Strafford County Republican Committee

Iris Estabrook ran for State Senate unopposed. We must make it a priority in Strafford County to recruit a strong Republican candidate to run against her in 2008.

Recently, Senator Iris Estabrook, (D) District 21 from Durham, in her capacity as Chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, summarily closed a public hearing knowing that nearly half the people who had come to testify had not been given an opportunity to speak. When she was approached after closing the hearing as she was leaving, she told those still waiting to speak that they could leave documents and written testimony for the committee members.

It’s the right and responsibility of citizens to be active and involved participants in our representative government whenever they want and are able to do so. The constitution says that we have a right to ‘give instruction to our representatives.’ The public hearing process is one way people have to offer their opinions and advice and make their wishes known to their representatives on the matter which is before them. The purpose of a public hearing is that those making our laws and setting policy for our state have the benefit of the wisdom, counsel and experience of their constituents so they can make better informed decisions reflective, as far as possible, of the will of the people they represent.

It’s not always easy for someone to get to Concord to appear at a public hearing. For many it means giving up time at work and away from their family and daily activities. It means travel, in sometimes poor weather, finding and paying for parking, and after one finds the hearing room, sitting for long periods of time listening to others give testimony before getting a chance to speak. It also takes a certain amount of confidence and nerve to face a legislative committee and time to prepare remarks and often to make multiple copies of testimony and supporting documentation.

Imagine the dismay then, of people who have gone to the trouble to get to this point who are then denied the right to address the committee because the Chairman says they have ‘no more time.’ This outrageous treatment of the public is neither considerate nor respectful of the people they have been elected to serve. As one Republican State Senator said, “No matter how much work we have, there is absolutely no excuse to not let people speak. If you don’t have the time, don’t run.”

Why would a Senator not want to hear public testimony from everyone who comes before them? The obvious answer seems to be that they have already made up their minds and really don’t care what anyone has to say about the issue. This is not in keeping with either the spirit or the intent of representative government.

How about the Senator’s suggestion that they leave written testimony? It’s also important for constituents to be able to phone, write, or email their views which can be weighed and considered in making informed and representative decisions. So you can imagine the reaction of these people when they learned that this same Senate Committee was called into Executive Session by Senator Estabrook barely an hour after the hearing closed to vote on the issue in question! There was no time for them to read or refer to the information that had been left for them. As one might predict, the measure was killed quickly by a vote of five to zero.