By Bill Herman, CPM
townadmin@townofauburnnh.com

Spring is definitely in the air. With the sun shining brightly and blue skies above, robins having returned from their winter sojourn, and plants and trees budding with new life it is a wonderful time of year.

At this point, it is hard to believe that Presidential politics is also on the horizon. Seems like voters just re-elected the President by a narrow margin, and the media pundits and political talking heads alike are already focused on the campaign of 2008.

With wide-open races for both political parties, here in New Hampshire we are already getting the opportunity to see candidates of all stripes testing the water. Hardly a week or weekend goes by without seeing some national figure visiting the Granite State to speak with this group or meet with that organization.

For most folks these days, politics leaves a sour taste in their mouths. And it is little wonder when all you have to do is scan the headlines of the daily newspapers or listen to the news on radio or television to hear of various scandals or issues that our government leaders have gotten themselves into. I think it was Will Rogers who once said “We have the best Congress that money can buy!”

Yet, despite the negatives, we have the best system around compared to the alternatives. Winston Churchill once said: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.”

Why do I write of politics? Last September when CPMers gathered in Manchester, New Hampshire for our 17th Annual Professional Development Conference, one of the speakers heard at the opening plenary session was New Hampshire’s Secretary of State William Gardner. Currently the longest serving Secretary of State in the country with his near quarter of a century of continuous service, Bill Gardner spoke passionately and with conviction about one of New Hampshire’s greatest assets – the First-in-the-Nation Presidential Primary. As Secretary of State, Gardner is responsible for the quad-annual event.

The New Hampshire Presidential Primary burst onto the national scene in 1952. Every four years since then, it captures the interest and attention of the Nation. Through 1998, no candidate of either political party won their party’s Presidential nomination without first winning the New Hampshire Primary. An Arkansas Governor broke that streak when he came in second in the New Hampshire Primary, and then went on to win his first of two terms in the White House that fall…More >