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[KBCraig]

No politics or partisanship involved in this announcement, just a personal brag:

On my first-ever attempt at public office, I won my race for state representative in New Hampshire. It was close: just four votes. The long-time incumbent asked for a recount (so would I, had it been four vote the other way), and the recount came out with exactly the same numbers. 

NH has 400 state representatives for 1.3 million people, and the office pays all of $100 a year. It's not a profession; it's a huge pain to serve.

I still wanted to share and brag a bit, though. 

[sanddunerider]

congrats!!

Dont spend you paycheck all i one place..!!

[chittlins]

Congrats

Anyhoo, what do you see wrong here?  ot a rant and I'm pretty sure it would likely have more  of a negative effect on my political leanings.

[sirwillow]

Co

No politics or partisanship involved in this announcement, just a personal brag:

On my first-ever attempt at public office, I won my race for state representative in New Hampshire. It was close: just four votes.

Congrats!!  And under those circumstances and stipulations, thank you for being willing to serve!  That's a sacrifice.

I wish more of our representative/ senate pay scales were closer to that than what they are.  I think that would help solve some of the issues there.  But that's a whole nother thing.

[KBCraig]

Congrats

Anyhoo, what do you see wrong here?  ot a rant and I'm pretty sure it would likely have more  of a negative effect on my political leanings.

"The House's current size — 435 representatives — was set in 1911, when there were fewer than one-third as many people living in the United States as there are now. At the time, each member of Congress represented an average of about 200,000 people. In 2018, that number is almost 750,000.

"This would shock the Constitution's framers, who set a baseline of 30,000 constituents per representative and intended for the House to grow along with the population. The possibility that it might not — that Congress would fail to add new seats and that district populations would expand out of control — led James Madison to propose what would have been the original First Amendment: a formula explicitly tying the size of the House to the total number of Americans."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/09/opinion/expanded-house-representatives-size.html

[KBCraig]

Congrats!!  And under those circumstances and stipulations, thank you for being willing to serve!  That's a sacrifice.

I wish more of our representative/ senate pay scales were closer to that than what they are.

Being semi-retired and in a job with flexible hours helps. I've already arranged with my boss and coworkers to have Tue/Wed/Thur off in order to attend committee meetings and session days.

The pay is set by the state constitution, so it's very unlikely to change. And we like it that way. We do get mileage, which is the only way I could afford to take the office, since the State House is a hundred miles from my house (two hours each way).

For the recount on Tuesday, I had to drive through Franconia Notch in a heavy snowstorm. My daughter lives at the first exit south of the notch, so if it's ever closed (not uncommon), I'll have a place to crash. And I have plenty of friends in the Concord/Manchester area where I could flop a couch if needed.

[Gilligan]

Congratulations, KB! Be safe in those snowstorms!