Delusions of grandeur are high on the diagnostic checklist for Narcissism. Just look at the DSM-3-R or any other authority on such matters. Former Rep Ming has shown similar behaviors during last year’s campaign season, such as claiming to be the first Asian rep when it simply wasn’t true. Now he’s outdone himself in his very wordy announcement that he will not be doing another Senate run next year. I surmise that he compares himself to Frank Edelblut, taking out a page in the Union Leader to announce that he was declining the opportunity to run for governor after being strongly encouraged to run.
The race for governor is an election that’s on everyone’s ballot, not just 1/24th of the state, so Frank’s announcement was appropriate, and it was without self-pity or resentment. Oh, wait, I have another example, which is scaled down and partisan. D’Allesandro called a press conference to deliver his retirement speech in the LOB. After half a century of trying to destroy the NH Advantage from one public office or another, over half of that being in the senate, such a welcome news flash with that much fanfare was appropriate.
Ming wrote a long statement explaining why he isn’t running again. I would offer a link to it, but his Facebook account is restricted, and some people, rightfully so, just don’t want to click on Facebook links. I copied it so readers can see his Narcissism on full display.
“I’ve run for public office three times over the past five years. Each time, I was asked to run by people in who I respect and admire. These are people I’ve had the great fortune to work with towards the shared goal of making our state a better place for everyone to live in. I always told them “yes” because there’s a vanishingly small number of people in our state during any given year that have the personal and professional stability to give their lives up for the good of the people.
The not-so-secret secret of New Hampshire state politics is that lawmakers are compensated one hundred dollars a year for their efforts, after they run State Rep. campaigns that cost thousands of dollars, or State Senate campaigns that require fundraising in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not easy, but being a New Hampshire state legislator is, in my humble opinion, the greatest volunteer job one could have. Serving with the proper amount of respect for these offices requires a high level of dedication. There are no days off, and there are never enough hours in a day. It takes relentless effort to do it right, and I gave everything I had while serving in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. When I said “yes” to running for State Senate midway through my first term as a State Rep., it wasn’t about getting to the next rung in the ladder. It was about answering the call to serve by people who believed in me at a point in time when a second Trump presidency, and everything that it entailed, was looming. It wasn’t the safe choice, but playing it safe would have been a mistake and, even if I knew then what I know now, I would do it again. New Hampshire has become a microcosm of the downturn of the United States and our Federal government; damaging Republican executive leadership, chaotic Republican legislators, and weaponized fear campaigns by bands of unidentified masked men in the form of immigration enforcement and swastika-flag-waving Nazis rallying outside the State House in Concord as recently as this past Saturday. It’s everything that my colleagues and I believed would happen if this version of the Republican party were to succeed on Election Day 2024. It’s why so many of us fought as hard as we did for our campaigns last year, but we weren’t the only ones who put themselves on the line.
Politics is a selfish endeavor, but you are not alone when you make the decision to run for and serve in public office. You bring your entire family with you. While the glory of winning campaigns and serving largely goes to the candidate, the sacrifices are shared. I wasn’t the only one that gave everything to my last two years of legislating and campaigning. I asked everything of my family and they gave me more. Our family paid for childcare (for four kids) that we wouldn’t have needed if I wasn’t serving and campaigning. Supporting my family as a practicing lawyer got completely shelved, while my wife took on full working responsibility as a nightshift ER doctor.
My most important job is being the parent our schools, doctors, and pharmacy should be calling during the day while my wife sleeps off grueling nights at the hospital, the one who stays home when the kids are sick, the one who handles the house finances, the one who drives the kids to soccer and dance, the one who does the small jobs at home that need to get done no matter what. Parenting has for some time cast aside the notion of a single breadwinner and a single caregiver as the norm. The idea of the primary parent, however, still persists, and off-loading these obligations is much harder than one would think.
I don’t say all this because I feel sorry for myself or that you should feel sorry for me. I chose the path I took, and despite everything we personally put on the line, I understand that to be able to run is a privilege. To be able to serve is an even greater one, and those facts will never be lost on me. However, after a great deal of thought and discussion with my family, I’ve decided that I can’t fight for my state senate district in a way that it deserves to be fought for right now. It’s the right thing for the people of District 12 and it’s really as simple as that. It’s filled my heart to know that many of you want to know “what’s next?” for me, as we try to assemble the next steps in our state.
I feel that the bare minimum I owe you is whatever clarity I have for myself. I know I want to continue to serve, but the challenges I’m staring down are unfortunately not unique. The harsh reality of running to be a legislator in New Hampshire is that it’s not built for anybody that couldn’t retire tomorrow. It’s not built for those with family obligations to people who can’t support themselves. It’s not built for smart people with good ideas, but personal networks that are too small, not rich, or both. The ones that make it in spite of these challenges ought to be commended because they are succeeding in an unwelcoming system. A system that is economically homogenous, and made up largely of people that have no clue what it’s like to raise a family in 2025.
It may be saying nothing new that politics isn’t built for people with families. It’s with much more than a hint of irony that New Hampshire politics hides its lack of representation for families who are still “in it” behind a veil of democratic fairness. “Anybody can serve” rings hollow once you’ve seen what it really takes and realize very few can even try. It will be up to the people who can hang on, even by a fingernail, to step up and ensure that our legislature is made up of people that not only understand the challenges facing every family in this state, but are also living through it right now. I’m not giving up, but the fight for District 12 in 2026 will be another person’s battle.”
Whether or not you, the reader, vote in District 12, it’s clear that Ming is a miserable individual who might benefit from therapy, and Wanderlust Therapeutic Services (WTS) was one of his supporters. WTS might even give him a discount because Alderman Moron owns it, and I heard a rumor that he’s not seeking reelection this fall. That’s great news for Nashua, but in addition to that, it should free up more therapy time to give Ming some extra attention as a VIP client.
Win-win for everyone, I hope.
