My "For Re-Election" Letter; June 19, 2014

Original URL:

• http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140619/GJOPINION_0102/140619249/-1/FOSOPINION

Thursday, June 19, 2014

For re-election

To the editor:

I am running for re-election to the New Hampshire House from Strafford District 6 (Durham and Madbury) this year, One of the many reasons why I am running for re-election is to help carry on the great work which is being done by Governor Maggie Hassan.

Governor Hassan followed the legendary Governor John Lynch, and she is well on her way to building her own legend. Unlike Governor Lynch, she is a former legislator and she works much more closely with the General Court than Lynch did. Nevertheless, the legislature blocked a few of her policy initiatives in 2013-2014. It was easily understandable when the Senate did this, since she is a Democrat and the Senate has a 13-11 Republican majority. It was a little harder to understand when the House did it, especially last year during the biennial budget. Yes, we ended up in June 2013 with a good two-year compromise budget which was approved almost unanimously. However, the House leadership rejected some of the better ideas in her initial budget proposal even before sending the budget over to the Senate. 


This brings me to your June 11 editorial in praise of Republican gubernatorial candidate Walt Havenstein. I recently met the man, and he was charming and likable, but Governor Hassan is even more charming and likable— and unlike Mr. Havenstein, she has deep roots in New Hampshire. She has a lifetime of success as a local leader in both the public and private sectors.

Your editorial writer said: "In a nutshell, Havenstein has worked for many years in the private sector where jobs are created and payrolls met." If you look at his bio, he has no true private sector experience.

After serving in the armed forces for 12 years as a young man, he spent 30 years working for three government contractors: Raytheon, BAE Systems and SAIC. He rose through the ranks to become CEO of BAE in 2007, and then he made a lateral move to SAIC in 2009. He was primarily involved with defense contracts, which are done on a "cost-plus" basis under rules which make it almost impossible for the contractor to lose money. 


Ironically, neither BAE nor SAIC were especially profitable under his watch. His three years at SAIC were a fiasco: the company's stock lost 32% of its value after a series of scandals and blunders. He left SAIC rather abruptly in March 2012, just after the company took a plea bargain and agreed to refund $500 million to the City of New York to avoid prosecution on charges of fraud related to a failed information-technology project.

This is not the type of leadership we need in Concord. What we do need is two more years (at least) of Maggie Hassan's patient, bipartisan and pragmatic leadership.



Rep. Timothy Horrigan



Durham