Another hitpiece against superactivist Andrew Carroll has hit the newspaper:
New Hampshire has a relatively open election system. On Primary Day, Tuesday, Sept. 14, go to your polling place, tell them your party registration, and help pick the candidates you want to be on the ballot in November. Undeclared voters can take either ballot.
It’s pretty easy to run for office, too. For the N.H. House, a major party candidate pays $2, and files. For third party candidates — a party that did not get 4 percent of the state votes in the last election — you also need to gather 150 signatures from people in your district, a small hurdle to keep our ballots from being flooded by names.
Across the state, 33 Libertarian or Undeclared candidates have chosen this straightforward path to the November elections.
Alternatively, if your own party is not too popular, and you don’t mind causing a little political mischief, and you don’t care about deceiving the public a bit, you can register as a Republican or Democrat in May and get on one of those ballots where you might sneak in if the voters aren’t paying attention.
There is nothing but personal integrity — and exposure in the media — to keep someone from switching to a more successful party and running as a stealth candidate.
This year two of these candidates are running as Democrats in Cheshire County. In Cheshire 3 (Keene) Andrew Carroll is active with the Free State Project, and has made Sentinel headlines on Central Square: “Free Stater convicted for pot.” (May 1, 2010) Thomas Simmons, in Cheshire 4 (Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester) according to his online statements, was a paid operative for Ronald Reagan’s campaigns. Before converting to a Democrat this spring he tried to get the Libertarian party endorsement to run for governor.
I’d like to believe that both these candidates were convinced by the Democratic Party ideals and believed in good government, public education and the right to affordable health care for all. I am reluctant to question anyone’s motives, and certainly welcome all sincere activists into the party. However, it would be irresponsible to ignore their previous actions and statements.
Cheshire County voters are sophisticated and, given the information, they will make their own judgments about the sincerity of these conversions.
The primaries are a fair and open way for parties to select their candidates, and party-switching takes cynical advantage of our open democracy. The November elections would be a lot more fun if they ran as true Libertarians instead of pretend Democrats.
In Keene there are seven good Democrats — Cynthia Chase, Sam Hawkes, Gladys Johnson, Steve Lindsey, David Meader, Kris Roberts and Charles Weed — who believe in good government and working to solve the kind of problems that the state faces today.
There are four real Democrats running, in Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester — Bill Butynski, Dan Carr, Richard Kolakoski and Henry Parkhurst. These are all long-time residents and Democratic Party members, and have held office, served on boards and committees, and worked on previous Democratic campaigns. They deserve your votes.
REP. TIM BUTTERWORTH
72 North Hinsdale Road
Chesterfield
