Politics & Government

Granny D March This Week in NH

Advocates mark the 15th anniversary of historic campaign finance reform march.

Campaign finance reform advocates will be in New Hampshire soon to begin a march across the state to honor the late Doris “Granny D” Haddock’s historic march across America for reform which began 15 years ago.

The march will start in Dixville Notch and make its way around the state with stops Concord next week and eventually ending on Jan. 24, with an event in Nashua.

The event is co-sponsored by New Hampshire Rebellion, the Coalition for Open Democracy, Promoting Active Civic Engagement and Americans for Campaign Reform. The orgs, which are all nonprofit and nonpartisan, hope to raise the issue of political corruption during the 2016 presidential primaries.

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Szelena Gray of NH Rebellion stated the Granite State was unique since it is the only state in the nation that offered a “right of the people to revolution within its Constitution,” Article 10, adding that "New Hampshire is in a unique position to restore integrity, transparency, and responsibility to a broken and corrupt political system. The NH Rebellion is a movement to leverage that opportunity."

Campaign finance reform luminaries such as former Gov. Buddy Roemer, R-LA, who ran for president in 2012, limiting contributions to $100 and refusing political action committee money, as well as Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig, will take part in the events. 

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Those concerned with campaign finance reform and political corruption are invited to take part in the march any time along the route and attend the events.

In a statement, Roemer said he started his unsuccessful campaign in New Hampshire because he knew voters cared about important issues like political reform.

“For the continuation of our Republic, we must make the issue of corruption the number one issue during the next presidential election, and it starts in New Hampshire," he stated.

Lessig said that New Hampshire “is the key” to getting America to “finally address this issue effectively” ending the “system of corruption” in Washington, D.C.

An opening event begins in Hanover at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 9, at the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth with a talk by Lessig.

The march begins outside the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch on Jan. 11 and will make stops in Errol, Gorham, Pinkham Notch, and North Conway, with an event at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 15, at The Eastern Slope Inn.

The march restarts and heads through Tamworth, Meredith, Laconia, to Canterbury Shaker Village, and Concord, stopping for a one-day break.

At 6 p.m. on Jan. 21, the anniversary of the Citizens United decision, an event will be held at University of New Hampshire School of Law in Concord.

Marchers restart on Jan. 22, from Concord to Manchester, with a stop at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics Auditorium at Saint Anselm, featuring Lessig at 6 p.m.

The march continues through Merrimack and then Nashua, with another event honoring Granny D’s birthday, from 3:30 to 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua. The final event will feature music, food, cake and ice cream, as well as talks by Lessig, Roemer, author Hedrick Smith and U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rubens


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