Welcome Back Four Democratic Women...Farewell Two Manchester Friends

Two years ago when I was making predictions for the New Hampshire House, I noted five of my favorite Democrats, all women just by chance, who I didn't think would be back.

They were not.

When I was looking through the races this year, I noted that four of them had a good chance of winning, if perhaps to quote the "great" Vermont comic Francis Colburn "just barely".  (The fifth, Liz Merry of Belknap County, did not run; she was involved in the Jackie Cilley campaign).

They all won, and count me as one Republican who'll be overjoyed to see them all back.  We don't always agree but they brought and will bring far more honor to the House than many of the losing Republicans who I agreed with more often (sad, but true).

Welcome back Carol Friedrich of Grafton 16 (she's from the small town of Wentworth which I covered back in my newspaper days with the Plymouth Record...I'll never forget Wentworth's five-hour annual school meetings!).

Welcome come Katherine Mulholland from Grafton 17.  She and I served together on both Ways and Means and Local and Regulated Revenues, and it'll be good to see her although, sad to say, she beat one of my very favorite Republicans (Paul Simard of Bristol...hey, good people lose when a fascist takes over as leader of your party...may it never happen again, GOP).

Carol and Katherine were part of the the huge GOP takeover in Grafton County, made possible in large part by the disgraced loser Paul "I Sold Out On Redistricting" Mirski.

Welcome back also to two Hillsborough County Democrats, Melanie Levesque of Brookline and Shannon Chandley of Amherst.  Shannon actually came in first in a highly Republican town and ousted Ways and Means Chair Steve "I Wanted To Be On The County Executive Committee but Then  Never Showed Up!" Stepanek.

Welcome back.

Democrats went from only one Representative in all the Hillsborough County towns to 17 and they went from virtual nonexistence in the county to a 56-66 lead (they lead 24-3 in Nashua, 25-7 in Manchester; Republicans lead 46-17 in the towns).

Among good people who lost in Manchester  were my dear friend and passenger Republican Irene Messier (oh well...there goes the LOB parking space) and long-time Democrat Ben Baroody.  Together, they had close to a half century of service in the New Hampshire House.  Sad, but true.  Their departure leads the Ward 8 Rep entering his ninth term as dean of the city's delegation.

Who on the planet could that be???

I'll also miss Manchester Republicans Tammy Simmons and Win Hutchinson.  I will not miss two of the Manchester redistricting snakes who lost...they fully deserved to lose...yes they would be Carlos Gonzalez and Ross Terrio.  Only one of the seven snakes remain...and don't expect me to ever write or utter his name.  He remains a non-person in my book and always will.  Once you give your word of honor and back out, you're dead as far as I'm concerned.

 

Comments

[Toni Pappas]

I believe Representative Irene Messier served in the House since 1982. Are there any plans to honor her long service to her constituents? A token of appreciation from the Manchester Delegation or the Manchester GOP would be a nice gesture. Thoughts?

[Rep Steve Vaillancourt]

That would be nice. I sense Irene is very sad, but my guess is she'll be back in two years. After all, she's younger than Angie. She was born in the same year as my mother and on the same day as my brother.