January 6, 2009
Seacoast Online
PORTSMOUTH — State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark hopes a new bill on an old idea will gain the support of the Legislature and change the term of governor from two years to four.
Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, has sponsored a bill she said will allow future governors to move forward with their agendas and plan long term more effectively. When Gov. John Lynch is inaugurated Thursday, it will be for his third two-year term. Only the states of Vermont and New Hampshire hold gubernatorial elections every two years.
Past attempts to expand the term to four years have repeatedly failed as detractors felt two-year terms allow voters to hold the state’s highest elected official accountable. But Fuller Clark said it is not the best way to provide good leadership for the state.
“I believe if we’re going to move into an era of government efficiency and long-range planning, it makes no sense for a governor to only have two years,” said Fuller Clark. “But we also need to look at what mechanisms are in place to assure we can remove a governor that doesn’t live up to expectations.”
Without getting into specific challenges of the current system, Lynch’s press secretary, Colin Manning, said the governor believes the discussion is worth having. “It would not affect Governor Lynch’s term, but he believes it is something that should be looked at,” said Manning.
Since John Gilbert Winant became the first New Hampshire governor elected to a second two-year term in 1932, only three of the state’s 19 elected governors — Styles Bridges (1935-37), Hugh Gregg (1953-55) and Craig Benson (2003-05) — have served just two years.
Benson’s “dismal performance,” according to Fuller Clark, is an example of why there must be measures available to remove an ineffective governor from office. The tenure of Benson, a Republican, is also the example state Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, used when explaining why she is undecided on the proposal.
“Because we had a two-year term, when people decided (Benson) was not doing a good job, we didn’t need to impeach. We just had a re-election,” said Hassan. “The downside is the governor doesn’t have very much time to do much before running for re-election again … That sort of politicizes the office a bit, though Gov. Lynch has done an excellent job of avoiding that.”
In addition, Fuller Clark said the change would eliminate the need for governors to begin the costly campaigning process so soon after being elected. Even though Lynch’s approval ratings suggested he was a shoo-in in his race against Republican Joe Kenney in 2008, Lynch still raised just under $2 million on his campaign.
In order to not provide an unfair advantage to Lynch, Fuller Clark said she proposes the change occur in four years.
While the Senate has not seen a similar bill in recent years, the House has wrestled with the issue just about every two years, sometimes more frequently, according to Rep. Jim Splaine, D-Portsmouth. Splaine and other Seacoast reps have given the idea their initial support should it make it through the Senate.
“I’m hoping that by seeing the bill start in the Senate that it will come out of that body with momentum,” said Splaine.
Rep. Paul McEachern, D-Portsmouth, said because of the two-year term and the existence of the Executive Council, the state has one of the weakest chief executive positions in the country.
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You KNOW things are not right when a governor (Benson) who left the state in great fiscal shape with an $80M surplus was according to Ms. Hassan supposed to have done a ‘bad job’ and a governor who has overspent NH’s budget by 17.5% and left us with a possible $1 BILLION deficit (Lynch) is re-elected. And Fuller-Clark’s description of Benson’s supposedly ‘dismal’ performance was probably due to the fact that he refused to submit to out of control spending and taxation, and pandering to the special interests; things that are happening oh so frequently now since the Democrats have taken charge.