof thumb in these matters is simple: always vote no. The first one is a poorlywritten mess that will lead to years of expensive court challenges andadversely affect NH’s bond rating. The second attempts to let the legislaturerun our judicial system. It’s an invitation to all manner of legal challenges.Think about the legislature we’ve had for the last 2 years and vote no. Thelast question calls for a convention to amend or revise our state constitution.This is an unnecessary action that would cost NH taxpayers millions of dollars.
New Hampshire can’t go forward by moving backward.
Voting records for incumbents: http://www.granitestateprogress.org
© 2012 sbruce
Published as an op-ed in the October 26 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.
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