New Hampshire Republican Party

New Hampshire Republican Party

1999-2000 Platform

We, the Republican Party, meeting in Convention in Concord, New Hampshire on Saturday, October 3, 1998, do hereby adopt the following statement of principles:

Republicans are united by our belief in limited government, limited spending and taxes, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and compassion for the truly needy and our confidence in the strength of individuals, families, churches, voluntary organizations and communities.

We Believe:

New Hampshire government exists to secure God endowed inalienable rights for the benefit, protection and security of its free and independent citizens, their families and communities. We are all Americans and we welcome New Hampshire’s growing racial and ethnic diversity.

New Hampshire’s government, its political parties and its elected officials must, above all else, protect individual liberty. This principle will guide the state both in acting to protect those fundamental elements of New Hampshire society and to refrain from actions that unnecessarily limit or interfere with each citizen’s, each family’s and each community’s freedom and independence.

The rights of our people always precede the actions of government. Our Constitution guarantees that all people are born free and independent and that our government is founded upon the people’s consent. Our government derives its legitimacy from a social compact under which people surrender some of their natural rights only so long as the government protects and respects their other rights. The State only has as much power as the people choose to give it. Our Party’s foremost purpose is to protect and enhance the fundamental rights of the people.

This Platform records our common principles and beliefs and seeks to apply them to our vision for the future of New Hampshire.

FIRST IN THE NATION

New Hampshire is proud to be the birthplace of the Republican Party, established at a meeting convened by Amos Tuck in Exeter on October 12, 1853. New Hampshire’s first primary elections were held 57 years later. The importance and integrity of the Presidential Primary to the people of New Hampshire and the nation was recognized by the legislature when it enacted a law requiring that the New Hampshire Presidential Primary be first in the nation. Since that date, the New Hampshire Presidential Primary has stood as a proving ground for candidates of all parties. The New Hampshire Republican Party continues to derive its strength from this process. We advocate the preservation of the First-in-the-Nation status by our national Republican Party, recognizing that damage to this institution would greatly damage the Party and the State.

JOBS AND THE ECONOMY

A strong New Hampshire economy will underwrite all our efforts to benefit and protect our citizens. It secures the livelihoods of our families and generates revenues needed to operate our civil government. We remain committed to making New Hampshire the best place in the nation to live, to visit and to do business, from small business to traditional manufacturing to the latest emerging technology. Our state’s leading role in the economic recovery of New England and our communities’ repeated reputation as among the best places to live will not make us complacent; we will reinforce our success.

Our approach to economic development is founded on creating a supportive business climate and on increasing tourism. Our goals are the creation of private sector jobs, expanding markets both at home and abroad, and the development of productive employment with safety, rewards and dignity for all workers, including our youth. We will continue our emphasis on educating and training our work force, and graduating students in state-of-the-art technology to keep them members of the finest work force in the nation. New Hampshire’s highly motivated work force is a key to our economic prosperity. Our dedicated state, county and municipal employees are the key to the economical and efficient public services that we enjoy.

We affirm the right of all citizens to freely form, join or assist labor organizations to bargain collectively, consistent with state laws. No worker should be coerced to join or assist any labor organization or dispute.

TAXES AND SPENDING

We reaffirm our traditional strong opposition to any broad based taxes. Freedom from broad based taxes is a chief component of our New Hampshire Advantage. Broad based taxes unfairly erode earnings, contribute to the growth of government and provide disincentives for economic growth. Our record of economic growth affirmatively asserts this view.

We reject higher taxes and more government spending. We believe instead in promoting lower taxes to attract business development and expand economic opportunities. We believe that controlling spending and not raising taxes are best ways to protect the economic well-being of New Hampshire residents.

We pledge to maintain a tax system consistent with our commitment to making New Hampshire a desirable place for people to live, work, raise their families and locate their businesses.

THE FAMILY

The strength of society reflects the strength of its families. It is in marriage and family that we develop morality, integrity, responsibility and concern for others. It is there we learn to love our country and have faith in God. We place our highest priority on promoting and protecting the traditional family as the foundation of human development. We will only support legislation to strengthen family life. We realize the family’s most important function is to raise the next generation of Americans. We continue to endorse the rights of all children to a healthy and normal family environment.

Families have been the foundation of our national strength. If we are to endure as a free nation, the traditional family unit must be preserved and encouraged to thrive. Therefore, we are committed to enacting legislation to protect the institution of marriage by defining ‘marriage’ to mean only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

We believe the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We therefore support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the 14^th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We commend those who provide alternatives to abortion by meeting the needs of the mothers and offering adoption services. We reaffirm our support for appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.

The New Hampshire Republican Party Committee shall not support financially or by in-kind contributions any candidate or nominee of this party who opposes measures to end so-called partial birth abortions.

We favor equal consideration of both parents in child custody and child support determinations and oppose policies which unnecessarily separate fathers, parents and children.

We are committed to improving the financial security, physical well-being and quality of life of all our citizens, including our senior citizens. Wisdom and the experience of age are precious resources and we must continue providing for our senior citizens’ special needs, including opportunities for personalized home health care and less expensive alternatives to hospital stays.

LAW AND ORDER

We support increased efforts to enforce penalties against those who commit crimes. Those who break the law threaten our quality of life and must receive swift punishment under the law. Republicans offer our abiding support for our law enforcement community and share their grief in their recent tragedies.

We support law abiding citizens’ 2^nd amendment rights to keep and bear arms. This fundamental right must not be violated by local, state or federal regulation.

EDUCATION

The education of our citizens is our hope and our future. We recognize parents as the primary teachers. We believe that local control of education creates the strongest and best managed school systems. We are convinced that spending per student is not an accurate measure of school quality. We credit our New Hampshire students, parents and teachers for their top national performance rating. We are also proud of our post secondary vocational-technical education and rehabilitation training programs, as well as our University System with its national reputation.

A strong education encourages good citizenship, a common base of knowledge, higher self-worth and informed participation in public affairs. We support the right of parents to choose and control the education of their children and to home school them if they choose. We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children.

We believe that New Hampshire affords its children an adequate education. We recognize the false hope and empty promise that broad based taxes hold out to the hard pressed families as a way of providing educational resources at little cost. Our goal is to meet the cost of education as efficiently as possible. Citizens who control their own education budgets have the strongest incentives to spend the money wisely. We know that adding money and power to the state will cost money and reduce the power of our communities. We do not believe that we should pit one community against the next in an effort to raise money from one locality to support another.

We are committed to the improvement of education so that our students will be able to compete in a complex and changing world.

ENVIRONMENT

We are stewards of the environment. It is vital that our society commit itself to the preservation of our natural resources. Vigorous protection of our environment is crucial if we are to maintain our special quality of life. We realize that our state parks, lands, waterways, wildlife, ground water and other natural resources are valuable and significant assets which require diligent and sensible statewide management. In addition, we recognize the need to deal effectively with the issues posed by waste disposal.

We recognize an individual’s rights under the federal and state constitutions to be justly compensated for property taken by government. We believe environmental regulations must be preceded by consideration of potential infringement of an individual’s private property rights.

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Justice is mocked by some of today’s litigation practices which hinder our country’s competitiveness, and drain billions of dollars away from productive Americans. The innate energy and resourcefulness of New Hampshire’s small businesses and its working men and women are stifled by a runaway legal system. While we fully support the role of the judiciary in vindicating the constitutional and statutory rights of individuals and organizations, we believe the proliferation of litigation burdens the consumer with higher prices and fewer choices.

We will work to reform New Hampshire’s judicial system to provide every citizen justice that is prompt, economical and impartial.

We reject judicial activism and support the appointment of judges who recognize their proper interpretive role in our constitutional system. It is the position of the Republican Party that, under the New Hampshire Constitution, the power to set educational policy is reserved for the people and their elected representatives and is a power that the judiciary does not possess. The Republican Party will oppose any efforts by the judiciary to impose its will upon local school districts in matters of educational policy.

It is the position of the Republican Party that, under the New Hampshire Constitution, the power to tax is reserved for the people and their elected representatives and is a power that the judiciary does not possess. Accordingly, the Republican Party will oppose any effort by the judiciary, directly or indirectly, to impose or cause to be imposed any type of tax.

GOVERNMENT

A government that is large and pervasive is neither creative nor successful. We believe that all government should be both open and in touch with its citizens without interfering in their personal, daily lives. We will encourage measures to reverse declining voter participation in state government.

We reaffirm that New Hampshire is a sovereign state in a nation of states and oppose centralization of power. We support our Republican Congressional delegation in its efforts to stop Washington from mandating unfunded federal programs on our state and local governments. We hold the federal government to the same standard against unfunded mandates as we do our state government under the New Hampshire Constitution.

We insist that all Republican candidates and elected officials pledge themselves to uphold the highest standards of integrity, morality, ethics, responsibility and accountability in their personal lives, during campaigns and while performing their official duties.

We reaffirm the constitutional principle that all branches of government are co-equal and none is more powerful than another.

We are and have been historically the party of leadership and ideas in New Hampshire. We have been a majority in our citizen legislature for over a century. New Hampshire’s unique quality of life has been nurtured by careful stewardship and the hard work of generations of visionary Republicans.

CANDIDATE SURVEY

Prior to the 1998 general election and prior to the year 2000 state primary, all Republican candidates shall be asked to compete a questionnaire indicating support/opposition/no position on all 1999-2000 Republican platform "legislative objectives." The Republican Party shall distribute questionnaire responses to all who request them. Political activists and organizations are encouraged to compare candidate responses and office holder voting records with the Republican Party platform.

We, the Republican Party, meeting in Convention in Concord, New Hampshire on Saturday, October 3, 1998, commit to working during the 1999-2000 biennium to implement our principles by adopting the following legislative objectives:

Cut Taxes and Spending:

Oppose any broad based sales, income or statewide property tax.
Support local control of spending and taxes to support local services.
Reduce spending by reinventing and streamlining government while applying free market incentives to increase the efficiency of necessary state services.
Cut or eliminate taxes which inhibit enterprise, earning and saving, such as the Interest and Dividends Tax and the Business Enterprise/Business Profits Tax.

Strengthen New Hampshire’s Advantages as a Place to Live, Raise a Family, Do Business and Visit:

Ensure that government is open, responsive and fully accountable to its citizens.
Reduce New Hampshire’s highest in the nation electric rates, with utilities absorbing a significant portion of their "stranded costs."
Increase direct promotional dollars for tourism to grow our state’s second largest industry.
Pass a Right to Work law.
Ban the use of compulsory dues or fees for partisan purposes.
Support low cost means to protect, develop and market New Hampshire agricultural and high value added natural resource products.
Reduce over-regulation, particularly with respect to small business.
Enact a home rule constitutional amendment for local government and schools.
Encourage the private sector to provide a balanced, safe, environmentally sensitive multi-modal ground transportation system to provide greater commuter and commercial access to and within our state.

Education Reform:

Use free market forces to make our childrens’ academic performance measurably best in the nation within five years.
Pass laws promoting school choice, diversity and competition. Allow all parents to choose the best public, private or home school program for their children.
Make charter schools easier to establish.
Empower teachers to maintain orderly, disciplined classrooms.
Reward and compensate teachers for their performance, not longevity.
End lifetime teacher tenure while maintaining reasonable due process protections.
Implement the nation’s highest competency standards for our teachers.
Remove mandates from state and federal school aid so that parents and local taxpayers can make educational decisions for themselves.
Terminate mandatory state and local participation in federal School To Work programs and encourage locally sponsored vocation education.
Demand full funding for federal special education mandates.
Support vigilant promotion of abstinence as the first line of defense in heath education curricula.
Reject the Supreme Court’s erroneous Claremont rulings. Amend the constitution to restore legislative and local control over tax and education policy. Provide additional, targeted state aid for hard pressed taxpayers – in law, but not in the constitution.
Support innovative measures to reduce over burdensome tuition costs and increase the national competitiveness of our higher education system.

Law and Order:

Minimize violent and non-violent crime and ensure that perpetrators are swiftly and surely punished and required to serve their full minimum sentences.
Strengthen prosecution and fair enforcement of death penalty laws.
Increase juvenile incarceration capacity within the state.
Oppose any legislation to further restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to own firearms and to justly defend themselves, their families and their property. Repeal existing legislation which is inconsistent with 2^nd Amendment rights.
Support the right of all adults to freely choose the use of seat belts and helmets.
Reduce drunken driving and substance abuse through a comprehensive program of education, prevention, rehabilitation, treatment and law enforcement.
Oppose expanded gambling, especially casino or video-lottery gambling.

The Judicial System:

Hold judges and lawyers to a more prompt and public accountability for any illegal and unethical acts. Extend the Right to Know Law to the judicial branch.
Support periodic reconfirmation of judicial officers.

The Family:

Support increased reliance upon private, voluntary organizations to provide help for our people where needed. Oppose actions which inhibit and replace the role of parents in the care and upbringing of children. Support streamlining the adoption process.
Oppose same sex marriages.
Reform the Department of Children, Youth and Families to ensure due process rights of those accused of child abuse or neglect and to ensure that children are placed only in loving, non-abusive homes.
Bar the use of public funds to fund or promote abortion. Ban partial birth abortion. In view of superseding federal law, require parental consent for minor abortions. Oppose physician assisted suicide and abolish disincentives for palliative care.

Health Care:

Affirm that NH citizens’ health is an important factor in our well being and economic success. Support efforts to increase quality and access while reducing health care costs. Support increased use of market forces to provide and to improve health care.
Provide citizen access to the information necessary to make informed health care decisions, including information about the quality of services provided by physicians, hospitals and insurers.
Insurance carriers should guarantee that health care decisions are made between doctor and patient.
Require health insurance carriers to provide and fund an independent, professional panel to furnish speedy and binding appeals from health care service denials.

Environment:

Affirm that private property rights are fundamental under our constitution. Ensure that property owners are therefore justly compensated for property taken by government through regulation.
Provide public access to all New Hampshire’s great ponds.
Promote preservation of open space, scenic vistas and historic and cultural landscapes.
Preserve sensitive ecosystems and effectively manage wildlife.
Preserve the multiple uses of the White Mountains National Forest by opposing its becoming a national park.

National Issues:

Preserve New Hampshire’s first in the nation presidential primary, if necessary, by suspending national convention rules. Ask all presidential candidates to sign a pledge supporting such a rule suspension.
Contest federal programs in contravention of the 10^th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Oppose unfair taxation of our citizens who work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Republicans hold diverse opinions on our legislative objectives and our differences must not detract from the success of our party in advancing our numerous areas of agreement.

The following two resolutions were adopted at the 1998 New Hampshire Republican Party convention:

The Republican party resolves to oppose and resist any surrender of United States sovereignty to the United Nations or to any of its agencies, including but not limited to:

Designation of National Parks or historic sites as "World Heritage Sites";
Treaties that compromise protection afforded to U.S. citizens by the Constitution;
Proposals to try private citizens in "world" courts;
Proposals to tax U.S. citizens;
Requiring American troops to serve under foreign commanders or to give allegiance to the U.N.

President William Jefferson Clinton: Article II, Sec. 4 of the U.S. Constitution provides: "The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the U.S. shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Evidence exists to indicate that President Clinton may have engaged in acts which in and of themselves are impeachable offenses including, but not limited to, the following: bribery, influence peddling, obstruction of justice, perjury, subornation of perjury, and gross sexual misconduct. In order to protect the Republic, and to defend the rule of law, we call upon Congress to exercise its Constitutional right and duty of oversight over the executive branch of our government, by bringing articles of impeachment for the aforesaid charges against President William Jefferson Clinton, and by vigorously pursuing such articles until said President is tried, convicted and removed from office or is found innocent and acquitted or until such time said President resigns.