With more and more dirt and bad press on Tim McGough coming to light as the June filing time approaches, we all know that Queen Sharon, Jeb, and PK are scrambling for someone to primary him. Why not convince (currently Rep) Gary Daniels to take one for the team?
As an ordinary rep, Gary is overqualified for his current position, having served as Senate Finance chair. He also had a vote on the Joint Fiscal Committee and voted correctly on 11/19/21, the day that will live in infamy as Chuck Morse voted the wrong way. Before the roll call was taken, Gary addressed the rest of the committee for a few minutes with his concerns, all reasonable ones, especially for a public servant who takes doing the “People’s Work” seriously.
On 5/5/22, HB1210 was in the Senate. It was a much-needed bill to make vaccine mandate exemptions uniform across the whole workforce. Sadly, it died in a 19-5 roll call to move to interim study. Kevin is the only Republican Senator who voted correctly and is still in office today. He was my senator at the time, and Nurse Terese was selling “The Constitution Matters” shirts as legal expense fundraisers. I bought one for each senator who voted correctly, except Senator Reagan, because he voted against the Parental Bill of Rights, though I will acknowledge that Howard Pearl’s record falls miserably short of Senator Reagan’s, but let’s get back to Gary. Gary gave a speech to the rest of the senate, and I encourage all readers to click here for his short, important statement, which included a quote from Ben Franklin about selling liberty for safety. Gary was the kind of senator that we need a majority of, and he has an opportunity to get his old seat back.
Sadly, Gary lost to Comrade Baby Shamu in the 2022 election, but he remained active in his community and ran for the Milford school board as a private citizen. Around that time, Milford was in the news for the school urinals being covered by trash bags. When spin doctor Adam Sexton ran the story, there was some video footage of Gary sitting with Councilor Wheeler in the audience while squadrons of people lined up for public comment in the school gymnasium. He could have shrugged the matter off and spent that time as any ordinary person in their 70s would, but he showed up.
Ms. Virginia, tour guide and gift shop manager at the state house, has a treasure trove of stories about senators that don’t appear on their NH.gov home pages. I could share several of those stories, but this article is about Gary. Yesterday, while I was visiting her, we discussed the Senate as she asked questions about Tim McGough. I said I wanted Gary to take that seat back in a primary against Tim. Virginia replied with a story about Gary. A Milford school group was touring the state house, and Virginia told the students that Gary was their senator and that there was a school resource officer bill in process. One student made an off-the-cuff complaint, and Gary whipped out a notebook and pen. When he started taking notes, another student asked him what he was writing down. Gary told those minor children, the most vulnerable of constituents, as they have no right to vote, that their candid input was important and he wanted to write down all that they had to say. Virginia said the demeanor of the group suddenly changed to positive engagement when the students felt heard.
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
I am not in Gary’s sphere of influence. It’s up to the people who are, and I hope some of them are reading this, to tell Gary that duty calls. Oh, and I should mention that Gary is a veteran, so answering the call of duty should come easier than that of a lifelong civilian.
