Hosmer wants Democrats to tap him to run against Guinta in '12

LACONIA — Andrew Hosmer, the general manager at AutoServ of Tilton who lost a bid for the New Hampshire Senate last year, yesterday announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat in the First Congressional District held by Republican Frank Guinta.

"As the last six weeks proved," Hosmer remarked, "Washington is simply dysfunctional." Stressing the urgency of addressing the budget deficit and national debt, he said that "the middle class and working families are bearing a disproportionate burden and large corporations and hedge fund managers are not paying their fair share. It's flat our wrong," he declared,"and somebody has to take the fight to them. I will put the citizens of New Hampshire first."

The son of a millhand and a schoolteacher, Hosmer, 47, grew up in Massachusetts, Where he graduated from UMass at Amherst and earned a law degree at Suffolk University in 1991. After serving as assistant district attorney in Hampden County, which includes Springfield, he moved to New Hampshire with his wife Donna Gaudet Hosmer and joined her family's firm — AutoServ. For several years he has served as a trustee of the Holy Trinity Endowment Trust, which assists students with tuition while supporting the daily operations and capital projects of Holy Trinity School in Laconia.

The Hosmers live in Laconia with their four children, including six-year-old triplets.

Hosmer made his political debut in 2010 when he sought to keep the seat in Senate District 4, left open by the retirement of Kathy Sgambati of Tilton, in the Democratic camp. In the landslide that left the Republicans with 19 of the 24 seats in the Senate, Hosmer was roundly beaten by Jim Forsythe of Strafford who carried all six wards in Laconia and all eight towns in the district to win by more than 4,600 votes.

Despite the outcome, Hosmer said that the campaign was a rewarding experience that made a powerful impression on him. In particular, he said "it was a great opportunity to meet people throughout the community. I realized that there are lots of people out there who are working hard to make ends meet and have been for some time."

Hosmer said that he began contemplating another run for office this spring. "Speaking with people I found a great deal of displeasure with Guinta," he said. Lumping the freshman representative together with the "tea party ideologues," he said that "he is beholden to an extreme political ideology and allied with the most extreme elements of the Republican Party." During the crisis over the debt ceiling, he continued, Guinta was among those willing to risk "a total economic collapse, all in the name of scoring cheap political points."

"The times call for real commonsense leaders, not career politicians," Hosmer said, adding that as a father of four engaged in a small business he would bring "another perspective, a fresh choice" to the congressional race.

Hosmer is the third Democrat to enter the primary held in September 2012, following Carol Shea-Porter of Rochester, who held the seat for two terms between 2007 and 2011, and Joanne Dowdell of Portsmouth, an executive with Sentinel Investments and at-large member of the Democratic National Committee.

Of the two, Shea-Porter poses the stiffest challenge in the primary. She won the seat in 2006 and 2008 before losing it to Guinta last year and still enjoys a large following among Democrats in the Seacoast strongholds of Portsmouth, Dover and Somersworth as well as in Manchester, where she ran well but behind in 2010, and the Mount Washington Valley. Hosmer, on the other hand, has campaigned primarily in Belknap County, where Democratic voters are relatively thin on the ground.

Hosmer is working with Mission Control, Inc. of Mansfield Center, Connecticut, a communications firm with a record of contributing to the success of Democratic candidates. Mark Bergman, who is working with Hosmer, is no stranger to New Hampshire politics. He worked with Paul Hodes during his two terms representing the Second Congressional District before losing his bid for United States Senate to Kelley Ayotte in 2010, when Bergman was his communications director.

"We're working with a couple of consultants and a good team of volunteers," Hosmer said. "Fundraising is our first job. I'm very optimistic that we'll raise the resources necessary."