Board of Selectmen Meeting

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
7 p.m.

The time has changed - notice that it is no longer at 3pm!  This meeting is not just for those that can get away during the regular working day hours.

Will it stay that way?  It all depends on you, the townfolk of Gilford.  Show up, it may stay that.  Don't, and it may revert back to the afternoon time.

If you want to let the Selectmen know your feelings about how the town is run, now's the time to show up.

(cross posted at GraniteGrok and GilfordGrok)

pending cap initiative

A conservative group is coordinating efforts in four cities to cap municipal spending at the rate of the consumer price index beginning in 2010.

The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is working with activists in Manchester, Concord, Merrimack and Rochester to put proposed changes to those communities' municipal charters on the ballot in November.

Coalition chairman Mike Biundo said the effort was sparked by "legislative overspending" last year and by the recent initiative by the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition "to strip away our (anti-broad base tax) pledge and strip away what New Hampshire is, a low-tax, low-spending state."

Biundo said that by tomorrow, language for charter amendments will be filed in the four municipalities. He said plans call for similar filings shortly in Londonderry, Conway, Portsmouth, Keene, Somersworth, Lebanon and Bedford.

"When you add up the 11 communities, this is over 30 percent of the electorate in the state," he said.

Biundo said state law requires the proposed petitions for the charter amendments to be reviewed by the Attorney General's Office and Department of Revenue Administration. He said that when the language is approved, organizers will have 60 days to gather petitions signed by at least 20 percent of the number of local residents who voted in the last municipal elections.

Biundo said his coalition has hired former Ron Paul field director Jared Chicoine and brought back former coalition executive director Tammy Simmons. He claims that such an effort "has never been done before on this scale in this state."

Calling all Republican Men and Women!
$75 per person provides: Campaign School Manual and Lunch.
 
What are the workshops being offered?

• Management
• Media
• Strategy
• Get-out-the-vote techniques
• Opposition Research
• Fundraising

Register Now! or call Christine Peters (673-0959)

(Update: looks like the link is bad and their site is down....call first)

CALLING ALL CANDIDATES

The filing period for state, federal, and county offices opens six weeks from tomorrow and runs June 4 – 13. The political environment for NH Republicans is much-improved compared to 2006. John McCain is going to run strong at the top of the NH ticket, guaranteeing that our state candidates will be evaluated on their own merits this year. Republicans will see a net gain in seats this year. The only question is how many will we win back – and will you be among the winners? If you are interested in running for office this year or want more information about what offices are available and what it takes to run, to win, and to serve, please contact Mike Hamilton at 225-9341 or email

STAFFING UPDATES

Here at NH GOP headquarters, our staff are Mike Hamilton, Executive Director, Pete Flynn, Finance Director, Tom DeRosa, Political Director. We expect to add more staff soon as the coordinated Victory effort takes shape. Stay tuned.

120 CLUB

Join the NH GOP 120 Club and help us make New Hampshire a solid Red State. For $10 a month you can help fund our candidate recruitment and our “Get Out The Vote” effort in November. Your contribution can make a big difference. Please click here for more information.

JEANNE SHAHEEN, FLIP-FLOP QUEEN (this week’s example)

Last fall Shaheen Proposed Rolling Back The 2001 Tax Cuts. “‘Nationally, we've got to do something, not just about costs, but about the 47 million who are uninsured and underinsured,’ said Shaheen adding that rolling back the bush tax cuts of those who earn more that $200,000 per year would pay for about half of that expense.” (Gail Ober, “In Laconia: Shaheen Meets With Leaders,” The Laconia Citizen , November 30, 2007) However, earlier Shaheen Said She Would Have Voted In Favor Of The Tax Cuts If She Had Been In The Senate. Shaheen: “One is on the Bush tax cut, where I said that I would have voted for the Bush tax cut had I been in the Senate.” (Harry R. Weber, “Leadership, Abortion, Taxes, Independence, Education,” Associated Press , October 26, 2002)

NH POLITICAL LIBRARY

The NH Political Library’s annual Awards Dinner is Wednesday, April 30 at 5:00 p.m. at the Center of NH Radisson in Manchester. Honorees are former US Senator Bill Bradley, former Governor Mitt Romney, CNN’s Candy Crowley, and former Governor Walter Peterson. Tickets are $150. For more info, call Celina Hurley at 225-4617 x11 or register online.

EVENT HONORING SENATOR WARREN RUDMAN

On May 13, Americans for Campaign Reform is holding a fundraising dinner honoring former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman. Keynote speakers are former Senators Howard Baker and Nancy Kassebaum Baker. The event is at 6:00 p.m. at CR Sparks in Bedford. Tickets are $50 each. For more info, call 227-0626.

CAMPAIGN SCHOOL
The National Federation of Republican Women is holding an all-day campaign school on May 17 in Nashua. The school is open to men as well as women! For more info, contact NH NFRW Chairwoman Christine Peters at 673-0959 and go check it out

We saw the political railroad at full steam here in NH as the newly annointed Dems rammed through and ran the table to enact civil union legislation in all but record time right after the election.  Not a whisper of this issue appeared during the campaign; after the election, it  became a whirlwind.

Well, it happens in other places, too!  And sometimes, instead of the tornado, the political process becomes a glacier:

Those who remember almost any recent election will likely stop to read that headline again. After all, isn’t it the Democrats who have been making the claim every other year that their voters have been disenfranchised?

[snip]

Since 2004, SJR 127 has been introduced into the Tennessee Senate and passed by a wide majority each time. Each time it has gone to the Tennessee House where it has died in Committee, the Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee of Health and Human Resources Committee to be precise. It was the same earlier this year. On a party line vote, the Subcommittee refused to allow SJR 127 to come out of committee to the full House where it would pass and then be put on the ballot in 2010 for all Tennesseans to vote on. Six committee members, all Democrats, are preventing six million Tennesseans from having their say. Talk about disenfranchising voters!

The resolution these six anti-democracy Democrats are keeping from appearing on the ballot is as follows:

Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.

[snip]

In 2008, in the United States of America, who could oppose letting the people vote on such an important issue and have a say in the way things are done in their state? Who, indeed? It is the Democrats who oppose such a thing! It is the Democrats who insist the people be forbidden from voting on the matter!

Once again, the phrase of "elections count" rings true.  In this case, as in MA where legislators refuse to allow a ballot measure to reach their constituents on gay marriage for a wider vote, we see Dems acting badly and refusing to allow the full flower of democracy to spread its petals.

Again, we hear so often from Dems that Republicans freeze out their voters.  In this case, the Democrats are freezing out ALL the voters.

Sad...
(cross posted at GraniteGrok)

Sure, LET'S use the taxpayers as an ATM machine!  After all, it's THEIR money (ha! not ours!)!  NH Advantage, what's that?

It is becoming quite clear that the NH Democrats have seriously overreached in this year's State budget, especially in the area of revenue forcasting.  They decry that the national and local economies are to blame: "that's why revenues are down!".

Er, not so fast.  While revenues have not met expections, actual revenues are up year over year.  Hear that?  Actual revenues are up.  This small, simple fact gives lie to the Democrats claim that the NH economy has tanked; the only thing that has tanked is their revenue projections!

So, do they admit that overreach?  Do they admit that perhaps the glasses they wore at the time had a tad more tinge of rose in them than warranted?  Of COURSE not!

So, what is their sole way to fix their self-induced problem?  Of COURSE - let's raise taxes and fees (never "how do we protect the taxpayers" and perhaps ramp down the cost of government).  Here's a prelim list:

Increased Taxes and Fees this Session:

• HB 1309—A new tax on cigars that will adversely affect sales along the NH border.
  

• HB 1426—Motor fuel imported into NH will be taxed higher and dedicated to a cleanup fund that DES testified, “does not need money right now.”
  

• HB 1594—Establishes new fees that will be levied on the backs of small business owners in NH.
  

• HB 1286—Requires mortgage originators to pay a $100 licensing fee and a $100 renewal fee.
  

• HB 1414—Increases the bail commissioners fee by $15 per day.
  

• HB 1360—House Democrats defeated a bill that would have repealed the civil court filing fee that they adopted last year. Adding a fee of $25 for filing any civil case is just another step in preventing our citizens from seeking redress and is yet another example of the mismanagement of the budget.
  

• HB 1547—House Democrats refused another attempt to repeal the fee charged to the Register of Deeds in an attempt to fund LCHIP by using a method that is harmful to citizens experiencing an already fledging real estate market.
  

• SB 528—Created a $5 incentive for recycling mercury thermostats that would be paid by manufacturers and passed along to the consumer.
  

• SB 519—Imposes a per diem fine on dam owners and operators for failure to repair damage.
  

• SB 317—Raises the tobacco license fee—once again hurting small business and chipping away at the New Hampshire Advantage.

Notice the pattern - a death by a THOUSAND cuts (or pennies, or dollar bills in this case)....just to show that NONE of it will be sufficient to put in a broad based tax.  Yup, we created a crisis for which the only answer is MORE of YOUR money!

When I was asked to help restart the Gilford Town Republican Committee, I accepted, but with one condition - we were not going to be yet another, "not doing much" group of Republicans.  Thus, and since being elected Chair, I see my role as being twofold:

• Help to rally Republicans around a message that can be believed
• Begin to put that message into force with concrete actions

Simply put, let's give people a reason to choose to be and vote Republican!

Tonight, after discussing the NH GOP Platform, this item caught our attention:

Promoting a limited government that is open, responsive and fully accountable to and in touch with its citizens without interfering in their personal, daily lives.

and began a discussion in how it would apply to the GTRC.  Combining that with Charlie Arlinghaus's column on transparency in government relative to the mess that the Democrats have made in Concord (no, its not just the economy, as total State revenues are up year over year, the Democrats just went WAY over the cliff on spending and are now looking for cover), the attendees decided to put that into action:

As Gilford Republicans, our first goal is to request an opening up of local government by making all public information more easily available  by the local govenmental bodies with which we are concerned:

• Town of Gilford
• Gilford School Board
• Belknap County
  

What is lacking is a plethora of flashlights - citizen overwatch of their own government and with the current outcry by some when Right To Know requests are filed, the easiest solution is to make those requests irrelevant by bringing that information to our citizens instead of forcing citizens to come to the information.

One of the easiest ways to do that is with more fully operational and informative governmental websites that would provide portals totally open to the taxpayers. The minimum each website should contain can be seen after the break (and is modeled after requirements listed by the Sunshine Review).

Thus, we call upon the Town of Gilford, the Gilford School Board, and the Belknap County Commissioners to more fully use their websites to more fully open up their levels of government and make it easier for their citizens and taxpayers access the information that is, by right, theirs.

The technology to simply put them out on the web is simple (i.e., put PDF copies of information on the web sites).  The next step is to then put information that can be analyzed (e.g., Check Manifests) out in formats that ordinary citizens can then download and examine (e.g., EXCEL spreadsheets).

The relevant Press Releases can be found after the jump.

Our next meeting will be held this Thursday, April 17 at 6:30pm

Place: Gilford Town Hall, Conference Room A.

We'll be having a "working" session this month (no special speaker).

























The next meetings:

• May 22      4th Thursday of the month     Town Hall, lower Level lunchroom area
• June  19    3rd Thursday of the Month      TBD

The reminder about the upcoming fundraising event for the Belknap County Mt Washington cruise is here.  Thanks to a vote this past Wednesday, the Belknap County Republicans will split any profits from any of the tickets that the Gilford GOP sells for this event.

Let me know if you want some to sell and if you are looking for names to call, let me know that too!

Also, the video from that meeting where John Stephen (candidate, NH - CD 1) and Jim Steiner (candidate, NH - CD 2) spoke can be seen here.

-Skip

Date:        4/9/08
Time:        5:30pm   Dinner ($12)
                6:00pm   Meeting

Place:       Shanghai Restaurant
                331 South Main Street
                Laconia, NH
                (603) 524-4100

Speakers   John Stephen
                Candidate for Congress - District 1
                John Stephen For Congress
               

                Jim Steiner
                Candidate for Congress - District 2
                Jim Steiner for Congress

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker returned from Iraq to testify to the relevant Senate subcommittees.  Senator Sununu, R-NH, had the following statement:

SUNUNU STATEMENT ON PETRAEUS, CROCKER TESTIMONY

WASHINGTON, DC – United States Senator John Sununu (R-NH) today (4/8) released the following statement regarding the testimony of General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on the Iraq War before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

“No American should serve a day longer in Iraq than is absolutely necessary, but an immediate withdrawal of all coalition forces would leave behind an unstable and dangerous environment.

“Over the past year, our men and women serving in Iraq have performed bravely and exceeded every expectation.  Security has improved significantly, the Iraqi military has taken on greater responsibilities, and the government has enacted vital legislation for debaathification, reconstruction, and sharing power among the different regions.

“General Petraeus has provided outstanding leadership throughout this time, placing us on a path to bring home 30,000 soldiers and working with Ambassador Crocker to press Iraqi political leaders for more progress.

“Now, we need to let General Patraeus and his commanders on the ground finish the job. They should be given the chance to evaluate the situation, set goals for bringing home the rest of our troops safely, and leave behind a more secure region.”

Once again, the Belknap County Republicans will be commandeering the M/S Mount Washington cruise ship.  Leaving from its dock in scenic Weirs Beach, we'll be water-borne for a few hours of meet-and-greet, conversations, speakers, and good food. Start planning for it now!

If you are interested in going, see me for tickets. 

If you are interested in perhaps selling some, I'll come to you! The more we sell, the better chance / leverage we'll have in trying to persuade the County level folks to share some of that fund raising money with us!

I've updated the Town, County, and National GOP organizations in the blogroll (to your right). Also, the known GOP candidates for Congress and Senate are now listed as well as Governor.

Hopefully, we will be getting them in to talk with us soon!

From PolitickerNH:

RNC plan keeps New Hampshire first
By Brian Lawson
Tags: RNC, Ohio plan, New Hampshire Primary, Jim Splaine, Fergus Cullen

The Rules Committee of the Republican National Committee has adopted a plan that would preserve New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary status.

By a vote of 28 to 12, the committee passed the "Ohio plan" that would allow New Hampshire to be the first primary state and specifies that South Carolina follow New Hampshire.

"This is an important first step in the process of preserving our first in the nation primary. There is broad consensus that our Republican nominating process has worked well, and the way John McCain earned our nomination is prima facia evidence of that," Fergus Cullen, Chairman of New Hampshire Republicans, said in a statement.

The plan could be changed at the RNC Conventional in September.

State Rep. Jim Splaine (D-Portsmouth) said he thought the Democratic Party should establish similar rules.

"It would be good if the Democratic National Committee does something similar, although that decision might not come for another year or two. Having states like Michigan and Florida continually challenging New Hampshire could be head off by bringing some sanity to the process," Splaine said.

Splaine also pointed out that under New Hampshire law the Secretary of State must pick a date that is "seven days or more" before a "similar election."