Lone Pine Policy I: New Hampshire enters the 1970s

New Hampshire entered the 1970s at a crossroads, it was a rapidly growing state that saw its existing infrastructure increasingly strained. As the only state without a broad based tax of any kind, whether it be a sales or income tax, New Hampshire faced questions of whether or not this would be sustainable going forward. Could a growing state support its population on just a property tax? It was a worthy question to ask. After all, New Hampshire had just emerged from an era where it was one of the slowest growing states in the country. Buoyed by a renewed interest in rural living, New Hampshire added 200,000 people between 1950 and 1970. To put that growth into perspective, the state added almost as many people between 1870 and 1950 as it did between 1950 and 1970. The 21.5% growth between 1960 and 1970 was the first time that New Hampshire had posted growth of over 20% since the 1810 Census.

People were coming to New Hampshire for a whole host of reasons. Some were hippies, who saw the forest and mountains of the Granite State as a place where they could leave freely and outside of the societal mainstream. Their lasting legacy on the state was founding of Franconia College in the North Country in the early 1960s. Others were retirees who saw New Hampshire as a low tax alternative to their home states, these people were largely from Massachusetts. During the 1960s, New Hampshire was inundated with people moving into the state. As reported in The Boston Globe, at one political gathering in rural New Hampshire, a retiree from Massachusetts noted that it was "like Florida," no one that she knew was actually from New Hampshire. The state was booming and everyone was asking the question, how do we pay for it?

Enter Meldrim Thomson, perhaps the most influential force in 1970s New Hampshire politics. Thomson was a Southern raised and educated man who had relocated to New Hampshire in the 1950s. He was a lawyer by trade, though he didn't practice. He was a law book publisher who had relocated his business and family to the North Country. It didn't take long for him to become active in local politics, serving on the Orford school board where he earned a reputation as a fiscal hawk, reluctant to spend money or even, in some cases, accept money for fear of losing local control. In the mid-1960s, Thomson fought the acceptance of federal dollars, even when his school district was facing financial peril, because he felt that it would lead to federal control in the classroom. Thomson would ultimately be voted off of the school board in 1968 after threatening to withhold the diplomas of local high school students after a dispute with students over a commencement speaker. Two months later, Thomson entered the Republican primary for governor.

The issue of broad based taxation was a recurring issue in 1960s New Hampshire politics and the 1968 election was no different. Thomson ran on the platform of "Axe the Tax" and unequivocally said that he would veto any taxation bill. His stance earned him the endorsement of the right-leaning New Hampshire Union Leader and its influential publisher William Loeb. Boosted by this support, he would unexpectedly finish a close 3rd in the primary behind former Governor Wesley Powell and the nominee House Speaker Walter Peterson, a substantial boost to his political fortunes.

As the nominee, Peterson was neutral on the topic, pledging to never propose an income or sales tax but also never saying whether or not he would veto one. Democratic nominee Hillsborough County attorney Emile Bussiere was more direct in his opposition to any broad based taxation, even rebuking the official platform of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, which called for "new taxation" (though what this would be was never specified). Bussiere was attempting to run on the economic legacy of outgoing Democratic governor John King, who had also profusely opposed broad based taxation. In the end, Peterson was able to win the election. In their coverage of the election, The Boston Globe noted that Peterson proved that you could win a statewide election without taking a hardline stance against broad based taxation. As any observer of New Hampshire politics knows, this paradigm would change significantly over the coming decade.

Despite his loss, Thomson was not done running for governor. He kept campaigning, holding grassroots events throughout 1969 and 70, pledging to fight against the specter of high taxation. He began writing columns in the Union Leader in order to build his brand around the state and put himself in a position to challenge Peterson in a rematch in 1970. The Union Leader boosted Thomson by criticizing the governor and using their influence to increase his vulnerability. His rallies included scare tactics meant to arouse fear of high taxation. At one event, he mentioned the negotiation of a union contract in Maryland that raised teacher salaries to $9,000 and warned that that (and the associated high taxes) could come to New Hampshire. His message resonated well with those who wanted to maintain New Hampshire's status as a low-tax state and didn't care that it had the lowest per capita spending on education at the time. Despite his efforts, he would once again come up short in 1970, losing by just over 2,000 votes (or approximately 1%) to Peterson. In response, Thomson would leave the Republican Party and mount a third party run in the general election. However, he would lose again to Peterson, winning just over 10% of the vote.

The election however did expose a vulnerability for Peterson, who managed to only get 46% of the vote. The Democratic nominee Roger Crowley was a conservative who, like Thomson, was staunchly anti-taxation. Crowley was also boosted by an endorsement of the Union Leader who encouraged Thomson to drop out and its readers to vote for Crowley. While Crowley and Thomson both failed to unseat the governor, their voters did combine for a majority of the electorate. What did this mean for 1972?

In 1972, Crowley again declared for the Democratic nomination and Thomson sought a third rematch against Peterson for the Republican nomination. Would 1972 be different?

Join us next week as we explore the 1972 gubernatorial election.