Similarities abound between Dist. 9 hopefuls

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Ray White, who is running for the GOP nomination for state senate District 9.

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Dave Danielson, GOP candidate for Deistrict 9 state senator.

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Ray White, who is running for the GOP nomination for state senate District 9.

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Ray White, who is running for the GOP nomination for state senate District 9.

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Raymond WHitE

Office sought: N.H. Senate District 9.

Age: 50.

Address: 24 Reverend Houston Drive, Bedford.

Years of residency: 43.

Education: Alvirne High School graduate; New Hampshire Community Technical College, associate’s degree in machine tool technology; coursework at American College.

Employment: President of Cornerstone Benefit & Retirement Group.

Political history: None.

Affiliations: Society of Financial Service Professionals.

Family: Wife, Emily, two children, Justin, 8, Randy, 19.

Website: www.raywhitefor senate.com, Facebook group.

Considering it’s the most Republican of New Hampshire’s 24 Senate districts, it may not be a stretch to say that David Danielson and Raymond White, in facing off for the District 9 Republican nomination in next month’s primary, are battling for outright victory.

Danielson and White, both of Bedford, are the Republican candidates seeking to replace Republican Sen. Sheila Roberge, the Senate dean who’s stepping down after serving 26 years.

The winner between the two in the Sept. 14 primary will face off against Bob Jones, the lone Democrat to file for the open seat.

District 9 represents Bedford, Greenfield, Lyndeborough, Merrimack, Mont Vernon and New Boston.

Danielson, 63, is a longtime Bedford politician, having served on the Town Council from 1996-2004. Danielson is self-employed, owner of Fourcee Advocacy. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University, teaching courses in business and marketing.

White, 50, is president of Cornerstone Benefit & Retirement Group. He has never held elected office, but said that’s what separates him from Danielson.

White described the race as “outsider versus insider.”

“I’m a businessman, I’m not a politician,” White said.

Danielson has received the endorsement of Roberge and said it’s his combination of experience in business, education and public service that makes him the more qualified candidate.

“I have a fairly well-rounded background that I can bring to state government,” he said.

The candidates agreed they generally hold the same principles on many issues, including the need to control government spending and lower taxes.

White said his focus is on helping small businesses. White’s job entails selling employee benefit plans to small businesses, and he has seen many of them lose employees because of increased taxation from the state and federal government.

“We need to make New Hampshire a small-business-friendly state,” Wright said. “That means less regulation, less business tax, less taxes on the citizenry.”

That also means less spending, White said. His ideas for cutting spending in Concord include looking for inefficiencies in the Medicaid budget and pooling resources among the various state departments and bureaus. White said he has noticed overlap in human resources, lawyers and information technology staff that could be shared among departments.

Danielson’s ideas for cutting back in spending are similar, citing the need to consolidate some of the departments in Concord. Danielson said there are 21 departments and 61 commissions and bureaus, many of which have the same mission statement. He said stabilizing the state’s financial situation would be the priority should he be elected.

“I’ve watched the deterioration of a pretty solid financial situation into what has happened over the past four years,” he said. “I said I’ve got to do something. The towns are being responsible with their budgets. Why can’t the state be responsible, too?”

Danielson said to get the state’s financial house in order, there needs to be cooperation among both parties in Concord.

“We got ourselves into this, and we’ll get ourselves out of it, but we’ve got to work together,” he said.

White said he chose to run during filing week, when it became apparent that other people he thought were going to run weren’t signing up. White filed because he thought he had something to offer and wanted to give the voters a choice.

White would favor the elimination of all social, medical and educational funding and programs.

Danielson said he would be open to looking to expanded gambling for revenue.

“I’ve always felt that gambling would be a good opportunity for economic development,” he said, adding the state would need to use caution, making sure it takes into account the infrastructure costs.

White said he would be willing to have discussions about expanding gambling, but said the way it has been brought up in the past as a last-minute fix to fill gaping budgets isn’t the right way to do it.

“That is not the environment to have that discussion in, not under those kind of pressures,” he said.

White described himself as a “social conservative,” adding that he’s pro-life, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and against the state recognizing gay marriage. “I believe in traditional family values,” he said.

Michael Brindley can be reached at 594-6426 or mbrindley@nashuatelegraph.com.