Don't forget to register to vote
To the editor:
We're into the new year now and it may be difficult to stick to resolutions that you made.
However, a really important resolution would be to register to vote and then get out and vote at each election.
You can register or request changes to your voter record at the Town Clerk's office any time they are open. Also, there will be a session of the Supervisors of the Checklist on Jan. 24 from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to register voters or make changes to your voter record.
If you want to run for an open elected town position you must be a registered voter and Jan. 24 is your last chance to register to vote if you haven't already!
If you've moved into town from another city or state you need to register in Derry to vote in Derry. Or if you've moved from one part of Derry to another you need to do a change of address. You may now have to vote in a different district and you won't know if you don't make the change.
Name and party changes can be done also. Please remember that if you were undeclared for the primary and didn't sign to change back to undeclared at the polls, you are registered as the party you voted for. You can change back at this session.
I can't stress enough how important voting is. Voting is a very big deal and an incredible right that many other countries don't have and are fighting to get that right. Please come out and vote at each election.
Renee Routhier
Supervisor of the Checklist
Derry
Legislature has an extreme agenda
To the editor:
The current New Hampshire Legislature has reversed or tried to reverse well thought-out programs and laws that help and protect the citizens of New Hampshire. These are programs and laws that have been acceptable to both parties, in some cases for decades. The current super-majority of the Legislature has an extremist agenda. It is dangerous to our rights and to the New Hampshire advantage.
Examples of this backward focusing legislation are too numerous to list (840 bills in the House alone), but a few examples give the flavor.
Legislation has been proposed or adopted to: reduce the drop out age for high schoolers from 18 to 16, even after the previous legislation was held up as a nationwide model; allow extortionist interest rates of 300 percent; eliminate the requirement for a minimum 180-day school year, so that our students get less education and are less competitive; reverse the 74-year-old law against carrying loaded firearms in automobiles and trucks; override the rights of localities and college campuses to establish any limits to carrying firearms; require teaching of the Bible in public schools in defiance of the separation of church and state; and approve right-to-work legislation though this has been rejected by Republican legislatures year after year.
But perhaps the most serious threat to our rights as citizens is the attempt to disenfranchise voters by requiring photo IDs. Exhaustive research has shown there is virtually no voter fraud in New Hampshire and by the same token research shows many people will indeed be kept from voting if voter ID laws are enacted. The sole purpose of this legislation is to keep some voters (elderly, poor, college students) from exercising their right to honestly cast their ballots.
This is an extremist Republican agenda, much of it generated from outside New Hampshire, that threatens the rights and well-being of New Hampshire citizens.
Help get rid of these extremist legislators who are undermining the New Hampshire advantage!
Michael Frandzel
Portsmouth
Third-party run threatens GOP unity
To the editor:
A united Republican Party will defeat Barack Obama in 2012. This heavy task rests on the shoulders of all party members: the eventual nominee, former candidates for the nomination, high-profile activists, and voters alike.
The RealClearPolitics.com average of polling data makes it clear that more than half of Americans believe the country has been going in the wrong direction since June 2009. With approval ratings this low, voters will be presented with the choice of President Obama or "Other". The voters will likely pick a new course. I am confident the Republican Party will be able to capitalize on the public's widespread dissatisfaction and sweep our candidate into the White House, but it's going to take a tight-knit effort.
Twenty years after the Bush-Perot-Clinton election, all voters, including the current candidates for the GOP nomination, would be wise to recall that general election contest and the way independents can play the spoiler for the GOP. H. Ross Perot drew votes from then incumbent, George H.W. Bush, which aided the Democrats and set the stage for a Bill Clinton victory.
This time around, if President Obama has largely uniform support from Democrats, but independents and Republicans are divided between the chosen Republican candidate and a third party, he will escape defeat in 2012.
For this reason, the loyalty of every current Republican candidate is imperative for success in 2012. If a sore loser defects after losing the nomination, it will put not only the party's chances at the presidency, but the future of the economy in jeopardy.
For most of the Republican candidates, a third-party run is out of the question. Two, however, will not rule it out. Ron Paul is the most up-front about considering a third-party run if he fails to earn the GOP nomination. Less discussed is Jon Huntsman, who has refused to categorically rule out a third-party run.
When asked whether he would run on a third-party ticket, Huntsman replied that he "did not think so." This is not the definitive answer the question deserves. Leaving the door open for a third-party run raises doubts about whether Jon Huntsman is committed more to himself than Republican ideals or getting Barack Obama out of office.
Similarly, at a town hall in Londonderry on Dec. 10, an audience member asked Huntsman if he would commit to ruling out a bid as an independent or third-party candidate. Huntsman declined to take the pledge. He then added, "Well, that means we have to nominate the right person."
Ambassador Huntsman's failure to close the door on an independent run for the White House has fanned the flames in the media and the "punditocracy." In early December, Politico reported that Former EPA head Christie Todd Whitman was pushing Huntsman to make a third-party bid under the auspices of a new group called "Americans Elect" that is working to get an independent on the ballot in all 50 states. Let's hope he doesn't take them up on their offer.
Ambassador Huntsman bills himself as a statesman. It's time he started acting like one. He needs to say once and for all that he is committed to the cause of defeating Barack Obama. The last thing the country needs is a third-party candidate that hands President Obama four more years.
Jim Foley
Derry
