I had the pleasure of being a guest on “Windham Watch” with host Mary Griffin, a longtime state representative who is just about the sweetest little old lady anyone could imagine. She did her research on me and had some really great questions! This was easily the most fun I’ve had in my 2016 campaign for governor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet Mary and be on her show for a full episode!
We covered various issues including New Hampshire independence, drug prohibition, peace, and more!
I’m the only democrat for governor to receive an A rating by the NH Firearms Coalition!
Though sidelined by much of the NH mainstream media, my campaign has not been ignored by various interest groups across New Hampshire. I’ve responded to a bunch of candidate questionnaires thus far, more than I was sent in 2014. As a result my campaign spending has increased from about $2.50 last year to just over $5.00 here in 2016. Some of the results are in!
The New Hampshire Firearms Coalition selected me as the only democratic candidate for governor to receive their “A” rating. Derek Dextraze received a C- and the others didn’t bother to reply to the questionnaire.
Granite State Taxpayers ranked me as the best-scoring democrat in the five-way contest, with an 83%. Derek Dextraze was the next on the list at 61%, with the others failing to respond to the survey.
I’m grateful to the staff of the Andover Beacon, a monthly local paper delivered to all households in Andover, NH. Thank you for inviting me to prepare a 250 word statement that is being included in their voter’s guide that is being delivered to mailboxes today! They asked me to talk about some key issues. Here’s the statement:
The biggest issue in New Hampshire today is drug abuse and the solution is simple – end prohibition. We know from history that prohibition is a failure and only makes the problems with addiction worse. Jailing and forcing addicts into treatment is not compassion. Prohibition should be ended for all drugs and addicts will feel safer to seek help when they aren’t afraid of prison.
Another big issue is the constant presence of the federal government. Its taxes and regulations are an ongoing burden to our people and businesses. They do not provide anything of value to us in return for our money and obedience and only put us in great danger with their war-mongering around the globe. It’s time New Hampshire ends our involvement with the United States and declare independence.
Of course, seceding from the federal government won’t solve all our problems in New Hampshire, but at least we’ll have more resources and freedom to make our own choices. One major change that should be made to the state government is to make all taxes consensual. It’s wrong to threaten our neighbors if they do not agree with supporting certain government programs. Making taxes voluntary is a huge paradigm shift and will instantly make all branches of government more accountable to the people. They’ll know their budget isn’t a guarantee unless they actually make taxpayers happy.
I’d also like to see ballot access made fair for all political parties. Thanks for reading! Visit NHliberty.info for more info.
In 2014’s New Hampshire gubernatorial primary, then-incumbent Maggie Hassan refused to debate me in the Monadnock Debates, put on at Franklin Pierce University. Since I was the only democratic candidate for governor to respond, they graciously gave me ten minutes to speak before the republican debate. I figured this year would be different. I thought for sure that having a full field of non-incumbent candidates would mean there’d be an actual, full debate.
Surprise! Looks like the “big three” candidates Mark Connolly, Steve Marchand, and Colin Van Ostern refused to respond to the invitation to this year’s Monadnock Debates. The only two candidates who did respond are author Derek Dextraze and me, Ian Freeman. As a result, the debate organizers decided to not hold the democratic debate this year, like in 2014.
I spoke with Derek about the development today and he said, “I find it interesting that the two candidates that really aren’t politicians said yes to debate. While the other three candidates that WMUR says are the only three candidates on the Democratic side for governor said no or didn’t respond.”
Derek points out another interesting phenomenon from this year’s campaign coverage, which is that some media organizations have been completely ignoring both the Dextraze and Freeman campaigns. WMUR-TV has reported on only three of the democratic candidates in their campaign coverage so far. Similarly, Manchester’s WGIR-AM has held “debates” but only invited the “big three”.
When Derek inquired with WMUR he says they told him, “because I haven’t sent them my itinerary they did not think that I was running.” Sounds like a lame excuse to me. It’s common for NH media organizations to reach out to all ballot qualified candidates. It’s either pure laziness of these media organizations or a deliberate decision to exclude smaller campaigns, despite the face that both Derek Dextraze and Ian Freeman will be on the primary ballot on September 13th, just like the “big three”. (more…)
Thanks to Darryl W Perry who again has invited candidates on the primary ballots in Keene to drop into the Cheshire TV studios to record a five minute candidate profile. Here’s mine, which I winged on 7/21 after having just got back to the Shire from D10E, the decentralization conference in San Francisco:
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