NHDP - Sullivan and Burling Unanimously Re-Elected as Democratic National Committee Members

Remaining Democratic National Convention delegation chosen:

Most diverse delegation ever, 50% first-time delegates

CONCORD - Kathy Sullivan and Peter Burling were unanimously re-elected on Saturday to represent New Hampshire on the Democratic National Committee. In addition, the remaining 20 members of the New Hampshire delegation to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte were also selected, rounding out the most diverse NHDP delegation ever, with 50 percent of the delegates attending their first convention.

"It is an honor to be elected again to serve New Hampshire Democrats as their National Committeewoman," Sullivan said.  "I look forward to working with Governor John Lynch and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, as well as my Granite State colleagues on the national committee: Raymond Buckley, Martha Fuller Clark, Peter Burling and Joanne Dowdell, to re-elect Barack Obama and to elect great New Hampshire Democratic candidates in November."   

Burling said: "I'm honored and grateful to have been re-elected to the DNC from New Hampshire. I know that every election feels important, but truly, the future of our nation and state depends on Democratic victories in November. The President must be re-elected, and the radical right attack on our economy, women, seniors and students must be stopped."

Sullivan, of Manchester, is the former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and an attorney with Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, PLLC.  Burling, of Cornish, was formerly a member of both the New Hampshire House and Senate and was first elected to the Democratic National Committee in 2008.

The 20 members of the delegation selected Saturday will join the 18 district level delegates elected in January.  Those elected Saturday include four Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official Delegates (PLEO), six At-Large Delegates, two At-Large Alternates, four Standing Committee members, two Delegate Arrangement Co-Chairs and two Delegation Pages.

The complete 2012 Democratic National Convention Delegation from New Hampshire can be found below and on the New Hampshire Democratic Party's website here. 

High school students Emily Gold and Michael Bloomer were unanimously selected as the Delegation Pledges.  Both were asked to give a short speech on why they are Democrats.  Their speeches can be found below.

2012 New Hampshire Democratic Party National Convention Delegation:

Automatic Unpledged Delegates

Governor John Lynch

Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Chairman Raymond Buckley (Delegation Chair)

Vice Chair Martha Fuller Clark

DNC Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan

DNC Committeeman Peter Burling

DNC At-Large Member Joanne Dowdell

District-Level Delegates

Trevor Chandler 

Garth Corriveau

Carol Croteau

Erin Feltes

Claire Helfman

Ned Helms

Paul Hodes

Richard Komi

Patricia Lee

Christopher Pappas

Lenore Patton

Ricardo Rodriguez

Mike Rollo

Dorothy Solomon

Donna Soucy

Nan Stearns

Alejandro Urrutia

Mariann White

Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official Delegates 

Lou D'Allesandro 

Sylvia Larsen

Donald Manning

Terie Norelli

At-Large Delegates

Jim Demers

Peggy Gilmour

Bette Lasky

Mark MacKenzie

Chip Moynihan

Kristi St. Laurent

At-Large Alternates

CeCe Hackett

Gary Richardson

Standing Committee Members

Deborah Butler, Platform

Katherine Hanna, Credentials

Mary Rauh, Rules

Alan Reische, Rules

Delegation Arrangements Co-Chairs 

Judi Lanza

Ellen Roy

Delegation Pages 

Michael Bloomer

Emily Gold

Speeches by the New Hampshire Delegation Pages to the 2012 Democratic National Convention

At the Organizational Meeting of the NH Delegation

IBEW Hall, Concord, New Hampshire

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Michael Bloomer, 15, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire

Hello, my name is Michael Bloomer and I am going to be one of New Hampshire's two pages to the Democratic National Convention, and I cannot tell you all how thankful I am, both for the chance to have the experience of coming to the convention with you all, but also to be able to assist you in any way possible. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

We are here to further the agenda of the Democratic Party in the state of New Hampshire and in the nation at large, so Mr. Buckley asked me to say a few words on why I am a Democrat.

I am a Democrat because the Democratic Party is the political organization best able to defend our social institutions-our great achievements, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and regulations that safeguard the consumer, the environment, the worker.

I am a member of the party that stands for economic prosperity and justice for all Americans.

I am a Democrat because our party fought to pass a health-care reform bill that allows millions of Americans to be able to sleep tonight knowing if they become ill they will not be thrust into financial ruin. I am a Democrat because this bill will soon allow millions of people to have care, even if they have some "pre-existing condition." I am a Democrat because this bill will most importantly save countless lives.

I am a Democrat because we live on a fragile planet and ours is the party that will protect it and will work to rebuild it. And yes, I am a Democrat because I know in my heart that each and every individual sitting in this very room believes... in science.

I am a Democrat because ours is a party that will work for all our nation's citizens, not just the politically powerful or influential.

I am a Democrat because the Democratic Party stands for rights for minorities of all stripes, not pretending that those minorities are somehow conspiring against the majority.

I am a Democrat because I do not believe that is the government's job to legislate religion.

I am a Democrat because economic equality is justice and that hard-working men and women should be able to take home that which they create with their sweat and toil.

I am a Democrat because the Democratic Party "promotes the general welfare" whereas the opposition pushes corporate welfare.

I am a Democrat because our party does not run on the fuel of fear and hatred.

I am a Democrat, because the Democratic Party fights for America.

And, lastly, and only as my time is running out, I am a Democrat because during my formative years, our country was led by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, and not necessarily in that order. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud, yes, proud to not be in the party of Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass, one-term Speaker of the House Bill O'Brien, or the irresolute Mitt Romney.

Mine is the party of the great Governor of New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, the party of Jeanne Shaheen, Carol Shea-Porter, Annie Kuster, the party of President Barack Obama.

Emily Gold, 17, Manchester, New Hampshire

Going to the convention means everything to me. I am going to major in Political Science at the University of New Hampshire next year, and going to the convention will teach me something I could never learn in a classroom. I will be able to see firsthand what the Democratic process is like.

Ray Buckley told me that the most amazing thing about the convention is that you are in a room with 100,000 people who think the same as you do. Growing up in New Hampshire, I am rarely in a room where more than 10 people think the same as me. I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity.

I was basically born and raised a Democrat. My parents always say that if I came home one day and told them I was a conservative Republican, they would kick me out of the house. I know they say it as a joke, but sometimes I think they are serious.

 I was taught from a young age that I am better than no one, and no one is better than me. As a Democrat, I believe we should care for all Americans: from the top 1% to the bottom 1% and everyone in between. I believe that if two people love each other, they should be able to get married regardless of gender. I believe global warming is real, and we need to do something to stop it.

Most importantly, I believe Barack Obama is the only person fit to run this country for the next four years.

DNC - AP: Lilly Ledbetter campaigns for Obama in NH

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/04/30/lilly_ledbetter_campaigns_for_obama_in_nh/

Lilly Ledbetter campaigns for Obama in NH
Associated Press // Holly Ramer

HANOVER, N.H.—Campaigning for President Barack Obama in New Hampshire, the Alabama woman whose lawsuit led to the federal pay equity law that bears her name said Monday that voters shouldn't trust statements by Republican Mitt Romney's campaign that he won't touch the law.

Romney's campaign has said he has no interest in changing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination on the job. It was the first bill Obama signed into law as president, and as he seeks to widen his advantage over Romney with female voters, he has been touting it as proof of his commitment to women's rights.

Romney's campaign, meanwhile, has not said whether he would have signed the bill had he been president.

Ledbetter, who sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. after learning near the end of her 19-year career that she was being paid less than her male colleagues, said she doesn't believe that Romney will leave the law alone.

Just because his campaign says he has no interest in changing it, "that doesn't mean he won't, because he has been known to flip-flop quite a bit," she told several dozen Obama supporters gathered in a Hanover backyard.

She also said Romney is making his views clear by not saying whether he would have signed the bill into law had he been president at the time.

"If he won't commit, to me, I've always accepted that as a `no,'" she said.

In a sign of New Hampshire's role as a battleground state, Romney also was in New Hampshire Monday, addressing a crowd on the Portsmouth Fish Pier. It was Romney's second trip to New Hampshire in less than a week. Ledbetter was attending two other house parties later Monday in Concord and Nashua.

"It's only April, and Democrats are energized," said state Rep. Sharon Nordgren, who hosted the Hanover gathering.

Though she was campaigning for Obama, Ledbetter said equal pay is not a Democratic or Republican issue.

"This is a human, American, fundamental civil rights matter -- that everybody has a fair playing field and is treated fair, and the laws are enforced for everybody," she said. "I thought because I worked for a government employer who had government contracts, they were having their feet held to the fire, but I found out that they were not.”

DNC - What ELSE is Mitt Romney Hiding?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4c0qz3BGVo&feature=youtu.be

Broadcast link: http://my.democrats.org/page/-/flash/video/20120416_DNC%20VIDEO_WHAT_ELSE_IS_MITT_ROMNEY_HIDING.mov

What else is Mitt Romney hiding? That's what the Democratic National Committee asks in a new web video released today.  In case you're keeping count at home, the list has gotten quite long: bundlers; tax returns; investment details; hard drives and email servers; and now we learn the policies he would pursue as president, which he'll only discuss if you're a high dollar donor.  Mitt Romney has gone to great lengths to hide his personal financial records, his record as governor of Massachusetts, his volunteer fundraisers aka "bundlers", and his policy proposals - leaving us to wonder, what ELSE is Mitt Romney hiding?

This is a theme we'll continue to drive this week with conference calls and events in key states hard hit by the foreclosure crisis and fighting to maintain education funding, where voters will have an interest in Romney's secret plans to gut federal housing and education programs. Events and conference calls are planned throughout this week to address Romney’s penchant for secrecy in CO, MI, OH, FL, NV, NH, MN, MA.  As long as Mitt Romney tries to hide, we will continue to press this.

DNC - Obama's Organizational Advantage on Full Display in N.H.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/04/05/obamas_organizational_advantage_on_full_display_in_nh__113748.html

Key Point: Almost three months after his resounding victory in the New Hampshire primary launched Mitt Romney toward the Republican nomination, his former campaign headquarters here is empty.  A "for lease" sign is plastered across the window of the inconspicuous storefront on Elm Street, and there are no indications that the staff and resources devoted to Romney's strongest early primary win are close to getting back to work in what is shaping up as an important swing state in the general election… As a small but electorally significant state that is expected to be up for grabs in November, New Hampshire is a microcosm of the massive organizational head start that Obama’s re-election team enjoys over the Romney campaign, which is still working to wrap up the GOP nomination for the former Massachusetts governor.

Obama's Organizational Advantage on Full Display in N.H.

Real Clear Politics // Scott Conroy

Almost three months after his resounding victory in the New Hampshire primary launched Mitt Romney toward the Republican nomination, his former campaign headquarters here is empty.

A "for lease" sign is plastered across the window of the inconspicuous storefront on Elm Street, and there are no indications that the staff and resources devoted to Romney's strongest early primary win are close to getting back to work in what is shaping up as an important swing state in the general election.

About a half-mile down the road on Maple Street is another campaign office that has been bustling with activity since it opened in October. Inside, young staffers from around the country and local volunteers are taking advantage of abundant resources to lay the groundwork for President Obama’s push to win New Hampshire’s four electoral votes in November.

Jez Taft, a 33-year-old volunteer from Manchester who also works part time at a local kennel, spent Wednesday morning on data-entry duty. Taft was an Obama volunteer during the 2008 campaign, and although she said the pace of the current campaign is calm, she is in no way tempted to slack off.

“The people I talk to personally are just as passionate as they were the last time, but I hear a lot of complacency, too,” she said. “People think it’s going to be easy. And for me personally, that’s terrifying.”

As a small but electorally significant state that is expected to be up for grabs in November, New Hampshire is a microcosm of the massive organizational head start that Obama’s re-election team enjoys over the Romney campaign, which is still working to wrap up the GOP nomination for the former Massachusetts governor.

The Obama team already has more than 30 paid staffers on the ground in New Hampshire and is expanding rapidly across the state. Its headquarters in Manchester is one of seven Obama field offices here, and the president’s campaign has already held several events in each of the state’s 10 counties.

By contrast, Romney does not have any paid staffers on the ground, and his campaign has barely maintained a footprint in the state.

Long enmeshed in a combative primary fight, the Romney campaign is only now shifting into serious preparations for taking on what is widely expected to be the most formidable ground game in the history of American politics.

Romney does retain some clear advantages in New Hampshire, but they are based largely on his background as the summertime resident of a home on Lake Winnipesaukee and as a familiar face from a neighboring state who has campaigned extensively here for the past five years.

“We’re going to be the underdog here,” said Jim Merrill, who was Romney’s senior New Hampshire adviser during the 2012 primary campaign. “We understand the president has a head start and he has that benefit as an incumbent, but we’re not going to cede an inch to him.”

Like other key former staffers here, Merrill travelled extensively to work elsewhere after the New Hampshire primary, serving stints in Florida, Michigan, Vermont and Maine. He has returned to his home in the state, where he serves as a political consultant for gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne. Merrill said he is awaiting marching orders from Romney headquarters in Boston while he quietly networks among the state’s political community and plots how he might reset the groundwork for a campaign operation that is, in his words, “waiting to be reactivated.”

Some Republicans have sought to downplay the value of building an early ground game for a general election in which hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on mass media.

The Romney team plans to outsource many organizational duties to the Republican National Committee, and Romney’s political director, Rich Beeson, recently told the Los Angeles Times that he “wasn’t losing sleep” over his campaign’s ability to compete on the ground in November.

But Merrill, who helped steer George W. Bush to victory over Al Gore in New Hampshire 12 years ago -- which proved essential to Bush winning the presidency -- has had a front-row view of the massive Obama infrastructure locally. He emphasized the extent to which Romney will be playing catch-up this spring and summer.

“In New Hampshire, it’s sweat equity, and you get what you put into it,” Merrill said. “If Mitt’s the nominee, we’ve got work to do up here. New Hampshire is a place that I think is absolutely in play, but they’re working hard up here. The president has clearly made New Hampshire a focal point based on the level of attention they’ve been giving it the last few months.”

Despite the state’s modest delegate haul, the Obama campaign has indeed invested significant time and resources here, indicating that they see it as a vital part of the president’s path to 270 electoral votes. Obama has visited the state twice since November, and Vice President Biden is slated to make his third trip of 2012 to the state next Thursday.

“The path to the White House runs right through New Hampshire,” said Obama’s New Hampshire communications director, Holly Shulman. “From Pelham to Pittsburg and Hampton to Hanover, we are reaching out to voters and talking about the president’s message and the stark contrast between him and the Republican candidates in this race.”

At the Obama field office in Nashua on Wednesday, volunteers filed in and out of the building, picking up and dropping off campaign-issued cell phones that were piled on a table in the back of the room.

“There’s so much misinformation about health care reform out there,” a volunteer explained to one voter over the phone. “People don’t understand the benefits of it.”

Seated in front of a wall that was decked in campaign signs and instructions for volunteers with titles like “Canvas 101,” Mike Pederson of Nashua reviewed the talking points that had been handed to him by the campaign. The focus of the phone-banking operation on this day was on how the health care reform law would affect Medicare, and he stayed on message as he ignored the full spread of Girl Scout cookies, soft drinks and vegetables that had been set up on a nearby table.

Pederson raved about the energy he witnessed at a recent “Latino night” that the campaign had held at the local VFW hall, and he didn’t seem fazed when one of his target voters hung up on him rather than listen to his pitch.

“Some people don’t want to talk at all, and others are very receptive,” Pederson said. “I do not want to wake up the day after the election and find out we lost because we didn’t give it our best shot.”

All of the volunteers who worked the morning shift in Nashua said that they plan to keep donating their time right up until Election Day.

And just in case any of them were tempted to let up, a sign on the door on the way out of office was a stark reminder of the ominous “for lease” advertisement that adorned the old Romney headquarters.

“Did you sign up to come again?” the homemade Obama campaign poster asked the volunteers. “We’d love to see you!”

DNC - HuffPo: Mitt Romney's maids' salary raises questions

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/mitt-romney-maids-salary-tax-returns-election-2012_n_1228843.html

Mitt Romney's maids' salary raises questions

Huffington Post // Christine Wilkie

WASHINGTON -- For a woman with three houses and sixteen grandkids, Ann Romney doesn't have very much help around the house, according to her 2010 tax return.

IRS forms released Tuesday by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign show that despite reporting income of $21.7 million, the couple paid only $20,603 in taxable wages for household help in 2010. This figure was divided among four women: Rosania Costa ($4,808), Kelli Harrison ($8,667), Susan Moore ($2,238) and Valerie Cravens Anae ($4,890).

According to a number of Boston-based domestic staffing agencies, the salary range for a housekeeper is between $20 and $30 an hour, which adds up to an annual salary of $40,000 to $50,000 based on forty-hour weeks and two weeks of paid vacation a year.

But this number is only for one house, and the Romneys have three houses -- a 2,000 sq. ft. townhouse in Belmont, Mass., a 5,400 sq. ft. lake house on 11 acres in Wolfeboro, N.H., and a beach house in La Jolla, Calif., that is undergoing renovations to double its size.

Even if the Romneys avoided spending time in La Jolla in 2010, they spent plenty of time in New Hampshire, with regular visits in the summer from five sons and their families.

Yet the Romneys still paid only half of the lowest range of an average housekeeper's salary, which raises the question of who cleaned the Romney houses the other 50 percent of the time. A Romney campaign adviser declined to respond to questions from The Huffington Post about the housekeeping salaries.

Wouldn't it be nice to learn that the Romneys split up household cleaning between them on days when the housekeeper was out? After all, Mitt Romney was "unemployed" in 2010, as he infamously reminded a group of voters in Tampa, so he had some extra time. And Mitt even knows how to do laundry, according to a photo tweeted Monday by his son Tagg Romney.

The more worrisome alternative is that the Romneys underpaid their household help.

The Massachusetts Coalition of Domestic Workers holds a meeting on the third Tuesday of every month to work towards passage of a statewide Bill of Rights for domestic workers, but so far their efforts have fallen short.

UPDATE: 5:27 p.m. -- At least one of the four women paid for domestic work by the Romney family in 2010 also worked as chief of staff to the executive director of Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC at the same time.

Kelli Harrison was paid wages of $8,667 by the Romneys for personal assistant-type tasks and errands, said a source with knowledge of the situation. Harrison was the most highly paid of the four women listed as domestic employees of the Romney family, and the other three women did not work for the Romney PAC at all, the source confirmed. Harrison was paid for her PAC work with PAC funds.

The designation of household employees is broad, and can include housekeepers, baby-sitters, personal assistants and other house-related tasks. It's possible that the Romney's hired an outside cleaning service to clean their houses and that managed the payroll, but the campaign declined to elaborate on their arrangement. Given the private nature of jobs like these, most high-profile individuals prefer to maintain their own staffs of people who know them well and who they trust.

Another employee, Valerie Cravens Anae, may be the same woman whose Facebook profile indicates that she attended the Mormon-affiliated Brigham Young University. Anae was paid $4,890 in taxable wages for domestic work at the Romney house in 2010.

The campaign declined to specify whether Harrison was still working for the Romney family personally. The other two women listed as domestic employees, Susan Moore and Rosania Costa, could not be located.