Alton man now leading Belknap Republicans

BARNSTEAD — A relative newcomer to the New Hampshire Republican Party, Alan Glassman was honored for his contribution to the GOP with the Norris Cotton Award and this month was unanimously chosen to lead the Belknap County Republican Committee into the next election cycle.

Glassman succeeded Rep. Frank Tilton of Laconia, who chaired the committee for five years.

Glassman spent much of his life in Hartford, Connecticut, but for 35 years regularly visited New Hampshire, where his wife's family built a log cabin in Barnstead. Ultimately the Glassmans made Barnstead their home and soon Alan was drawn into politics by his wife, Jan Face Glassman, a lifelong Republican who as a student at Bates College had a dog named "Spiro" after then Vice-President Spiro Agnew.

"All credit goes to my wife," Glassman said. "We were both given the Norris Cotton Award by the county committee then I got the state award, which should have gone to Jan for her 40 years of service to the party."

A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a major in political science, Glassman pursued a career in information technology and considered himself a political independent for most of his life. But, after coming to New Hampshire he realized that his principles matched those of the GOP.

Taking to grassroots politics like a duck to water, Glassman helped build the Barnstead-Alton Republican Committee into the most dynamic local party organization in the Lakes Region.

Picturing the GOP as a large and welcoming tent, Glassman looks forward to overcoming the rifts within the ranks, which have yawned open with the heated contest for the chairmanship of the state committee between Jack Kimball of Dover and Julia Bergeron of Keene. "The last thing I want to do is take sides," he said late last week. "Both sides have a lot to say. At the end of the day — and I mean literally on Saturday after the election — I hope everybody will say 'okay we've got a new chairman now let's come together and get on with the job'."

Stressing the severe fiscal challenges facing the state, Glassman said "this will not be an easy thing and there will be division between the two parties and within both parties." He said that he was encouraged when House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) reaffirmed that addressing the budget deficit and weak economy are the highest priorities for the Legislature."I want to see fiscal matters as priority number one," he said. "We must follow through on the promises we made or the pendulum could swing back the other way next year."

Glassman said that he had a number of ideas for strengthening the county committee, but for the moment was in a "wait and see mode." Putting town committees on a sound footing throughout the county and attracting young people to the party ranks, he said were among his goals.