NH INSIDER

Richard Barnes is a current member of the Merrimack School Budget Committee and previously served as a member Merrimack Municipal Budget Committee from 2004 to 2006.  In 2006 he was endorsed by the grass roots group Merrimack Cares in his bid for School Board.  He also served in various roles including as the National President of Alpha Phi Delta Fraternity, a national Italian American Fraternal organization. He also volunteers with the Merrimack Historical Society and on the Town of Merrimack’s Web Technology Exploratory Committee.  He is a registered Republican who classifies himself as a Constitutionalist.

Steven is a graduate of Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont where he studied Business Administration.

Steven served two terms in the NH House of Representatives, Grafton County District #1. Steven’s assignment was to the Transportation Committee and later the Science, Technology & Energy Committees.

Prior to serving in the NH House, Steven had a career in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve (Port Security). Steven’s active duty assignments included the Marine Safety Offices (MSO) in Boston MA, Portland ME, and the Marine Safety Field Office in New Castle, NH.

Steven is one of the 25-30 original members of TrainRiders Northeast. TrainRiders is a grassroots effort started in Portland, ME  to lobby for an Amtrak route to service the Boston MA to Portland ME corridor.

A self-taught cartoonist d.rano has been doing political cartoons for the last four decades plus. His cartoons are drawn with the philosophy of "take that!". His caricatures are drawn with the philosophy of "the fewer lines the better" simplifying caricatures down to their basics but still managing to capture the heart and soul of the subject. Preferring to work in pen and ink d.rano will sometimes use colored pencils, sometimes.

His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines from Maine to California and is presently political cartoonist for the Sun newspapers. D.rano is a member of The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the National Caricaturist Network and is also listed on cartoonistusa.com.

His website is www.dranotoon.com where no one is safe...no one!

Mark Hounsell served as a Republican in the NH State Senate from 1984 – 1988. Senator Hounsell, who is a 12^thgeneration N.H. native, is a political activist and a campaign consultant.While busy raising four children with his wife Carol, he serves his home town of Conway as a member of the Board of Selectmen. He has a passion for teaching the depths of spiritual Christianity; writing blogs and poetry; and studying philosophy and medieval history (his major in college). Lately, he draws attention to what he believes is the greatest threat to our American heritage of liberty by declaring his underlying motivation of civic duty with the words, “Enjoying the freedom of speech, while I still can.”

"Steve is a local blogger and activist, a member of CNHT, and the New Hampshire Republican Volunteer Coalition. He can also be heard on New Hampshire Tax Payer Radio, every Thursday from 6-8pm on WLMW 90.7FM."

Ed Naile is a resident of NH and former selectman from Deering, NH. He has been a political activist for almost 20 years. He is currently the Chairman of the Coalition of NH Taxpayers, NH's largest non-partisan, non-profit, taxpayer advocacy group.

See CNHT's website at http://www.cnht.org for information on what CNHT does for the taxpayers in all NH towns.

He has fought and won many taxpayer battles over the years and is well-known in conservative circles for the CNHT "Taxpayer Pledge" which every candidate for public office in NH is urged to sign. CNHT has helped countless taxpayer groups and individuals across the state navigate local and school issues.

Ed can often be heard on many radio talk shows throughout NH with notables such as Brian Tilton, Charles Sherman, Gardner Goldsmith, Al Kulas, and Niel Young. He also is the main host of his own talk radio show completing its sixth year on WLMW 90.7 FM each Thursday night from 6-8PM and streaming on the web at http://www.nhtaxpayerradio.com

He is well-connected with political personalities in both NH and DC.

By trade, Ed has been an arborist for 35 years and involved with lumberjack competitions, working locally as well as with ESPN's summer Stihl Timbersports series.

His unique experiences dictate that his commentary on NH politics and personalities is not only insightful, but always humorous.

Pembroke resident Matt Simon founded the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy (NHCommonSense.org) in 2007 and serves as its executive director. He holds a Master's Degree in English from West Virginia University, and he has taught in West Virginia, Kentucky, and New Hampshire. A long-time advocate for peace, free markets, and educational freedom, Simon is also an active member of the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance.

In 2006, he enjoyed success in his first effort as a volunteer campaign manager and helped elect Rep. Joel Winters (D-Manchester) to his first term in the NH house.

Jim has been around the NH State House for quite a while, sometimes more years than he cares to remember. In 1968 he was President of the NH Young Democrats, and was elected that year as the youngest member of the 400-member NH House of Representatives - - as a Republican, although he remained a Democrat. There's a story to that which he'll probably explain sometime. In 1978 he was elected the youngest member of the NH State Senate.

He's been in the House for a total of 19 years and was in the State Senate for 6 years. He's also been a three-term Portsmouth Assistant Mayor, and was elected to the Portsmouth City Council, School Board, and Charter Commission. He is well-known as the author and sponsor of the 1975 law that has been recognized as the statute that has protected NH's First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary, by mandating that the Secretary of State must set the NH Primary "...one week or more..." ahead of any other state. Neither of the national parties, and no other state, has been able to figure out a way around that law. In 1979 as State Senator, he was sponsor of the first bill to adopt Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. He was cosponsor of the legislation that finally passed 20 years later to adopt MLK Day. In 2000, he was primary sponsor of the bill abolishing the death penalty, which passed both the House and Senate but was vetoed by the governor. The NH Legislature thus became the first in the nation to pass a death penalty abolition bill since the mid-1970s.

He does some political consulting and consults for business and non-profit groups by conducting workshops on various topics, including diversity training, time and stress management, workplace ethics, crisis management and customer service. He is author of a book, Politics: Communicating A Message, and is soon to publish another book, Business: Treating Your Employees Well & Your Customers Ethically. Openly gay for more than 20 years, he speaks out on issues of equality and discrimination. You can expect his commentary to cover a wide range of interesting topics.