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Exeter News-Letter endorses Senator Maggie Hassan

Posted Nov 01 at 7 AM
Via Seacoast Online

The state Senate race for District 23 offers two very respected, very qualified candidates. Hassan is challenged by Marshall "Lee" Quandt of Exeter.

Hassan has a well-rounded resumé of success in the Senate. Along with Fuller Clark, she successfully supported efforts to reduce the state's carbon footprint through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and to fight Eastern equine encephalitis through creation of the arboviral illness task force.

Like Fuller Clark, Hassan also supported the unsuccessful effort of Gov. John Lynch to enact a constitutional amendment allowing for targeted state education aid to communities truly in need. Its defeat by the House of Representatives was unfortunate, but the Seacoast benefited from Hassan's involvement in and support of this effort. And we believe Hassan will again take up a fight that ends with a targeted aid approach that is above the fray of community lawsuits and which mercifully moves the state past its decades-long battle to modernize its school funding system.

Hassan's other Senate initiatives involve improving affordable access to health care and other related issues to improving the lives of the state's children.

Quandt is among precious few politicians who can truly say they do not constantly toe the party line. Quandt understands you can't solve a problem with myopic partisanship. He walks in lockstep with few legislative peers overall, and our political system thrives when that is the case. Quandt also has an impressive resumé for his tenure in the House. In his past term, he showed how he truly is a voice of the people, particularly those in his House District 13, with his dogged calls for the state to properly treat former State Liquor Commission inspector Tim Copeland, who was injured in the line of duty.

There are differences in the conduct of one's responsibilities in the respective legislative bodies, but this helps guide our endorsement. We believe Hassan's experience and direct success as a senator best qualifies her to serve in that seat. Hassan has done an outstanding job in raising the profile of the Senate 23 seat in her four years in office. State senators must take a broader approach to legislative efforts, and we believe Hassan has properly balanced the need to directly serve her district constituents while serving the state's population overall.
Foster's endorses Senator Maggie Hassan

Posted Nov 01 at 7 AM
Via fosters.com

"Maggie" Hassan is one of the bright stars in the Senate. She served two terms and people who have tracked her performance will be quick to support her bid for re-election. We count ourselves among that number.

Hassan has worked hard, not just on behalf of the people of District 23, but people throughout the state. In her capacity of vice chair of the Senate's Energy, Environment and Economic Development Committee, she has worked in support of a job-training fund and giving businesses in the "North Country" a tax credit — relief for a region pinched long before most of us were thinking of the economy.

Closer to home she has worked tirelessly toward finding a way to protect the Great Bay Estuary.

Hassan has established herself as a leader in the Senate — someone who makes things happen; someone who has earned the respect of colleagues in both parties; and someone who is willing to do heavy lifting in the legislative environment.

In addition to her position on the committee on energy, environment and economic development, Hassan chairs the senate's Capital Budget Committee and the Public and Municipal Affairs Committee. She is also a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

Community colleges and technical and vocational schools have occupied a prominent place on Maggie Hassan's radar screen.

It is an understatement to simply say Maggie Hassan has earned re-election.
Senator Maggie Hassan to Receive Leadership Award

Posted Oct 18 at 3 PM
Eliza Hobson
One Sky Community Services

October 16, 2008

Portsmouth, NH — State Senator Maggie Wood Hassan (D - District 23) will be the recipient this month of a newly-established Leadership Award from the Seacoast region’s Area Agency, One Sky Community Services. A passionate advocate for disability rights in New Hampshire, Senator Hassan is a practicing attorney from Exeter and Senate President Pro Tem of the NH Senate. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary celebration of One Sky on October 23, Senator Hassan will be honored at a banquet at the Portsmouth Country Club in Greenland, NH.

Senator Hassan served on One Sky’s Board of Directors from 1992-94, and has served on the Board of the Disabilities Rights Center. She has degrees from Brown University and Northeastern University’s School of Law. Legislative successes she has championed include:

· providing full funding for the developmental disabilities wait list;

· bringing NH special education laws into compliance with federal standards;

· ensuring that insurance companies cover health care needs of infants and
children with special medical or developmental concerns;

· expanding access to Medicaid for employed adults with disabilities;

· requiring NH employers to provide reasonable accommodations for
employees with disabilities;

· ensuring that persons caring for relatives with disabilities can be eligible for unemployment benefits even when
work availability is limited by care-giving responsibilities.

Senator Hassan’s priorities in the Senate include affordable workforce housing, environmental protection and the development of a ‘green’ economy.
Senator Hassan at the NH AFL-CIO Legislative Conference

Posted Sep 24 at 3 PM
New Hampshire State Senator Maggie Hassan spoke to union members at the New Hampshire AFL-CIO Legislative Conference about this country's need to support the candidates who will be credible champions for change.

Senator Hassan began her speech by saying: "We have been led by a president and a party that decided to use their eight years in power as a time to see how much they could get. The same people that sold us George Bush twice are selling John McCain and Sarah Palin."

Senator Hassan says: When you are out there talking to your friends, you ask them what it is that John McCain and Sarah Palin are going to change that will make a difference in their lives. They are with George Bush on the economy; they actually want to tax health care benefits. They are with Bush on the war and they are with Bush on the environment – every item down the list."

Senator Hassan asks: "If John McCain is with Bush on all of these issues then what else is left to change? There isn't anything else left to change."

Senator Hassan adds that: "If there is one thing you need to tell you friends, tell them that it isn't Barack Obama that wants to tax the middle class. He is going to lower taxes on the middle class and his plan is very clear about that."