LETTER: Hassan Deserves Eager Support

To the Editor:

My son, a college student, hasn’t registered to vote. My wife and I are trying to convince him to register, and his comment is, “I don’t like either of the candidates.” As someone who considers voting a great right and a responsibility, I attempted to sway him with the usual “pick the lesser of two evils” argument.

That led me to evaluate my own choices in this election season. I will be voting for Maggie Hassan. If I were to explain my choice to my son, what is it about her and her policies that make me want to vote for her? Is she merely the lesser of two evils?

Emphatically, no. 

Hassan is a stronger supporter of public education than Ovide Lamontagne.  Whereas the Republican approach is to steer public funds toward private schools through vouchers and tax rebates for corporate donations to private school tuition “charities,” Hassan wants to make sure that the public schools are properly funded. With reduced state aid under the current budgets, local property tax payers have to shoulder an even higher share of the cost. 

The same is true for UNH, our public school of higher learning, which already has the highest in-state tuition cost of any state’s university because of the low level of state financial support. Is this the New Hampshire Advantage?

Hassan supports a woman’s right to make medical decisions affecting her own body (freedom of choice regarding abortion). Lamontagne does not. He is welcome to espouse the views he does, and there are some who agree with him. I think were he and the arch-conservatives able to enact the sort of abortion restrictions they would like to put in place, I believe there would be a backlash that would dwarf all the other political movements in recent years.  Many who do not publicly argue in favor of this right consider it a settled issue, but if it were taken away, they would take to the streets in protest.

Hassan supports greater funding for Health and Human Services, including mental health. The Republican legislature does not, and I have no confidence Lamontagne would be able to hold back his own party even if he wanted to.  New Hampshire is on the verge of a crisis in mental health treatment for its lack of emergency beds for the seriously ill.

I will vote for Hassan eagerly. This is not one of those times when I settle for the lesser of two evils.

Matt Publicover
Merrimack