On Friday, October 20 at 1 p.m., the Fireplace Lounge was host to a small turnout for Republican Gubernatorial hopeful New Hampshire State Representative Jim Coburn’s platform talk. Participants included The Clock at Plymouth State, The Citizen and Nicholas Gunn, the president of PSU College Democrats. The session was intended to hold a maximum of 30 people, however the PSU College Republicans, recognized as an emerging organization by the Student Senate only last Sunday, lacked ample time to advertise. As a result of the low turnout, Coburn’s talk was only about 40 minutes and was relegated to a series of conversations with the press and a debate with Gunn.
“Since we were ratified as a student organization just this past Sunday, that only gave us four days to advertise for this event,” explained Dustin Siggins, the head of PSU Republicans. “In the future we will have more time, and therefore we will be better organized.”
When asked about Governor John Lynch, who currently has the fourth-highest gubernatorial approval rating in the nation at 72%, Coburn replied, “He’s done an all right job, but there are some things that he could have done a better job with…Why not a stronger position on educational funding?” Coburn continued by speaking about the difference in values between himself and Governor Lynch, like Coburn’s strong pro-life stance and his belief in strong family values.
“I believe that the future of our society relies on intact families that will have children that grow up and have sound family principles. I think that children who are raised in an intact family learn to honor their parents and show respect for others. Being a good citizen in today’s society is important to protect our society for the next 20-50 years. People who grow up to want to help others in need are important in our society. Some of that drive to help others is going away. As in most cases, that is not true of everything, but in this world, majority rules.”
Colburn took questions easily, often having a response almost immediately. When asked about the controversial issue of stem cell research, he said that while he believes there are many benefits to be had from such research, he doesn’t believe that the research should be done on embryonic stem cells at this point. Instead, he thinks that adult stem cells should be used as supplemental subjects. He wrapped up his thoughts by saying, “There are some things in this life we just shouldn’t do.”Coburn moved on to fiscal responsibility, one of the cornerstones of his campaign platform, and a traditional talking point of the Republican Party. He spoke of being responsible with the state budget and boosting revenue, as did the last republican governor Craig Benson. He also criticized Governor Lynch’s budget by saying, “The budget he brags about had only one Democrat voting for it.”
Another crucial part of Coburn’s campaign was about boosting revenue in New Hampshire. “I want to stay here in New Hampshire. I want it to stay the way it is,” he said. “The way to do that is with big companies coming here to create more jobs for New Hampshire. The kind of businesses that we need to attract are the businesses that provide meaningful jobs, technical jobs. We will attract businesses like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, but that is not the intention.” when asked about how small business like Plymouth’s Rand’s Hardware and Louis Samaha’s General Store will compete with the unintended but inevitably bigger businesses that provide similar services, he responded, “It’s up to Rand’s to compete; they need to capitalize on the fact that they provide better service.”
Later on, while speaking on his goals for New Hampshire, Coburn included a highly trained workforce, better healthcare for the state and improved technology services in a hopeful list. One goal he spoke strongly about was solving the education crisis with a constitutional amendment that would keep the courts out of education funding.
“In order to maintain our way of life we need a strong leader that will stand up to the courts on the education issue,” Colburn explained.
Brian Haggerty, of Governor Lynch’s campaign headquarters later rebutted the statement by saying, “The proposed amendment would allow the state to completely walk away from its responsibility to local education. Governor Lynch thinks that’s wrong and he opposes it. Governor Lynch believes we have a responsibility as a state to ensure every child has the opportunity for a quality education. He has proposed a detailed plan, with broad bipartisan support, to fulfill that responsibility. It directs more state aid to the communities that need it most, using a wide variety of factors, including fiscal capacity of a community, special classroom challenges a community faces, and the performance of students. Governor Lynch will continue talking with lawmakers of both parties about his plan and about how best to implement it. But he will not walk away from the problem.”
The upcoming mid-term election date is Tuesday, November 7. The Plymouth State Student Senate will be sponsoring an event to register voters in the HUB Pawsway on October 26 from 4:30-7 p.m. and will also be sponsoring University transportation to and from the polls on Election Day.