The July meeting of the Newmarket "Crackers," as I call them, was held in Exeter because, as expected, the crowd come to hear the candidates was too big to fit in Crackskulls.
We had one candidate for Governor, Paul McEachern, accompanied by his son, Deaglan who brought us flyers and made note of some questions. McEachern is staking his future career in politics on his support for an income tax in New Hampshire--certainly a topic that needs to be discussed but doesn't seem to be getting much traction. His Democratic challenger in the primary is John Lynch, who sent a representative but couldn't attend himself.
Because of the importance of the position they are aiming for, I should probably have mentioned Bob Bruce and Justin Nadeau first. They are challenging Representative Bradley who's still occupied in Washington. While Bob Bruce has a long career in public service, including law enforcement, Justin Nadeau has a lively presentation, focused to a large extent on what he learned from his grandparents. I asked both in one-on-one conversations what consideration they had given to impeaching a President whose performance has been derelict, if not criminal.
Bob Bruce's career in law enforcement allowed him to make the simple point that everyone is subject to the law and he would have no difficulty giving consideration to what at this point is obviously a hypothetical situation. Justin Nadeau, on the other hand, although he's a lawyer, seemed to be almost stunned by the question, as if he'd not given much thought to the parameters of the position he is aiming for and his aide was not in a position to help him out.
Although the New Hampshire Senate has only 24 members, four candidates presented themselves to our forum. Iris Estabrook, of Durham, was joined by Maggie Hassan, of Exeter, Marth Fuller Clark from Portsmouth, and Marlene DeChane from Barrington. Their presentations could be considered in the category of "singing to the choir"--i.e. fully supportive of the progressive interests of the group (education, health care, social service, effective government and human rights).
There were a goodly number of newcomers to the group from Exeter, no doubt because of an interest of the three candidates for Representative to the New Hampshire House. Eileen Flockhart and Marlowe Bergendorf spoke briefly. Chaz Proulx, who was chairing the forum, has only just put his name in and doesn't have a stump speech. Gordon Millar, from Dover, who has filed for the position, preferred to listen rather than make a presentation, as well.
Finally, we heard from Vincent DeChane who has decided to bring a little diversity to the three man County Commission of Rockingham County which is presently solidly Republican.
All of these candidates are deserving of more consideration and we look forward to the picnics and houseparties that will be planned thoughout the summer and look forward to an interesting primary in September. Politics is less and less of a spectator sport, thanks in large part to the example of Governor Howard Dean, MD.
Posted by Hannah at July 9, 2004 06:32 AM