Free Republic

Yvonne Dean-BaileyA 19-year-old freshman at a Massachusetts college is hoping to become one of the youngest female state representatives in New Hampshire’s history as she enters a special election that will be decided this spring. Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood, a Republican who graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy last year, said she is hoping to bring the voice of young, conservative women to the State House. Dean-Bailey is a veteran of two prominent lawmakers’ offices, having worked as an intern doing legislative research for U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and as a field organizer in Cheshire County on Marilinda Garcia’s campaign for...

A leading Republican consultant has ranked the top 10 presidential candidates for 2016 while claiming that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has about the same odds of winning the party’s nomination as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, The Washington Post reported. The unnamed strategist divided the GOP race for 2016 into "four lanes" — establishment, tea party, social conservative and libertarian, according to the newspaper. Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are the leading candidates in establishment, the largest lane, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is battling it out with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum...

The Walker surge in Iowa, Hillary’s Obama problem and other news from Week One of our yearlong insiders’ survey from the ground in 2016’s first-in-the-nation races.Most Iowa insiders believe Scott Walker would win their state’s Republican caucuses if they were held this week. But they’re not this week, and virtually none of the most influential thought leaders in the Hawkeye State believe that the Wisconsin governor will sustain his recent bounce in polls. This is one of several intriguing findings in the debut survey of The POLITICO Caucus. More than 100 of the most plugged-in activists, operatives and elected officials...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is the front-runner in a new 2016 Republican presidential preference poll in South Carolina, while U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is close enough to make it a statistical tie here. But the news is less favorable for Graham in three other early voting states - Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada - where his level of support registers at negligible among GOP voters, totalling at 1 percent and below. The poll, by the conservative Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, put Walker is out front in South Carolina but statistically tied with Graham, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Planned Parenthood is suggesting New Hampshire lawmakers replace the state law creating “buffer zones” around facilities that provide abortions rather than repeal it. New Hampshire’s 25-foot buffer zone law has not been enforced since its passage last summer because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar Massachusetts law. The House Judiciary Committee took testimony Tuesday on a bill to repeal the buffer zone law outright. Its sponsors say the state will face a costly lawsuit if the law remains in place.

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

HOUSTON — The political operation of potential 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz continued to beef up Monday as a top aide to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich signed onto the senator’s team. Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s longtime spokesman who served as a top strategist to a super PAC that supported Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, will join Cruz’s campaign-in-waiting to serve as a senior communications adviser. “I am honored to come on board with Sen. Cruz and join the effort to make D.C. listen to the American people,” Tyler said in a statement. “I believe he will emerge as the...

During my three years at Dartmouth, I often complained about the lack of practical education dispensed by various courses and professors. I would still argue that I had a phenomenal academic experience at the college, but be that as it may, it was sometimes painfully clear to me that a liberal arts education was not exactly synonymous with developing an applicable, workforce-ready skill set. But when it comes to the intersection of the theoretical and the real world, I can think of few better subject matters than Black Lives Matter, the namesake of a new course Dartmouth College will offer...

Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget calls for essentially removing the public service language from the University of Wisconsin System's mission to focus more on workforce development, according to language released Wednesday morning. The Wisconsin Idea has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, driving campuses to extend their reach into communities and "every family in the state." That mission also is linked to Wisconsin public radio and TV. The Walker budget cuts $5 million in state funding from the public service media. State funding makes up about 10% of the budget for their programming operations, according to a...

In his 2015 budget proposal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) offers an unusual change amid the details of how and where he proposes spending the state's money. As noted by the watchdog sit PR Watch (and brought to our attention by journalist Abe Sauer), Walker would like to change the statement of purpose and mission for the University of Wisconsin system. Less talk about searching for truth; more talk about meeting the state's workforce needs. Walker's proposal amends the university's mission as follows. (The key here: something added, something removed.)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads a host of potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders in a new poll in the early presidential state of New Hampshire out Wednesday. Mr. Walker leads the NH1 automated poll, conducted Feb. 2-3, with 21.2 percent of the vote, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 14.4 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 8.3 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8.2 percent...........

Republican New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte called out the White House on “Fox News Sunday,” telling them to stop spending so much time worrying about political correctness and more time actually fighting radical Islam. (VIDEO: White House: Not ‘Accurate’ To Call Paris Terrorism ‘Radical Islam’)

A fire has destroyed a fleet of snow plows in the small New Hampshire town of Henniker, as another storm approaches that could dump up to a foot more of snow. The fire broke out at the Henniker Highway Department on Friday night after the plows had finished clearing snow from the streets. The state fire marshal’s office said five dump trucks used as snow plows, one road grader and several other vehicles that were stored in the town garage were destroyed. The damage could exceed $1 million. “This puts the town in a bad spot,” Henniker Fire Chief Steve...

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday pressed a top Air Force official about comments a major general reportedly made that airmen who have spoken to Congress about the retirement of the A-10 committed “treason.” During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Ayotte pressed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh if he found comments attributed to Maj. Gen James Post “acceptable.” "I support any airman's right to discuss anything you'd like to discuss with them,” Welsh replied. Welsh also said that there is an ongoing investigation, overseen by the Defense Department’s inspector general, into the matter. “My job is...

DOVER — Health centers across New Hampshire could lose state money for family planning and other services they currently provide under a bill proposed by state Rep. Warren Groen, R-Rochester. In an interview Wednesday, Groen said his bill would bar organizations that perform abortions, refer patients for that procedure or advocate for abortions from receiving any taxpayer money. The state law already prohibits public funding for abortions except in cases of incept, rape and when the mother’s life is in danger. But Groen’s bill would prevent facilities from receiving money for any health care services. “It’s not aimed specifically at...

RALEIGH — Is North Carolina ready to be an early stop on the road to the White House? Thanks to recent legislation, the Tar Heel State has abandoned its traditionally late presidential primary, held in May. State lawmakers couldn’t let Iowa, New Hampshire, and especially South Carolina have all the fun. So they separated North Carolina’s presidential contest from the state’s other primaries and moved it to the Tuesday after South Carolina’s Saturday primary. Although some of the dates remain tentative, here’s how the nomination battles may unfold according to Josh Putnam, an Appalachian State University political scientist who maintains...

Nasty weather conditions have sparked accidents on I-93 in New Hampshire: Injuries have been reported:

I’ve been dismissive of Jim Webb’s prospects for winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But Jacob Heilbrunn’s column on Webb, and Steve’s commentary on that column, made me take another look. On second look, I still don’t see Webb getting very far. Will female Democrats favor Webb — currently in his third marriage and the author of what some might consider a sexist novel — over Hillary Clinton? Not likely. Will African-Americans favor Webb — so proud of his Scotch-Irish heritage — over the wife of “our first black president”? Not likely. Will white southern Democrats favor Webb? Arguably. But he’s...

If you recall, back in May, William Baer was arrested after voicing opposition to a school board meeting about a controversial book by Jodi Picoult titled Nineteen Minutes, a story about a school shooting that contained pornographic content. It was also required reading for ninth graders. Now a New Hampshire 4th Circuit Court of Appeals judge has blasted the school board for "silencing" him and arresting him, which was a violation of Mr. Baer's free speech.

Women’s health agencies and their supporters, including Gov. Maggie Hassan, are bracing for yet another attempt to strip state funding for Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions. Rep. Warren Groen, a Republican from Rochester, plans to introduce a bill that would “ban public funding going to any organization or group that does abortions or refers for abortions.” Groen filed a legislative service request for a bill “prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion services,” and he said it’s currently being drafted. Groen said he has a long history of opposing abortion and has assisted crisis pregnancy centers....