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February 2011 Member Posts (19)

Late start for NH presidential primary? Not really

The following piece by Paul Briand was published in Seacoast Sunday on Feb. 27. It is reprinted here with permission from Seacoast Media Group.

Don’t be fooled by the seeming lack of political activity around New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

The fact that there haven’t been many candidate announcements and visits compared to 2008 is not indicative of candidates’ disinterest in the… Continue

Added by Paul Briand on February 28, 2011 at 1:36pm — No Comments

Political week in review for Feb. 28: Legislature rolls on

The 2011 Legislature rolled on last week with consideration of the greenhouse gas initiative, kindergarten, changes to the voting laws, pension reform, and gun permits:

RGGI

On Wednesday, the House voted 246-104 to end the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program among 10 northeastern states created in 2007.…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 28, 2011 at 7:16am — No Comments

The Week in Review: Requiring drug tests for food stamps, cell phone ban and hairy legislation

This week's hot button topic: Should food stamp recipients be subject to drug testing?

According to the newly filed legislation, the drug testing will be random and recipients will lose food stamp privileges after failing two drug tests.

Supporters want recipients of government assistance to be held accountable, while opponents say it's profiling low-income families.

Here's reaction from…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 26, 2011 at 9:00am — No Comments

Florida threatening New Hampshire's first primary status

The Florida Legislature is moving forward with plans to schedule the state's presidential primary on January 31, 2012.

Such a move would violate agreements made by the Democratic and Republican National Committee that only Iowa (February 6), New Hampshire (Feb. 14), Nevada (Feb. 18) and South Carolina (Feb. 28) conduct their primaries/caucuses before March 1.

The rules were established after the 2008 campaign in which several states moved up their voting dates. You may… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 21, 2011 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Political week in review for Feb. 21: State budget, House votes, Donald Trump

It was a week dominated by headlines out of Concord where the state Legislature heard Gov. John Lynch’s outline for a $10.7 billion biennial budget for 2012 and 2013.

On Tuesday Lynch addressed legislators and walked them through the outline of a budget that proposed layoffs, the reorganization of state programs and services, the closing of some state facilities, changes to the state… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 21, 2011 at 6:31am — No Comments

The Week in Review: Budget cuts, no taxes amendment and gun exemption

The governor's budget proposal is the week's hot topic.

On Tuesday, Gov. John Lynch revealed a $10.7 billion biennial budget for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 that contains job and funding cuts.

The budget calls for the elimination of 255 jobs (another 800+ open jobs will not be filled). State aid distributed to cities and towns was reduced by $145 million.

Other notable proposals… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 18, 2011 at 9:20pm — No Comments

Political week in review for Feb. 14: State budget, kindergarten, Patriot Act

Gov. John Lynch will present the blueprint for his new biennial budget to the Legislature tomorrow, but he gave a preview last week that includes no new or higher taxes and the same amount of school aid over the next two fiscal years.

"It's a tough budget," Lynch said in the preview he offered during a forum at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

Since 75 percent of spending from state taxes goes to aid to communities and human services, according to Lynch, it makes… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 14, 2011 at 7:13am — No Comments

The Week in Review: Abortion funding cuts, relaxed gun laws and rail transit

There's a push in Concord to end state funding of any organization that provides abortion services.

Planned Parenthood stands to lose $690,000 if HB 228 is passed by the Legislature.

"It's been a big issue. Most of the people who go in and get abortions are poor and I think there's other ways we can help people in need. Maybe they should start a new agency that would provide other…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 12, 2011 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

NH poll: Romney leads GOP, Obama leads Romney

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks good to New Hampshire voters and continues to poll ahead of other Republicans who might run for president in 2012.

In a head to head against Barack Obama, according to the poll, Romney lags behind the Democratic president by a few points.

The poll released yesterday by Magellan was done for NHJournal.com to measure New… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 12, 2011 at 9:30am — No Comments

Portsmouth School Board Fails Again!

"I need you to go grab some butter," I said to my friend as we walked the isles of the grocery store.

"Ok," he replied, "I'll meet you in the freezer section." After waiting for a moment, he came up to me with a tub of margerine. I looked at the canister, and then back at my friend.

"Does this look like butter to you?" I asked sarcastically with a hint of frustration.

"Sorry," he replied with a sly grin, "I graduated from…

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Added by Robert Arnold IV on February 11, 2011 at 6:25am — No Comments

Legislation keeps state’s hands off JUA money

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has already said that the state isn’t entitled to money from a medical malpractice fund.

A bill in the 2011 Legislature underscores the point: It forbids the state from taking surplus funds from the Joint Underwriting Association.

SB 170 declares that “the state shall not take or transfer, through taxation or otherwise, any funds now held by the New… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 8, 2011 at 4:32pm — No Comments

Legislation keeps state’s hands off JUA money

Added by LFDA Editor on February 8, 2011 at 4:28pm — No Comments

Political week in review for Feb. 7: Town Meeting law, health care, death penalty

An effort to tighten up Town Meeting warrant articles -- the first new bill for 2011 -- worked its way quickly through the Legislature and to the desk of Gov. John Lynch for his signature last week.

That’s because Town Meeting deliberative sessions started on Saturday, and state policy makers didn’t want a repeat of last year when warrant articles in some communities were… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 7, 2011 at 7:11am — No Comments

GOP leadership distances itself from gun bill

Republican leaders in the New Hampshire House are distancing themselves from HB 536, which they described as “an unacceptable risk” if it passed.

The bill, sponsored by freshman Republican Rep. J.R. Hoell of Hopkinton, eliminates all licensing in the purchase or ownership of a firearm.

Any person in the state, other than those in jail, “shall have the natural right to possess or…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 6, 2011 at 2:38pm — No Comments

Deliberative sessions held throughout state

Town Meeting deliberative sessions were held throughout the state yesterday.

Here are some of the headlines from those sessions:

Exeter deliberative session gets hot over municipal budget committee

Hampton residents kill single-fire station plan at deliberative session…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 6, 2011 at 8:45am — No Comments

The Week in Review: Capping high interest loans and retiring Ronald McDonald

High interest loans proved to be a high interest topic on the LFDA this week.

The Legislature is considering a bill that would remove the cap on so-called car title loans. A law went into effect in 2009 capping the interest rate on short term loans at 36 percent. It wasn't uncommon for such loans to carry a 300 percent annual interest rate, reports the Concord…

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Added by LFDA Editor on February 5, 2011 at 8:30am — No Comments

NH House considers ‘right to work’ law

The state Legislature is working on a proposed “right to work” law that lets an employee decide whether he or she wants to join a union.

The legislation -- HB 474 -- “prohibits collective bargaining agreements that require employees to join a labor union,” according to its preamble.

As it is now, if a new employee is hired into a job that is covered by a collective bargaining agreement… Continue

Added by LFDA Editor on February 4, 2011 at 7:55am — 1 Comment

Ending the Demoraship

Ending the Democraship

In a dictatorship, one despot rules. In Rye, a very small number of people vote for the rest of the town and a fewer number of people impact the warrant article wording, while we only had marginally better town meeting participation.

Rye is a Democraship. In the 90’s an average of around 7% of voters attended town meetings and now only an average of around 2% of voters have attended deliberative sessions in the past decade. Election…

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Added by Steven Borne on February 3, 2011 at 9:33pm — No Comments

Is too early too ‘stale’ for NH primary run?

Those of us in New Hampshire are beginning to wonder: Where are the presidential candidates?

Hello out there … where are you?

Is it a case of simply avoiding the state’s first-in-the-nation primary?

Or is it, as Mike Huckabee suggests, that to start too early is to create an image of a “stale loaf of bread on the shelf”?

Four years ago we were already crawling with potential…

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Added by Paul Briand on February 2, 2011 at 10:58am — No Comments