Of the seven races they were watching, four were wins for the liberty activists, including two democrat incumbents, Tim O’Flaherty and Michael Garcia. In his race for Manchester state rep for Wards 4-7, incumbent democrat Tim O’Flaherty received a solid third place out of five contenders. The first and second placed opponents only got 26% each compared to O’Flaherty’s 24%. O’Flaherty says that local haters spent a fair amount of money to mail flyers to all registered dems, promoting three other candidates. However, O’Flaherty says that what happened to him was nothing compared to the all-out-attack on Michael Garcia.
Michael Garcia (no relation to US Senate candidate Marilinda Garcia) is a Keeniac-moved-to-Nashua, who, like O’Flaherty won his state rep seat originally in 2012 in Nashua’s Ward 7. Local haters were caught by surprise in 2012 and this year mobilized against him with large signs calling the democrat liberty activist who moved several years ago from Florida, a “phony”. Plus, they were distributing an attack flier at the polling site. Despite the desperate push against him, Garcia prevailed, beating the last place contender by 30 votes. Garcia received 16% putting him in third place out of four, with the fourth place person receiving 12%.
The other races that Miscellany Blue were watching included Elizabeth Edwards who received a solid first place finish in Manchester’s Ward 4! She scored 41% of the vote compared to the second place finisher’s 34%. Manchester’s Amanda Bouldin (the founder of Shire Sharing) also made it through in a close race for state rep in Ward 5 where she finished second with 25% – the runner-up had 22%.
In Keene, despite valiant efforts, James “Robin Hood” Cleaveland lost his race for state rep to political newcomer William Pearson, who in a Keene Sentinel interview claimed to be a “real democrat”, whatever that means. Pearson received 102 votes in Keene’s Ward 1 compared to Cleaveland’s 30 votes (23%). The good news out of this race is that turnout in Ward 1 was down from 9% in 2012 to 7% in 2014, meaning that either Cleaveland’s opposition did nothing to try to stop him, or if they did, any efforts they made to try to turn out the vote were total failures. (more…)
Tomorrow is voting day! The polls are open 8a-7p. If you live in Keene and don’t know where to vote, check the info here. Tuesday September 9th is primary day and there are some very important races happening in Keene, If you are an “undeclared” voter, you can pull the party’s ballot of your choice and then “undeclare” again on the way out of the polls. Here are the liberty-oriented candidates for which you can vote this year in Keene as well as some lesser-of-the-evils candidates:
Democrat Ballot:
Ward 1: State Rep Cheshire District 4 – James Cleaveland
All Wards: State Rep Cheshire District 16 – Conan Salada
County Commission: Terry Clark
Register of Probate: (write-in) Darryl W. Perry
Governor: Ian Freeman
Republican Ballot:
Ward 1: State Rep Cheshire District 4 – David Crawford
All Wards: State Rep Cheshire District 16 – Varrin Swearingen
Cleaveland supporters across Facebook are using the picture to the right as their profile pic to show solidarity for Cleaveland 2014. Jump on the bandwagon!
If you are an undeclared voter in Keene’s Ward 1, you can walk into the polls, declare as democrat, vote for James Cleaveland in the race for State Representative district 4 (and Conan Salada in District 16 – for all of Keene, and me, Ian Freeman for Governor.) then on the way out “undeclare” again to retain your political independence.
The full Keene liberty-oriented primary voter’s guide is still-to-come. Stay tuned here to Free Keene.
Keene city councilor Terry Clark, a vocal opponent of the militarization of police, recently proposed that the Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck (BEARCAT) obtained through a Homeland Security grant in 2012, be returned to its giftors. The mayor of Keene successfully prevented the proposal from being considered by the full council, by filing the proposal as ‘informational’. When Clarke objected to the improper classification of his proposal, only two other councilors of fifteen — Emily Hague and Bettina Chadbourne — sided with Clarke, resulting in the defeat of the proposal before it would be seriously considered. Mayor Kendall Lane, who held the same office during discussion on the matter in years past, was caught on an audiorecording of a meeting hushedly whispering to another city official, “We’re gonna get our own tank”. Despite the lack of change in Keene’s status relative to the attack truck, statewide coverage of the situation in Keene has been featured in a video segment by WMUR, received front page coverage in today’s Union Leader, and has also sparked a hilarious satirical police blotter written by Lionel Beehner of the Huffington Post.
A delivery truck was double-parked in front of the Fun Suds Laundromat. Police called the EOD bomb squad to cordon off the block in search of suspected Iranian-made IEDs, while an F-16 provided air support. NSA was notified to check its foreign transcripts for any explicit threats made against Keene or the state of New Hampshire. No threats were made and no IEDs were found. The truck was towed.
The 13th anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. The warhawks and the nationalists like to wave the “Never Forget” mantra around, but forget what exactly? What the F actually happened on that day and does anyone really even care? Join us – Rapsher, Mat Roach, Joe Mirzoeff, and myself – as we take a hard look at the events on that tragic day.
Question 9/11 = instant kook. Thanks Alex Jones • Pulling WTC7 and molten f-ing steel • Military Industrial Complex hard at work: free tanks for all • Joe’s recommended reading • Mainstream news completely scripted • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
It appears the city council of Keene wants to continue to be the laughingstock of the world. Terry Clark, the heroic councilor who stood alone against the BEARCAT police tank foisted on us in 2012 by the Department of Homeland Security, had put forth a proposal to return the military hardware. The proposal was heard for the first time at tonight’s city council meeting, where it was shot down.
Rather than respecting Clark’s request for a public hearing on the matter, “mayor” Kendall Lane deemed Clark’s proposal as “informational”. This is a common tactic to blow the issue off the table and silence any discussion on the matter from the public. Normally, this is how proposals by us normal folk are treated, but city councilors’ proposals are generally given deference and are sent to a sub-committee for a public hearing. Not in this case. Despite councilor Emily Hague coming to Clark’s aid and objecting to Lane’s blow-off, they could not garner near enough votes to override Lane’s move. Only Emily Hague, Terry Clark, and Bettina Chadbourne voted to override – the rest voted to take it as “informational”.
What happened to Carl Jacobs and David Meader, two newer councilors who in 2012 had originally joined Clark (along with Bettina Chadbourne) in opposing the BEARCAT? I was informed by council-observers that Jacobs and Meader voted with the mayor and for the BEARCAT this time. Shameful.
Kudos to Terry Clark, Bettina Chadbourne, and Emily Hague for standing against police militarization.
What is next? Council elections are next year. Hopefully the voters won’t forget this and clean house. Meantime, can the people of Keene do anything to keep this issue alive? My understanding is the issue is no longer valid until it can be re-issued in 2015. Please correct me if I am wrong.
In Keene, despite valiant efforts, James “Robin Hood” Cleaveland lost his race for state rep to political newcomer William Pearson, who in a Keene Sentinel interview claimed to be a “real democrat”, whatever that means. Pearson received 102 votes in Keene’s Ward 1 compared to Cleaveland’s 30 votes (23%). The good news out of this race is that turnout in Ward 1 was down from 9% in 2012 to 7% in 2014, meaning that either Cleaveland’s opposition did nothing to try to stop him, or if they did, any efforts they made to try to turn out the vote were total failures. (more…)
