Belknap GOP hosts boat load of candidates on annual cruise

LACONIA — Just days before the filing period for state offices opens on Wednesday, some 350 Republicans, including most of the announced candidates, clambered aboard the MSS Mount Washington on Friday night for the Lincoln Day Sunset Dinner Cruise hosted by the Belknap County Republican Committee.

Walt Havenstein of Alton, one of two candidates running for governor, was on board, but Andrew Hemingway of Bristol his opponent was not, but a number of his supporters marked his presence in the race. The passenger list included all four candidates bidding to challenge Jeanne Shaheen for the United States Senate — Scott Brown of Rye, Jim Rubens of Etna, Karen Testerman of Franklin and Bob Smith of Tuftonboro. Both candidates in the second congressional district, Marlinda Garcia of Salem and Gary Lambert of Nashua, were on hand, but only Dan Innis of Portsmouth, who is vying with Frank Guinta of Manchester for the nomination in the first district, joined the cruise.

After winning a special election in March to succeed the late Ray Burton as the Executive Councilor in District 1, Joe Kenney came aboard to begin his re-election campaign.

"This is an exciting time to be a Republican in New Hampshire," Jennifer Horne, who chairs the Republican State Committee, told the crowd, adding "we have a lot of exciting primaries."

The tension within the ranks of the GOP was signaled by the buzz in some quarters about the decision of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, a conservative group recruiting "pro-liberty" candidates, to endorse Rubens over Brown in the U.S. Senate race. The news followed reports that Republican state senators, including the Chuck Morse of Salem, the president of the Senate, and Jeanie Forrester of Meredith, would be targeted with primary opponents.

Of all the primary contests, the race for the gubernatorial nomination is most likely to set the direction of the GOP. "I am the establishment," Havenstein remarked. I'm not all things to all people. I'm a meat and potatoes Republican."

Hemingway, 31, describes himself as an "entrepreneur," but is best known in political circles, where he served as chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire and ran unsuccessfully for the chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party. In a letter read by Representative Al Baldasaro (R-Londonderrty), he declared that the state's motto — "Live Free Or Die" — is "a statement of principle" and that his campaign is keyed to "individual liberty, personal freedom and fiscal responsibility."

Havenstein, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a degree in aerospace engineering, served in the United States Marine Corps from 1971 to 1999, where he specialized in tactical communications and systems acquisition management. He spent the next 13 years in the private sector, most of them with BAE Systems, Inc. of Nashua, where he is fond of saying he managed a budget three times the size of that of the state.

Calling himself "an experienced decision maker," Havenstein emphasized that he is not guided by "abstractions and theory" but reaches "practical decisions based on the facts." When he was asked about the GOP platform, he confessed he had not read it closely, then noted that his wife served on the platform committee and helped "reign in the platform from being a series of litmus tests."

Havenstein, who firmly opposed both broad-based taxes and expanded gambling, said that he intends to overcome the fiscal challenges facing the state by expanding the economy. "We must become the more competitive with the other states in New England by reducing the overhead burden of doing business," he said, referring to the high corporate tax rate along with the costs of health insurance, unemployment insurance and worker's compensation.

Born and raised in Plymouth, Hemingway attended Calvary Christian School and upon graduation enrolled at Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, North Carolina, which was founded by the evangelist Ron Comfort in 1989 with the mission of preparing men and women spiritually and academically for the ministry. He did not graduate, but while at college started his first business, a window washing company. Since leaving college he has worked in insurance, dry cleaning and janitorial services as well as launched several digital projects, including political communications and fundraising ventures.

Hemingway has called for "innovative solutions" and in his letter proposed suspending the rooms and meals tax to attract greater numbers of tourists and introducing a package of tax incentives to encourage businesses to operate in the state. He has also urged the state to reject federal education mandates and abandon the Common Core program while promoting parental choice and charter schools.

Each candidate was allotted three minutes to speak and all struck a common note, pillorying Democratic leadership, which they claimed has brought the country and the state to the edge of an abyss.

"We must take back America and save this country," declared Bob Smith, who served in Congress as a representative and senator from 1984 until 2003.

"I'm an angry woman," proclaimed Testerman, who invoked the memory of Hannah Dustin and vowed to take scalps. proclaimed. "Our country is burning down," said Rubens, forecasting the collapse of the dollar.

But, Brown may have delivered the most important message when he promised whatever the outcome of the Republican primary to support the winner and expected others to do the same.

CAPTION: David Webb, the conservative radio personality who served as emcee for the Belknap County Republican Committee's Lincoln Day Sunset Dinner Cruise aboard the MSS Mt. Washington, spared a moment from his duties to welcome Elaine Swinford of Barnstead (left) and Belknap County Attorney Melissa Guldbrandsen (right). (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Michael Kitch)