Richard Boisvert
From Ballotpedia
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Richard Boisvert (Democratic Party) ran for election to the New Hampshire House of Representatives to represent Rockingham 2. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Boisvert completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Richard Boisvert was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He earned a bachelor's degree from Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1972, a master's degree from the University of Kentucky, Lexington in 1980, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, Lexington in 1986. Boisvert retired as the New Hampshire State Archaeologist and as the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. He has served as secretary of the NH Archeological Society, with the Society for American Archaeology, as an alternate member and a full member of the Deerfield Historical Commission, as president of the Deerfield Historical Society, and as a volunteer with the Deerfield Food Pantry.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: New Hampshire House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kevin Verville (R) | 19.5 | 4,669 |
| ✔ |  | James Spillane (R) | 18.9 | 4,521 |
| ✔ | Alan Bershtein (R) | 17.4 | 4,155 | |
| Jocelyn Messier (D) | 16.3 | 3,905 | ||
 | Richard Boisvert (D)  | 14.7 | 3,521 | |
| Avis Rosenfield (D) | 13.1 | 3,135 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 5 | ||
| Total votes: 23,911 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 (3 seats)
Jocelyn Messier, Richard Boisvert, and Avis Rosenfield advanced from the Democratic primary for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 on September 8, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jocelyn Messier | 38.1 | 1,247 | |
| ✔ | | Richard Boisvert | 32.1 | 1,051 |
| ✔ | Avis Rosenfield | 29.3 | 960 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 14 | ||
| Total votes: 3,272 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 (3 seats)
Incumbent Kevin Verville, incumbent James Spillane, and incumbent Alan Bershtein advanced from the Republican primary for New Hampshire House of Representatives Rockingham 2 on September 8, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kevin Verville | 34.5 | 1,414 |
| ✔ | | James Spillane | 33.7 | 1,381 |
| ✔ | Alan Bershtein | 31.1 | 1,275 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 25 | ||
| Total votes: 4,095 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Boisvert's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released September 7, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Richard Boisvert completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Boisvert's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a NH native, retired in 2018 after 31 years employment with the state as an archaeologist. Beyond this, I have worked in a public mental institution as a counselor and my wife and I have been foster parents. I care deeply about the natural and cultural environment and have witnessed the preventable and permanent damage to both. My education and career have given me a long term perspective and an understanding of the breadth and complexity of our state government. I have developed the skills to work productively with others including those who may or may not agree with me. I wish to bring to bear my skills, my concerns and my willingness to work for the good of all through my candidacy.
- I want to ensure that essential state programs, such as foster care, adoption services, protection from domestic abuse, will be preserved especially as we contend with a massive shortfall in the state budget.
- We need to take a long term view of the impact and consequences of state programs and policies. Too often the choice has been made to opt for short term budget savings where the net result has been greater costs, both in financial and human terms. This ranges from bridge and highway maintenance to addiction treatment or mental health services.
- New Hampshire has laid the responsibility for public education on property taxpayers with the undeniable consequence that in property poor towns and cities education has suffered while the individual residents pay a disproportionate amount in taxes and rent.
I am passionate about protecting the state services that protect the most vulnerable in our society - children at risk, those in need of addiction and mental health treatment. The lack of affordable health care continues to erode our communities depriving us of worthwhile people who can no longer contribute to our society. Our public education system is being slowly eviscerated by underfunding and diversion of the limited funding to private and often exclusionary alternatives. Unabashed gerrymandering has deprived many communities of genuine representation that truly reflects the character and desires of the people in those communities.
I am diligent, thrifty, thorough, methodical, inquisitive, honest, honorable. I loathe bullies and will always stand up to them.
It is the obligation of government, and therefore the legislators, to carry out the will of the people within the dictates of the constitution. This is a dual responsibility. The will of the people cannot ride roughshod over the requirements in our constitution (principally the state but we cannot ignore the federal constitution). And we cannot misrepresent the constitution to thwart the the will of the people.
The first major historic event that I remember was the Cuban missile crisis. I was barely 12 at the time and it literally haunted me for decades. Like many of my generation I had apocalyptic nightmares for decades. On the one hand it left me feeling helpless as the cause and solutions to the event were so totally out of my control. It also made me appreciative of solid, forthright leadership that did not bow to bullying but that also did not resort to reactive lashing out irrespective of the consequences. These are characteristics to which I aspire, to stand fast in adversity, think coolly even though the situation is hot, and to find and follow good advice. It has also given me a sense of perspective and consequently hope that we as a society can endure and resolve the current trials in our nation and bring it to a better place.
"American Nations" by Colin Woodard. It is an historical assessment of America (including Canada and Mexico) that recognizes 11 distinct "Nations" each of which have their own character, values and enduring history. New England is part of "Yankeedom" which stretches from New England proper through upper New York, includes the states around the lower Great Lakes and Ontario into Wisconsin (BTW Beloit Wisconsin was founded as a colony from Colebrook, NH). Yankeedom is characterized by a high value on education and adherence to high social responsibility standards. This book presents a very compelling regional history of America, shinning a light on what makes each area distinct and explaining why these areas hang on to their character and values over time and waves of immigration. Recognizing these distinctions helps understand why come distant parts of the county are so similar such as New England and western Oregon and Washington, and why seemingly close areas are so different such as West Virginia and Virginia. It is well written, well researched and documented and defined down to the county level. It was written by a journalist from Maine and continues to be insightful.
Yes, experience in government is quite beneficial. I have worked in state agencies in three states with over 36 years of experience. I have learned that finding a bipartisan solution is often not just the best solution but often the only way to achieve one's legislative goals. That is not to say that one must compromise their values and integrity, but one can seek to find common ground and work from that to find solutions. I have also learned from my own regulatory roles and advocacy for certain outcomes that there are some causes that one must fight for even though the end result is certain failure. Allies and opposition alike need to know that if I am dedicated to a goal or principal I will hold to it even though I would not prevail. This is not a noble notion, it is a way to assure those around me that if I state I will work unrelenting for a cause, I am not bluffing.
The greatest challenge is obvious. The combined effects of the Coronavirus and the attendant fiscal crisis have changed how we will construct and implement the state budget. The ripple effects will last easily for a decade. The desire to slash budgets will be immense, and some lawmakers will take this as an opportunity to permanently destroy vital services. Policies that could not be changed under normal circumstances, such as health and safety regulations, could be jettisoned under the guise of economy. This is known at the "Starve the Beast" approach. I have seen agency regulators on the federal level neuter mine safety programs not through rule making but by reducing the number of mine inspectors by 95%. Similar approaches may be in the offing for New Hampshire in the next legislative session. The challenge then is to find ways to preserve (and likely strengthen) vital programs. These would be programs for our most vulnerable members of society such as those in foster care, elder care, nutritional programs and those in poverty. I admit that I lack the detailed knowledge of where economies can be found, but they can be found. And any attempt to find revenues cannot come at the cost of further burdens on the individual property taxpayers.
I favor adoption of a commission which is as non-partisan as possible that would develop a set of recommendations for redistricting that will comport with the New Hampshire constitution. Such recommendations would then be voted on by the legislature and adopted. I recognize that the US Supreme Court has allowed that naked partisanship is allowed in redistricting, but it certainly did not require it. Other states have succeeded in achieving a goal of quashing gerrymandering as much as possible, New Hampshire should be able to do the same.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 21, 2020
Current members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
Representatives
Belknap 1
Tom Ploszaj (R)
Belknap 3
Belknap 4
Travis Toner (R)
Carroll 5
Jonathan Smith (R)
Carroll 7
Glenn Cordelli (R)
Cheshire 1
Dylan Germana (D)
Cheshire 11
Denis Murphy (R)
Cheshire 12
Dick Thackston (R)
Cheshire 13
Richard Ames (D)
Cheshire 14
John Hunt (R)
Cheshire 16
James Gruber (D)
Cheshire 17
Jennifer Rhodes (R)
Cheshire 2
Dru Fox (D)
Cheshire 3
Philip Jones (D)
Cheshire 4
Jodi Newell (D)
Cheshire 5
Lucy Weber (D)
Cheshire 7
Terri O'Rorke (D)
Cheshire 8
Lucius Parshall (D)
Cheshire 9
Coos 2
Arnold Davis (R)
Coos 3
Mike Ouellet (R)
Coos 4
Seth King (R)
Coos 5
Peter Morency (R)
Coos 6
Michael Murphy (R)
Coos 7
Lori Korzen (R)
Grafton 10
John Sellers (R)
Grafton 11
Lex Berezhny (R)
Grafton 13
Laurel Stavis (D)
Grafton 14
George Sykes (D)
Grafton 15
Thomas Cormen (D)
Grafton 16
David Fracht (D)
Grafton 17
Susan Almy (D)
Grafton 18
Donald McFarlane (R)
Grafton 2
Jared Sullivan (D)
Grafton 3
Jerry Stringham (D)
Grafton 4
Heather Baldwin (D)
Grafton 6
Linda Franz (R)
Grafton 7
Janet Lucas (D)
Grafton 9
Thomas Oppel (D)
Hillsborough 12
Bill Boyd (R)
Julie Miles (R)
Maureen Mooney (R)
Nancy Murphy (D)
Jeanine Notter (R)
Adam Presa (R)
Rosemarie Rung (D)
Wendy Thomas (D)
Hillsborough 13
Dillon Dumont (R)
Cathy Kenny (R)
Andrew Prout (R)
Jeremy Slottje (R)
Jordan Ulery (R)
Robert Wherry (R)
Hillsborough 2
Loren Foxx (D)
Ted Gorski (R)
Linda Gould (R)
Brian Labrie (R)
Kristin Noble (R)
John Schneller (R)
Hillsborough 24
Hillsborough 27
Mary Murphy (R)
Hillsborough 31
Molly Howard (D)
Hillsborough 37
Megan Murray (D)
Hillsborough 45
Jack Flanagan (R)
Merrimack 1
Ricky Devoid (R)
Merrimack 11
Matthew Pitaro (R)
Merrimack 14
Dan McGuire (R)
Merrimack 15
Tracy Bricchi (D)
Merrimack 16
Connie Lane (D)
Merrimack 17
Beth Richards (D)
Merrimack 18
Jim MacKay (D)
Merrimack 19
Mary Wallner (D)
Merrimack 2
Gregory Hill (R)
Merrimack 20
Eric Gallager (D)
Merrimack 21
Timothy Soucy (D)
Merrimack 22
James Roesener (D)
Merrimack 23
Merryl Gibbs (D)
Merrimack 24
Matthew Hicks (D)
Merrimack 25
James Thibault (R)
Merrimack 26
Alvin See (R)
Merrimack 28
Jim Snodgrass (D)
Merrimack 29
Kris Schultz (D)
Merrimack 30
Gary Woods (D)
Merrimack 6
Tom Schamberg (D)
Rockingham 13
Charles Foote (R)
Erica Layon (R)
David Love (R)
David Milz (R)
Jodi Nelson (R)
Stephen Pearson (R)
John Potucek (R)
Richard Tripp (R)
Rockingham 16
Tom Dolan (R)
Ron Dunn (R)
David Lundgren (R)
Wayne MacDonald (R)
Sherman Packard (R)
Kristine Perez (R)
Doug Thomas (R)
Rockingham 19
Susan Porcelli (R)
Rockingham 21
Rockingham 22
Kate Murray (D)
Rockingham 23
Jim Maggiore (D)
Rockingham 25
Lorie Ball (R)
Tanya Donnelly (R)
John Janigian (R)
Dennis Mannion (R)
Joe Sweeney (R)
John Sytek (R)
Rockingham 26
Buzz Scherr (D)
Rockingham 27
Gerry Ward (D)
Rockingham 28
Carrie Sorensen (D)
Rockingham 3
Mary Ford (R)
Rockingham 32
Rockingham 33
Alexis Simpson (D)
Rockingham 34
Mark Pearson (R)
Rockingham 35
Julius Soti (R)
Rockingham 36
J D Bernardy (R)
Rockingham 37
James Meuse (D)
Rockingham 38
Peggy Balboni (D)
Rockingham 39
Ned Raynolds (D)
Rockingham 40
Linda McGrath (R)
Rockingham 6
Eric Turer (D)
Rockingham 7
Laurence Miner (R)
Rockingham 8
Sayra DeVito (R)
Strafford 13
Peter Bixby (D)
Strafford 14
Peter Schmidt (D)
Strafford 15
Alice Wade (D)
Strafford 16
Gary Gilmore (D)
Strafford 17
Strafford 18
Strafford 20
Allan Howland (D)
Strafford 3
Susan DeRoy (R)
Strafford 5
Thomas Kaczynski (R)
Strafford 6
Strafford 7
Aidan Ankarberg (I)
Strafford 8
Strafford 9
Amy Malone (D)
Sullivan 1
Brian Sullivan (D)
Sullivan 2
William Palmer (D)
Sullivan 4
Judy Aron (R)
Sullivan 5
George Grant (R)
Sullivan 7
Margaret Drye (R)
Republican Party (219)
Democratic Party (177)
Independent (1)
