Archive for April, 2010

My letter to Michael Steele and the RNC

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Republican National Committee
310 First St. SE
Washington, DC, 20003

To Chairman Michael Steele and Whom It May Concern,

I will not be sending you a contribution in response to this request or any others you may send me for the foreseeable future. The reason for this is simple: I have no confidence that a donation to the RNC (or the NRCC or the NRSC) will be used to elect conservatives. In years past we have seen the RNC spend our donations to elect and re-elect RINOs like Arlen Specter, and most recently watched as nearly a million dollars was wasted trying to elect liberal Dede Scozzafava to a House seat in upstate NY. In both cases, a Democrat now occupies those respective seats. The RNC-supported candidates were nothing but turncoats and sellouts and it seems everyone but the national party was well aware of it! Now we read more accounts of flat out waste of RNC funds, whether it be lavish junkets, or the recent revelations of expense accounts used at disgusting adult entertainment establishments.

For all of the above reasons, I will no longer be sending my political contributions to the national party. Instead I will keep my contributions local and donate to candidates and activist groups I can trust to promote a genuine limited government agenda. I remain a Republican but I am a grass roots conservative Republican. I hope one day the RNC will become an organization that promotes a set of strong values and not just a party label but unfortunately we are not there yet. The good news is that at the local level (and increasingly at the state level here in New Hampshire) grass roots conservatives are the backbone of the town, city, and county Republican committees working to elect candidates who support individual liberty, personal responsibility, and a government that obeys the Constitution rather than try to avoid and subvert it for their own purposes. Perhaps you folks in Washington should pay us a visit to see how it’s done.

Sincerely,
Mark Vincent
Chairman, Amherst Republican Town Committee

Representative Belvin thanks voters for coming out with their questions

Monday, April 12th, 2010

To the Editor,

The weather was warm and dry last Saturday for holding one of my periodic “office hours” for meeting the public as a state representative for Milford and Amherst. As a public official you get comments and questions based on constituents’ issues covering national, state and local concerns, so we’ll take them in that order:

National

The majority of comments and inquiries for the day were about strong objections to national policy ranging from opposition to recently passed health care legislation to the growing size of the national debt, and sheer size and perceived invasion of liberty characterized by the growth of the federal government. Clearly, these issues are beyond being a state rep … but that is what the majority of the approximately 30 people with whom I spoke wanted to talk about. Without my asking, most identified themselves as “independents.”

State

One person never left his truck, but asked that I support calling on the New Hampshire Attorney General to join the suit by 14 other state attorneys general against the mandated coverage required by the new federal health care bill. … I will. Another person favored casino gambling as proposed in Senate Bill 489. … which I oppose, and a group enjoying the weather just wanted to talk about the New Hampshire legislative process … we did.

Local

An individual was adamant about stabilizing school funding; another stressed the need for more recycling, and finally the motorcycles were out in force and a biker stopped to talk about the joy of being back on the road.

I was at the Milford Rotary Park, and the Amherst Transfer Station this time and will hold more “office hours” this June after the state Legislature has adjourned before the September primaries and November elections.

BILL BELVIN

Amherst

State Representative, Hillsborough District 6, Milford/Amherst