Positions

The Republican Party in New Hampshire has become influenced by what are referred to as Christian nationalists (not a religion but rather a politically based set of beliefs about the destiny of the United States). Their symbol is a white flag with a green pine tree and the words “An Appeal to Heaven”. Taking their ideas from the original Puritans who came to America from England, the Christian nationalists insist that the United States was established as an explicitly Christian nation, and they believe that this close relationship between Christianity and the state needs to be protected – and in many respects restored – in order for the US to fulfill its God-given destiny. They seek to automatically privilege conservative Christian norms and identity and separate out a special class of “true,” “fully American” citizens from others. Christian nationalists believe that the “state” should report to the “church”.  (Even though religious institutions in the U.S. enjoy a tax-free status to “stay out of the state”).

In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy such as ours, these efforts are inherently destabilizing and present a threat to our “live free” way of life.  Yale News presents an excellent description of the movement https://news.yale.edu/2022/03/15/yale-sociologist-phil-gorski-threat-white-christian-nationalism as does the Washington Monthly: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/02/17/christian-nationalists-found-the-leader-theyve-been-looking-for/.

Contrary to the beliefs of the Christian nationalists, the separation of church and state was established by the very founders of this country and is a bedrock of our constitution.  Although religious himself, James Madison, the father of our constitution and writer of the Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments) said:

“Religion and government will exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.” 

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.”

Some of the proposals I have seen in bills being processed by the New Hampshire legislature include bringing back conversion therapy, eliminating the right to an abortion from the moment of conception with no exceptions, and the right of health care providers to refuse care to individuals based on religious objections.  One bill that has passed is to replace our state’s moto of “live free or die” with “in God we trust” in school buildings ignoring the 36% of Granite Staters who identify as unaffiliated and leading our children into believing our state is a theocracy.  There were also numerous bills presented during Covid that sought to limit vaccines, with the professed idea of “trust in God”.  While many of these religious based bills have not passed the legislature (so far), some have and only been stopped by veto.  One in particular was of concern: the so-called parental rights bill (HB 1441).  This bill sought to force school counselors to “out” children to their parents who came to talk to them about gender identification issues even when the child made it clear they were afraid of their parent’s reaction and wanted time to learn and think things through.  Amendments were added that would require schools to report to parents any action taken relating to student conduct. This led the bill to be called the New Hampshire “don’t say gay” bill.  LGBTQ+ advocates, civil rights groups, teachers’ unions, and school representatives argued that it would discourage students from seeking help.

Christian nationalists vow to continue pressing these types of theocratic legislation, the result of which will weaken our communities through divisiveness and stymie our economy by making New Hampshire an unattractive place to live.

I offer this tab to highlight the importance of electing democrats this election.  If we have a majority, we can blunt the Free State agenda and preserve the quality of Nashua communities.

The Free State Project or Free Staters is a an ultra-extreme libertarian group founded by Jason Sorens (Yale University, Ph.D Political Science).  He started the Free Staters as a political project because he believed that with a membership of 20,000 residents, he could take over a low-population state.  There are now 20,000 families committed to the project of which 6000 are already in residence here.  Their professed goal is to create a libertarian “utopia” void of public infrastructure and common laws and to use their numbers to dramatically change New Hampshire.  By becoming elected members of New Hampshire legislature, they plan to “destroy” the state from within and to then control it according to their own autocratic values. 

They have been trying to accomplish this by indiscriminately and severely reducing spending for public education and health care especially for at-risk children and adults.  Often, they join with Christian nationalists to accomplish their goals. Take a look at what they tried to do in Croydon https://www.eagletimes.com/news/we-believe-in-public-education-croydon-decisively-overturns-proposed-budget-377-2/article_cf3e15ff-3e7c-5ae9-97b4-8d3a23f8b2b3.html.

There are more than 50 Free State representatives in the New Hampshire House of Representatives who caucus with Republicans.  Jason Osborne, House Majority Leader, is a strong supporter of the Free State Project.  Osborne’s legislative record includes:

He recently tweeted out:

“Instead of spending $20 more than last year on your Independence Day hot dogs, lay off the calories and grab a few more rounds for your AK-47.  You’ll thank yourself later.”

I am the product of, and a great believer in strong science-based public education, teachers, and the facilities they require. By science based I mean that evolution and climate change is taught in public schools rather that religious based ideas such as creationism. I am not a great believer in religious or home schools because of the indoctrination and limitations they impose on a child who must ultimately enter the real world. But I would not rule them out because I know some have been excellent. With all its problems, public education still presents the most well-rounded opportunities for growth. That being said, I recognize that alternate educational tracts are needed for any number of reasons and especially support vocational schools, accommodations for the disabled, and for children with learning disabilities or language barriers.

I believe that public schools are the best investment in the future for any community. This is where we “grow” our future electrical workers, beauticians, teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, police… without which we would have no one to build our homes, help us when we are sick, design our roads and protect us when we are in trouble.

New Hampshire Public Education is under attack from all sides, from budget cuts, to mandating what cannot be taught. The GOP has tried for years to institute a voucher program and has finally succeeded in what has been called the most expansive in the country. The program that was funded in the budget that passed along party lines included a projected $290,000 for the program. As of early this year cost had jumped to $9M and is still climbing. Instead of the money coming from the $400M surplus the government ended up with this year, it came from the public education budget (87% of New Hampshire’s students go to public schools). Most of the money did not go to students leaving public schools for more appropriate educational settings, but to students already in private schools – mostly religious – and home-schooling programs. It is important to note that Frank Edelblut, the NH Education Commissioner responsible for public education is a strong proponent of home-schooling, not public schools.

A bill was proposed (HB 1255 so called Teachers’ Loyalty) that would bar NH teachers from advocating any doctrine or theory promoting a negative account or representation of the founding history of the United States, e.g., teaching that the U.S. was founded on racism. And while this bill did not pass, the Divisive Concepts Bill (HB 544) designed to hide and deny racism and prejudice did an “end around” to become law. When it appeared that it would fail, its wording was broadened and written into the NH state budget anyway which was approved along party lines.

I believe that frank and open discussion of racism, gender identity, gender and disability discrimination are the only ways to end the hate and misinformation that marginalizes people and seems to permeate the national discourse.

The New Hampshire constitution clearly maintains that the state is responsible for providing adequate education to all children.  What is currently implemented is that each School District is responsible for providing education with very little coming from the state.  One of the first lawsuits aimed at correcting this violation of the constitution was one involving the Pemi-Baker Cooperative School District and illustrates the current school funding problems we are facing.  The towns of Plymouth, Campton, Holderness and Waterville Valley send their high schoolers to the very same high school.  However, the taxpayers in each of those towns pay a different tax rate as shown in this table with the greatest tax burden on towns with the lower incomes and property values.

Other current lawsuits against NH school funding and Frank Edelblut (state Education Commissioner) include (a) the Contoocook Valley (Conval) School District which has been joined by Claremont, Fall Mountain, Grantham, Hillsboro-Deering, Mascenic, Monadnock, Newport, Oyster River, Winchester and Derry Cooperative School District (3^rd largest school district in the state); and (b) the latest lawsuit filed in Grafton County which focuses on the very poor support for education provided by the state.

The 2020-2021 Revenue of NH School Districts amounted to about $3.54 billion with sources shown in the following pie chart.

As can be seen, the state provided 17% (27% if SWEPT funds are considered). SWEPT (state-wide education property tax) funds are state taxes retained locally by towns and cities. This year the state budget cut $100M from SWEPT.  The State’s share of school funding in New Hampshire is the lowest in the country.

Property taxes are the largest tax burden in New Hampshire as can be seen in the following chart.

In order to compare property tax rates across school districts, what must be considered is how much property value is available in a town to be taxed to support each student’s education.  So, if $1M of property value is available at a tax rate of 1%, $10,000 is raised.  If only $400,000 is available at a tax rate of 1%, $4,000 is raised.  What this means is that if $10,000 is needed, the town with only $400,000 in property value will have to have a tax rate of 2.5% to get the needed funds.  Right now, Waterville Valley (home to the Sununu resorts) has the highest property value in the state ($16.5M EQVP) with Newington second ($15.3M EQVP) (Gov. Sununu’s hometown). Nashua is at $1M EQVP. EQVP is the total equalized value of all property in a given town divided by the number of public-school students residing in that town.  Each school district is now able to set their own tax rate to properly fund their own schools.  The result is that Gov. Sununu’s hometown of Newington has a much lower property tax rate (to achieve the funds needed for each student than Nashua does. 

Here are some details for comparison (Tax Rates are per $1000 of EQVP, 2021):

School District	EQVP	Local Ed. Tax Rate	State Ed.Tax Rate	Total School Tax Rate
Waterville Valley	$16,425,426	$1.43	$2.04	$3.48
Newington	$15,248,965	$0.65	$2.07	$2.72
Nashua	$1,039,335	$8.44	$1.83	$10.28
Brookline	$611,368	$20.70	$1.80	$22.50
Manchester	$858,280	$7.47	$1.77	$9.25

What all this means is that towns must either maintain higher tax rates or lower the quality of the education provided.  Right now, there is a lawsuit against the state to comply with the constitution with respect to school funding.  In other words, level the tax rate for all towns.  Nashua tax rate would come down, Newington and Waterville Valley would go up.  The state would take in the money and distribute it according to the needs of each school district to provide adequate education for all our children. Even though there is broad support for changing how education is funded in New Hampshire, we remain the only state in the country that does not support statewide funding.  I am highly in favor of the “NH School Funding Fairness Project”. Details about the Project, your taxes and school funding can be found here:  https://fairfundingnh.org/.

I believe it is the right of every woman to control what happens to her own body just as it is every man’s right. The decision to have an abortion is a very difficult one and should be a private one between a woman and her doctor.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 50% of abortions are the result of failed contraception. And while Guttmacher reports that only 1.5% of pregnancies are the result of incest or rape, they are careful to point out that only 1 in 4 sexual assaults are even reported and out of every 1000 rapes only 5 perpetrators are convicted. Women are left to fend for themselves in most of these cases. Most other abortions are the result of families deciding they cannot afford another child without putting existing children at risk or putting the family into poverty. An interesting note is that abortion providers in Oregon found that approximately 30% of the women for which they provided the service were professed “pro-lifers” and “pro-life” protestors.

New Hampshire allows abortions up to 24 weeks. In 2022, bill HB 1609 was passed allowing exceptions for rape, incest and “fetal abnormalities incompatible with life” after 24 weeks.

With the Supreme Court doing away with Roe v Wade, bills to codify the right to abortion in New Hampshire (CACR 18, HB 1674, SB 436) did not pass. New Hampshire is the only state in New England where the right to an abortion is not protected. At the same time, at least 5 bills to ban abortion were introduced. Although those did not pass yet, the right-wing and Christian nationalist members of the legislature strongly indicate that they will continue to push for the total ban of abortion from time of conception eliminating reproductive autonomy for the women New Hampshire. There are two laws that are currently under study: HB 1080 (Restrict access to healthcare by allowing any single person working in a health care setting, including pharmacies, to refuse to perform abortions or sell contraception if it violates their conscience) and HB 1181 (Allow prospective fathers [including rapists] to force women to carry unwanted pregnancy) which may actually put the lives of women at risk. It is my personal belief that anti-abortion legislation is not predicated on protecting the fetus. It is a mechanism to invade the privacy of woman for the purpose of control. I say this because if the GOP was really concerned about unborn “children”, they would not seek to reduce the budgets needed to care for those children during pregnancy and after they are born such as pre-natal care, childcare, day care and additional supports for the disadvantaged families and families without access to insurance.

I am against any form of legislation that seeks to limit the rights of any group of people. As pointed out under other tabs, the “Christian nationalists” (political group not religion) and Free State legislators are trying to do just that. More than half of the members of the governor’s advisory council on Diversity and Inclusion resigned last year over the Divisive Concepts language in the approved state budget. In part it prohibits teaching that any group is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive consciously or unconsciously. And it allows public employees to opt out of any professional training that teaches the same concepts. Prohibiting so called “Divisive Concepts” is just a way to not teach our kids about the real inequalities and racism that are present in our society and in effect promotes the very concepts for which the bill does not allow discussion.

Having lived in Manhattan (NYC), where at any time you can hear any number of languages being spoken within earshot, I had become used to and appreciative of diversity. As indicated in my background, I now travel the world filming endangered large animals meeting and interacting with an amazing range of people. Learning about them, their triumphs and struggles and being accepting of and open to people breeds understanding and compassion. I am proud of Nashua. It is more diverse and supportive than most other cities in the state. As a result, we enjoy many types of cultural experiences, from Pride Parades to Greek Festivals and all types of great foods.

I started by career in military aerospace 55 years ago. Gender bias was built into the system. I knew it and experienced it. It was only because of the struggle of many women and men fighting against “systemic” gender inequality that it finally got better. But the fight to gain salary equality is on-going.

Following other parts of the country, Anti-LGBTQ+ legislative proposals are growing in New Hampshire. These bills are the very definition of systemic prejudice. For example, HB 1651 considered adding sexual reassignment to the definition of child abuse. While this bill has been tabled along with HB 1441 (the New Hampshire “Don’t Say Gay Bill discussed previously), pressure from the “Christian nationalist” agenda in our legislature and school boards continues.
Systemic racism against people of color was written into the original constitution (article 1, section 2) and continues in various forms today. Gerrymandering and voting restrictions are systemic ways that the voting rights for people of color are blunted.

Forcing our children to face the world after graduation without the tools they need to recognize when they themselves or the system in which they participate is acting against others because of prejudice limits their ability to be good reasoning citizens contributing to our communities in a productive way.

I believe we need to provide better access to health care for the elderly, disabled, and mentally disabled members of our communities.
There is very limited support and facilities for elderly with psychiatric problems. Home care and outpatient support and services for the elderly, medically disabled (including stroke and Medicaid patients) is very difficult to access and often too expensive. For instance, after a stroke patient with mobility problems is released and completed their allotted home care, lower income families don’t have continued access to other needed trained personnel.
Many lower income elderly people need help with activities of daily living (cleaning the house, self-care, light cooking etc.) and while there are limited agencies that offer this, the ones that do are too expensive for folks with limited finances.

There are very limited programs for outpatient transportation to and from medical appointments and those providers that exist have long waiting lists.
As always, Medicaid patients and most elderly need help with the cost of prescription medications.

For decades New Hampshire enjoyed continuous population growth. But researchers have found the growth rate is slowing down (to the lowest it has been in 50 years), while the state’s population is also aging rapidly as parents are not moving in with children as they once did (World Population Review – 2022). This means that the stress on our health care system will only get worse. While I do know that Health and Human services is the biggest part of the New Hampshire State Budget, I feel we need to investigate ways to make it more accessible, not necessarily more costly.

“We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrowed it from our children.”

–This quote is attributed to several people, but regardless, the sentiment is still true.

I strongly support the efforts to preserve our environment.  We have two main issues in New Hampshire that I hope to address at the state level: 

(1) Environmental factors causing us to have a cancer rate higher than the national average (according to the United Health Foundation) with the highest rate of pediatric cancer in the country (according to the CDC).

(2) Renewable clean energy.

Water contamination is a very real problem in New Hampshire.  In addition to the naturally occurring contaminates of arsenic and radon, we suffer from manmade contaminants like PFAS, AFFF (foam for putting our fires), and PFOA (used in manufacture of non-stick pans), all of which get into the ground water.  Besides contaminating the water, AFFF is especially harmful to fire-fighters, significantly increasing their rate of cancer.

Merrimack water has been polluted with PFAS from the Saint-Gobain factory which makes PFAS-lined glass and fabrics as well as from PFOA (sources under investigation).  The Haven well in Portsmouth was shut down for 7 years because of PFAS contamination and is finally back on-line.  The contamination was caused by firefighting foam used in the former Pease Air Force Base.  Recently Bedford well-water has been found to be contaminated from PFAS generated by Saint-Gobain.  Those homes with wells containing the highest levels of contamination were rerouted to public water.  Homes with wells having less contamination are receiving bottled water delivered by Saint-Gobain.  According to New Hampshire Environmental Public Health Tracking (government website) 3 in 10 wells contain arsenic, a known carcinogen.

New Hampshire has engaged in numerous law suites to fight contamination, but that does not seem to be enough.  Only 54% of New Hampshire households get their drinking water from public water systems that are routinely monitored and found to be safe.  Not every household is on public water in Nashua.  I believe that we can make more of an effort to expand the system both for our town and for the state.

Renewable energy is key to the survival of our economy.  The Biden administration has pledged to have 500,000 public charging stations for electric vehicles in place by 2030.  If states agree to certain standards, the federal government will provide a portion of the funds to build the stations.  Standards require that charging stations be placed no more that 50 miles apart along interstate highways and no more than 1 mile from the highway.  Each station would be required to maintain a minimum number and type of chargers capable of serving multiple customers.  New Hampshire routinely turns down these types of programs.  I would engage with the legislature to encourage acceptance.  Such stations would promote more acceptance of electric vehicle purchase in Nashua which in-turn would reduce our need for fossil fuel and dependance on oil companies (and their crazy pricing schemes).

New Hampshire has the highest energy cost in New England.  Back in 2018 we had a New Hampshire 10-Year State Energy Strategy that included improving our energy infrastructure especially in the area of transmission. In 2020 Gov. Sununu disbanded the Energy Commission made up of industry knowledgeable individuals and put in place a newly formed NH Energy Department providing Gov. Sununu with more policy influence.  The recently released 2022 plan basically treats energy with a “hands off” policy and leaves it to the energy companies to implement whatever they feel is profitable. 

In November 2021 the NH Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rejected a 3-year energy efficiency plan that tried to stem the tide of rising costs by requiring the implementation of measures to improve efficiency across energy sectors.  Instead, PUC decided to cut the rates that fund those programs and make other major changes to how energy efficiency is structured.  This new plan

faced strong objections and in February 2022, Gov. Sununu signed HB 549, a compromise bill that gained bipartisan support which restores the structures of energy efficiency programs to what they looked like on Jan. 1, 2021, before the PUC’s order. It also sets the rates that fund energy efficiency in New Hampshire in state law.

Right now, our energy transmission capability is at capacity with technology dedicated to the output of fossil fuel and nuclear based generation. Eversource and Liberty Utilities have asked the N.H. Public Utilities Commission to allow them to roughly double electricity rates, which would cause a 50 percent hike in monthly electricity bills starting in August. The utilities say they need to pass along energy costs hikes caused largely by fossil fuel price increases.  Instead of improving the infrastructure (which should have started in 2018 and be ready now), Gov. Sununu has decided on a $100 rebate to consumers to off-set a part of the of the increase we will see.

New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts are teamed in an investigative project that would put wind-farms in the Gulf of Maine.  Under investigation is where to bring the energy to land.  NH presents the shortest distance but does not have the infrastructure.  Massachusetts has most of the infrastructure but the distance to land is longer.  While NH continues to “investigate”, Massachusetts signed into law (late July 2022) a bill that will fund the start of the wind-farm generation and transmission directly to themselves leaving NH at a disadvantage.

All in all, many bills proposed by the Science, Technology and Energy Committee of the House of Representatives dealing with Climate Change or Clean Energy (HB 1250, HB 1419, HB1506, HB 1601, HB621) have been voted down by the majority party – Republicans.

Based on the output of wind farms at Lempster Mountain, Reliable Wind Farm, Groton Wind, Jericho Mountain and Antrim Wind, New Hampshire is a net power producer, generating more than is consumed. Excess is exported to surrounding states.  Since New Hampshire has the capability, I would like to support efforts to expand the use of wind-farm output to support more electricity customers and encourage additional technologies like large-scale electric storage and methane capture given off by decomposing trash. Methane capture would benefit the environment because as that type of gas is burned, it contributes less pollutants than the methane emissions themselves.

New Hampshire has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country.  There are no age limits, permits, or registrations required for any type of gun ownership from handguns to machine guns with no magazine capacity restrictions.  There are no laws regarding open or concealed carry.  There are no background checks, red-flag laws and only a few restrictions as to where guns cannot be carried (courtroom, childcare facility, prison grounds and children cannot bring a gun to school).  This means weapons of any type can be brought into parks, hospitals, bars, places of worship, sports arenas, gambling facilities, local food stores, and polling places.

This year HB 1636 allows loaded firearms to be carried on off-highway recreation vehicles and snowmobiles. And HB 1052 allows for semi-automatic weapons to be used for hunting (with some ammunition restrictions).

New Hampshire is second only to Wyoming with respect to the number of registered guns per state population.  And New Hampshire does not require any type of weapon to be registered – so who really knows.

In the 2022 session, Governor Sununu signed into law HB 1178 which prohibits any representative of the state or a political subdivision from taking action involving any federal firearms law that is not consistent with state law. 

While New Hampshire enjoys a relatively low crime rate, the rest of the country does not.  I am concerned that with our lacks gun laws we will begin to attract the violence that seems to be pervasive throughout most of the rest of the country.  At least in Nashua most of the time you don’t see people walking around with guns but with tempers running high over politics these days, I wonder how safe we will be.  In 2020, I stood outside the Amherst St Elementary School during voting hours.  A man was walking around the parking lot with an AR-15.  That certainly did not make me feel safe.

I am also concerned about children with guns.  Kids are too impressionable and are still learning about responsibility.  We don’t allow a 15-year-old to vote, drive a car or live on their own.  How can we allow them to own a semi-automatic weapon or a gun they can sneak into school?  We need some sensible checks and restrictions like red-flag laws, age limitations, place restrictions, and some weapon restrictions, so we can all feel safe.

Every 10 years, New Hampshire legislature is required to re-allocate districts based on population shift. Last year the GOP-lead legislature passed a map to dramatically redraw the districts combining two democratic-lead districts into one. The governor vetoed the plan, which then lead the NH Supreme Court to approve a plan proposed by an outside expert requiring only minor changes to the 2010 map moving 5 small towns to balance the district populations.

There were numerous bills generated in the 2022 session that either reduced access or improved access to voting. Most did not pass.

I believe that voting is our most precious right as citizens and that the right to vote (hard-won in some cases) should be granted with as few limitations as possible.

I grew up in New York, the oldest of 5 children, educated in the public school system and have degrees in Electrical Engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Computer Science (State University of New York, Stonybrook) and Systems Engineering (Johns Hopkins University). I have worked as both a systems engineer and engineering manager in the Military Aerospace Industry since 1969. In 1997 I was recruited to work at Sanders in Nashua (now BAE Systems). What started for me as a one-year trial became 23 years with my husband joining me at Sanders a year later as software lead engineer. During my long career (53 years until retirement) I have worked on projects from the Apollo missions to the F-35.

Beginning at the time my husband and I moved to Nashua, we started traveling the world photographing endangered large animals. Treks have included the Amazon, the mountains of Uganda and Rwanda, areas of Madagascar, the plains of Tanzania, the frozen Antarctic and Arctic, China, Tibet, Southeast Asia, parts of the Middle East… with more to come. Along the way, always learning how the children of other countries view climate change and their efforts to reduce its impact.