Souter: How Not To Choose A Candidate

By this point, pretty much everyone has made a decision on how they plan to vote in the presidential election and is getting excited about filling in that little oval come November 3. But after that name, and maybe the name of governor, US Senator or Representative, it's easy to get a little stuck. County Commissioner? Register of Deeds? Executive Councilor?

So many of us just make choices according to the (R) or (D) next to the name and walk away. But is that how we want this to work? Do we want to continue the harsh divide we are seeing between members of the opposing parties? Maybe it is time to strip the party identifier away and look at the candidates themselves. As Americans, it is not only our responsibility to vote but it is also our job to know what our vote will do.

For the position of State Representative, a role that can have major impact on our town, I would suggest learning about each of the candidates. For two of them, their incumbent records can speak for themselves. Take a close look and ask yourself, how often have they voted along party lines versus stood up for something they believed in? Do they speak for us or for their party bosses? Most importantly, do they value what we value?

For the six new candidates, it can be a little more difficult to know how they plan to vote once in office. While the four Republicans running want us to believe they know how the Democratic candidates will vote (see the recent letter in the paper to which all four names were attached), why would they assume that they can predict anything? Should we assume we know by the (D) that they will just randomly plan to, as the letter claims, increase the size of government with more spending? The letter would have us believe that these candidates would like to get rid of our booming economy and saddle us under "increasing taxes."

Of course, in looking at the candidates’ own websites, it is much easier to see what they actually stand for and a major theme is about being fiscally intelligent while supporting schools and workers and our small business economy.

On the other hand, we can learn a lot about the GOP candidates just from their own letter. We learn that they want to limit the scope of public employee unions (police, fire and educators) and reduce regulation (the rules put in place to protect us from pollution in our water or safety violations in workplaces, for example?) The letter boasts that these candidates will look to keep taxes low, but does not explain what cuts would need to be made (mental health? roads? substance abuse programs? education?) in order to do that. It is important to take a look behind the proclamations to understand what they mean, to ask, "does this candidate represent me, my family, my neighbors, and my values?”

Having lived in Windham for 27 years, I have met or know five of the candidates running for office. Valerie Roman, Kristi St. Laurent and I have become friends. Henri Azibert hosted a candidate house party I was honored to attend in 2016. I introduced myself several years ago to Mary Griffin after I realized that she graduated from Lynn English High School in 1943 with my late father and I met Charlie McMahon through his work with Windham Baseball.

From what I know of these five, I can say that those who value what I value are Valerie, Kristi and Henri. This is not because of party affiliation but because of the people they are and what they stand for. It is because of how they each see the role of government as one that should be protecting the vulnerable and trying to help all New Hampshire and Windham residents thrive.

I will vote on November 3. I will vote for Kristi. I will vote for Valerie. I will vote for Henri. I will vote for them because I agree with them and because they value what I value.

I plan to vote in person on November 3 and I know I have my work cut out for me reading about each of the other candidates and where they stand. I take my job seriously.

Catherine Robertson Souter

Windham NH