A great disappointment (sales, construction, school)

[movingover]

Since people are saying to go by towns, not counties, can someone tell me which towns in southern NH are Red? And what is the political makeup of these towns:

Exeter
Epping
Portsmouth (guessing very liberal)
Rye Beach
New Market

[Annabelle]

Here's how the presidential voting went in those towns:

Exeter - Obama 5,258 McCain 3,365
Epping - Obama 1,765 McCain 1,518
Portsmouth - Obama 9,147 McCain 3,729
Rye - Obama 2,082 McCain 1,671
Newmarket - Obama 3,241 McCain 1,780

[rmcewan]

Originally Posted by movingover

Since people are saying to go by towns, not counties, can someone tell me which towns in southern NH are Red? And what is the political makeup of these towns:

Exeter
Epping
Portsmouth (guessing very liberal)
Rye Beach
New Market

Why don't you name a town in a state you feel is "Red" enough? Then maybe we'll find you a match.

See, when you say "very liberal" - what is your baseline for liberal? Portsmouth might be liberal by NH standards, but conservative by West Hollywood standards.

[elston]

I am so proud of NH ;

if someone is looking for a neo-conservative bastion of failed economic policies and taxes on the middle class to provide relief to the uber-wealthy and privleged......NH may not be the state for you...there are some you might like but they are dwindling.

[KathyMA]

Seeing all the hate and exclusionary, partisan language on the part of the Republicans on this thread is part of the reason that the Republican party is in shambles. What ever happened to the Northeast Rockefeller Republicans who were socially moderate and fiscally conservative? Thankfully NH and most of the New England states have retained some of this tradition. The Party of Lincoln has been co-opted by a bunch of right-wing, religiously-insane ideologues, who have destroyed the core principles of the party. With the huge deficit, they are hardly fiscally-conservative. The Republicans had a majority in Congress from January 1995 until January 2007, and pushed through economic policies that cut taxes for the wealthy over the middle class. This is not what conservatism is all about.

I hope that the Republican Party rediscovers its core principles and emerges strong again in the next election, even if it means breaking off from the more extremist, neo-con wing of the party.

If the Original Poster wants to know what happened in NH, it has more to do with Yankee pragmatism than a bunch of Mass people moving North. New Hampshirites aren't stupid, and many Republicans have watched their party leave them. If you want to live in a more homogenously Red State, TN, AL, ID, UT, WY, NE, and AK are all still reliably Republican. TX is trending Blue these days so it may not be the place for you in four years time. Good luck.

[seamusnh]

New Hampshire town results:
County Results - Election Center 2008 - Elections & Politics from CNN.com

Although Obama, Lynch and Shaheen won, the Republicans had a net gain of 16 seats in the state house. It could be that voters did not support the 17.5% increase in the state budget that the Democrats and Lynch put through in their first year in charge....

[seamusnh]

Originally Posted by KathyMA

The Republicans had a majority in Congress from January 1995 until January 2007, and pushed through economic policies that cut taxes for the wealthy over the middle class. This is not what conservatism is all about.

Wrong. The Republicans gave EVERY taxpayer a Federal tax cut. Millions of taxpayers at the low end were dropped from the tax rolls. More of the dollars in the tax cut went to the wealthy as those are the people that pay more of the dollars. The top 25% of wage-earners in the US pay 86% of the federal taxes. The top 1% of wage-earners pay 39% of the US Federal income taxes which is up from 37% when Bush took office.

"Last week the Congressional Budget Office joined the IRS in releasing tax numbers for 2005, and part of the news is that the richest 1% paid about 39% of all income taxes that year. The richest 5% paid a tad less than 60%, and the richest 10% paid 70%. These tax shares are all up substantially since 1990, and even somewhat since 2000. Meanwhile, Americans with an income below the median -- half of all households -- paid a mere 3% of all income taxes in 2005. The richest 1.3 million tax-filers -- those Americans with adjusted gross incomes of more than $365,000 in 2005 -- paid more income tax than all of the 66 million American tax filers below the median in income. Ten times more...

The share of the richest 1% jumped to 20.8% of total income in 2000, from 14% in 1990"

Taxes and Income - WSJ.com

Obama will let the 2002 tax cuts expire in 2010 and may cut taxes from that level for the "middle class". The middle class may or may not pay less than they do now. The "wealthy" ($120k? $150k? $200k, $250k?) will definitely pay more. The FICA cap raise or be eliminated so that will go up. If the Dems go through with the idea of eliminating the 401k tax exemption, we will all be saving less for retirement...

[rmcewan]

Originally Posted by seamusnh

Wrong. The Republicans gave EVERY taxpayer a Federal tax cut. .

Yes indeed. The only government in the HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION who cut taxes** during a time of war. (and doubled-down on national debt)

And look at how all those tax cuts and the bail-out are "Stimulating" the economy and "Trickling Down".

Only today it was announced that the number of employed persons was trickled down by 240,000 jobs in October after being stimulated by minus 284,000 in September.

Your tax numbers do not make the case that the richest few pay proportionally less income tax than the majority of us.


** Kennedy apparently cut taxes while we had 6000 advisors in Vietnam - but nobody called that a war then.

[sgthoskins]

Originally Posted by seamusnh

It could be that voters did not support the 17.5% increase in the state budget that the Democrats and Lynch put through in their first year in charge....

What's 17.5% among friends??? Democrats doing what they do best, spending your money because they know what is best for everyone.

[GregW]

Get it straight for a change. The 17% increase in the budget was created by adding the Republican off budget items. The actual spending remained about the same.