Monday, May 30, 2011

BIPARTSIANSHIP IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE NH CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION:

Most people sit in their living rooms and watch the nightly news every night and listen to partisan politics, each political party blaming each other for the lack of progress in solving the problems of our country, the problems our country is facing are very serious. A great example of bipartisanship happened during the 1990’s during the Clinton Administration, Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton, are on the opposite extremes of the political spectrum.  Somehow they managed to come together to get some important things done!! Working together they managed to put the country on a path towards having a budget surplus for the first time in many years.  Working together they also managed to do important welfare reforms. During the 1980’s President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neal managed to work together, these two men had a respect for each other, and they really liked each other. They also had the ability when the day’s work was over, to kick back and enjoy each other’s company share stories that only two Irishmen could enjoy.
So why do I cite these examples of bipartisanship? Well having just returned from the fantastic National Grange Legislative Fly-In in Washington DC, I had the opportunity to meet with all of the staff members of all of the New Hampshire Congressional Delegation.  One of the impressive things that I saw was that, we saw genuine examples of our Senators and House Members working together.  In Senator Ayotte’s office they cited how helpful Senator Shaheen’s office had been in the transition of having a new Senator.  Our Legislative Director Bob Haefner specifically asked the Ayotte staff about working together in a bi-partisan manner. They said they do on many issues, which may or may not include legislative issues that are not a major partisan caucus issue. That fits with the way we work at the state level. The group that attended felt that we had 4 very good meetings with the members of our Congressional delegation.

Right in our own State Grange, Legislative Director Bob Haefner and myself don’t agree about allot of political issues but we both respect each other’s views and positions, there are times when we agree to disagree.  When we mentioned that in one of our meetings Bob joked that yes we disagree on things we just agree that Jim is wrong. There are times when I am wrong and other times when Bob is wrong, but we still respect each other’s politics and we enjoy the thrill of the discussion.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

IT'S REALLY ABOUT MORE THAN AGRICULTURE

People who don’t really understand the Grange, ask me why do you belong to the Grange? You’re not a farmer, your not really involved in agriculture, after all you live in an apartment. Yes I live in an apartment by choice, I can’t fix anything, I don’t want to mow the lawn and have the responsibility for all the things that homeowners have to do. Belonging to the Grange is about more than agriculture or being a farmer. I belong to Grange, not only because it’s a family tradition, but because of the advocacy on behalf of not only agricultural issues, rural issues in general.  Did you know that the Grange has policies on rural health care, rural education?  The Grange believes broadband Internet access accomplishes two objectives; it levels the playing field for rural residents giving rural educators access to the world to assist in the educational process for our communities. For rural health care professional, with access to broadband Internet, they can consult with urban doctors, via technology and transfer medical records in a digital format thus saving time and perhaps someone’s life.  The 2nd objective is that the creation of this rural broadband network will also create jobs for rural citizens.

So this might give you some additional insight into what the Grange really stands for. Won’t you consider joining us? For Membership information here is the link to our website:  http://www.nhgrange.org/

Sunday, May 15, 2011

DO THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT?

Hello everyone, welcome to our 2nd Presidents Blog entry.  It is our hope to give you something to think about, whether you agree or disagree with the positions we have taken, we welcome your comments.
Right now we are in a place in our country where our state and federal governments are struggling with budget deficits. It does not really matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat; this situation was really created by both political parties.  Democrats are unwilling to cut spending, and Republicans are unwilling to raise taxes.  So here we sit with a budget deficit here in the State of New Hampshire.  When you look across the country, our budge deficit is not as bad as some other states. In the zeal to balance the budget, our leaders in Concord have to understand that it is not just a slash and burn proposition. For every dollar that is cut at a state level, we have to make sure that the burden is not just passed down to county and local governments.  Aid to towns and school districts are important funding.  This aid helps educate our children, helps us to keep our roads in good shape which makes our communities attractive for new business.
So to our officials in Concord, make sure that the spending cuts are thoughtful, and don’t burden our local communities.

Monday, May 9, 2011

IS THIS WHAT THE PEOPLE REALLY VOTED FOR IN NOVEMBER?

The Senate and House of Representatives in Concord are currently debating SB 129 which would require all voters to show identification prior to voting. My question is: why do we need this legislation now? Voter fraud is not prevalent in this state.  According to the Secretary of State’s office about 3 cases in every election cycle are investigated, and 1 out of those 3 cases are prosecuted.  Election day is challenging enough for our local officials in New Hampshire, who work long hours every election to assure that every legal voter has a chance to cast their ballot, without imposing questionable, new voter identification procedures on those dedicated local officials.  National Grange policy on voter identification calls for strong voter identification procedures at the time of voter registration, prior to election day, when there is less pressure and less chance to make a mistake.  As a local elected official, I believe that if members of the legislature seriously believe further election reform is needed,  strengthening voter identification at the time of registration is a much more reasonable system.  It would address any legitimate concerns about voter fraud, it would not unduly burden first time, elderly or minority voters who need additional time or assistance in verifying their identity and it would be less likely to result in error or delay on election day.  Last November, voters in New Hampshire sent a message to Concord to address the perceived financial mismanagement issues in state government.  Our elected leaders keep insisting that their priority is financial, yet now we have an overreaching voter identification bill before the Legislature.  Of the two versions of the bill in the Legislature, the Senate version is more election official friendly.   So my final question for today is: Why is it that the members of our State Legislature seem to mistrust the duly elected and sworn local election officials who oversaw the clean and fair elections last November that resulted in their all being seated in our legislature today?  Of all the problems facing our state today, rampant voter fraud and gross incompetence among local elected officials seem to be the least of our worries.  
Contributor Leroy Watson