- Introduction
- The Importance of League of Women Voters Events in Nashua
- What to do when you get that NEA Survey
- Answering the League of Women Voters Survey
- Conclusion
In 2023, while I was Alderman Dowd’s opponent, I received an invitation from the League of Women Voters (LWV) to attend a Wards 1, 2, and 6 candidate forum at the library, which is in trashy Ward 4 and not even near Ward 2. Despite their name, one should ask them whether they even know what a woman is!
Sensing that the event would be structured around stupid questions about equity, equality, diversity, housing, and other crap that’s not Ward 2 kitchen-table issue material, I promptly declined while taking advantage of their offer to have the moderator read my brief statement into the mic. Believe it or not, I was able to watch the video later and confirm that my statement was read aloud, word for word.
Before the event, Beth Scaer remarked that nobody who’s absent ever wins their elections. Perhaps she meant non-incumbents, because Alderman Dowd and Tyler Gouveia both chose the same path I did and were reelected. As for challengers, Ward 6 had an open seat, and both candidates attended, and Chris Thibodeau won his election only to sadly lose in 2025 to the same opponent. Tyler Gouveia’s 2023 opponent, Jim Ravan, aka Mr Elberger, attended and was later SELECTED shortly after the 2025 election to replace Mr Chess upon his resignation just weeks after being elected.
As a senate candidate, I was not surprised to see an email from LWV in my inbox as we’re well into summer survey season. I remember 3 elections ago, when I was a first-time rep candidate and was talking to Rep. Bill Ohm, who was running to get his old seat back. His advice was to answer the important surveys, such as those from the NRA, Granite State Taxpayers, and similar advocacy groups. As for the NTU and their ilk, he said to just toss them in the trash can.
When the NEA envelope arrived, I even took a picture of it in my kitchen trash to show my dad, a retired accountant who taught me how to passionately despise the NTU back when Proposition 2 1/2 was “water cooler talk.” If you can visualize a continuum where you have the NEA and the NRA as the endpoints of a continuum, I would place the LWV closer to the NEA end, as would most people of average intelligence or above. With that being said, I resisted the urge to just diss them without looking at the survey.
It was an online survey, so I used the link and went there on August 4. There were only 5 questions, and upon seeing how dumb they were, I just closed out the window in exasperation and shook my head in disgust. It seems I received a cookie because they sent me a follow-up email asking me to complete my unfinished survey. At that moment, I considered that I am in a PRIMARY against an incumbent Republican (in name only) and despite the LWV looking like a tool of the Dems, MOST voters in Republican primaries vote red in November. Yeah, there are Dems masquerading as independents, but they’re not MY audience, so I went ahead and completed their silly survey. Below are their questions and my answers.
Q1) What steps will you take to ensure everyone living in our state has access to quality and affordable health care?
I would vote for good bills that reduce the level of government interference in the supply and demand situation and reduce government interference in the provider and patient relationship. A patient is a customer, and the free market is the best landscape for problems taking care of themselves.
Q2) What will you do to combat the underlying issues driving the inflation rate such as in rising costs of housing, childcare, energy, and groceries?
Inflation is the result of reckless printing of money. What I will do about it is vote for the correct FEDERAL candidates, which are Lily Tang Williams and Scott Brown.
Q3) What actions will you take to uphold the constitutional balance between federal and state authority in the administration of our state‑run elections?
I will support all good bills that bring more transparency and security to our elections, whether they come from Concord or Washington. As a legislator, I will reject all efforts in Concord to relax federal standards of election security.
Q4) What are the most important challenges facing our state and what do you propose to address them?
Exploding school budgets and property taxes and election security. I will support all good bills that curb school spending, enhance school budget transparency, and shore up election security. Without clean elections, we are not a truly free society.
Q5) What three actions will you support to protect, preserve, and enhance America’s democracy and why?
Our founders created a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, not a democracy. I reject all efforts to convert our government from the former to the latter.
It was the 5th question that pushed me over the edge on August 4, leading to my initial decision not to complete the survey. If you or someone you know who’s like-minded has received the LWV survey, please consider completing it. Maybe a large volume of sardonic answers would encourage the authors to ask different questions next time. Or maybe not.
