
The SEA pays $1.6 million a year to be in the SEIU, according to the resolution passed to create the committee. At the same time, the resolution says, the SEIU's 2005 split from the AFL-CIO has sparked a "loss of solidarity" with other unions in New Hampshire.
"The real question is why are we spending that much money and what are we getting out of it," said former SEA president Tim Decker, a co-sponsor of the resolution. After the split with the AFL-CIO, Decker said, the competition for fragments of the SEA grew fierce. "That means they can't really protect us from other unions raiding us, other AFL-CIO unions," he said.
The committee was created by vote of the SEA convention last weekend. It will report back to the full convention next year. The resolution calls for the committee to look into what the SEA gains from the SEIU, the steps necessary to pull out and whether the SEA should affiliate with another union.
What happened? Some SEA members had fixed for a ruckus last weekend over the union's endorsement, which went to John Edwards - after the board first voted to endorse Barack Obama. A few of Obama's partisans sported purple and yellow buttons, saying: "What happened? Ask Gary" - a reference to Gary Smith, the SEA president.
But according to one meeting-goer, the commotion was minor. One member asked if the convention could overturn the board's endorsement. The answer was yes. Then someone else moved to adjourn, that was seconded, and the meeting was finito.
From down under
We heard this week from an Australian couple billing themselves the first-ever presidential campaign managers from Down Under. Frank Scaysbrook, 64, says he's managing the campaign of ex-nun Caroline Killeen, 82, known as the Hemp Lady, along with his wife, Janet Seath, 68.
This is their first political campaign, Scaysbrook said, and they'll be managing it from their home in Buttaba, Australia. "It'll be a remote thing," he said. "But we're quick learners."
The threesome met at a hostel in Assisi, Italy, where Killeen is now, Scaysbrook said.
Killeen filed her candidacy with the secretary of state's office by mail in a letter explaining that she wasn't sure she'd be able to scrape together enough money to return to New Hampshire from Assisi. Eventually, however, Killeen procured a ticket and arrived in New Hampshire last week. (A Catholic charity is footing the bill, Scaysbrook said.)
Killeen's primo issue this time will be global warming and, in particular, encouraging people to dry clothes on a line outside rather than using clothes dryer. "Caroline the woman wants to address women," she said, according to a statement. "Women have a special place in society. They are the bearers of the next generation, the nurturers, and through this intergenerational bonding are the ones globally in tune with the need for the safety of future generations; they are generally not risk takers."
Gambling update
Looks like a decision on whether to legalize slot machines in the state will be postponed at least a year.
A subcommittee studying the possibility of legalizing gambling recommended that the relevant bill (House Bill 886, which deals with funding an adequate education) go to an interim study committee. Earlier this month, the full committee agreed to that recommendation.
And that's not all
As for the amount of money video slot machines would generate, Rep. Michael Marsh doesn't agree with Millennium Gaming's numbers. According to Millennium (which has an option to purchase Salem's Rockingham Park), installing 3,000 slot machines at the park would generate $403 million in its first year of operation. Using that estimate, each machine would take in nearly $370 a day.
The best guess for New Hampshire machines, Marsh told lawmakers earlier this month, is a daily take of between $200 and $250. If the state taxed the machines at 40 percent, the best possible scenario for state earnings would be $160 to $200 million annually, Marsh said.
Delegate search
The New Hampshire Democratic Party has put out a call for people to run for delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
The delegate selection process is essentially a caucus that happens on a candidate-by-candidate. If you win a delegate's spot for, say, Joe Biden, and Biden then wins 15 percent of the primary vote, then you could have a chance to represent your guy at the convention in Denver next year.
The party is going out of its way to ensure diversity and has created an affirmative action board consisting of Democrats who are gay or lesbian, Hispanic, Asian, black, young, retired or who have disabilities.
Anyone can apply to run. Registration must be filed by Dec. 5, and the caucuses are Dec. 15. For more information, visit nhdp.org.
(cmonitor.com)