INTRODUCING Peter Bearse, Ph.D.

An Independent Voice

for the People of New Hampshire’s

First Congressional District [NH CD1]

PETER IS A VERY DIFFERENT KIND OF CANDIDATE -- A MAN WELL-MATCHED TO THE THREATS, NEEDS & OPPORTUNITIES OF OUR TIMES
 
The candidate has written a book unlike any other on the importance of YOUR participation in YOUR politics and YOUR government – if you want these to be truly YOURS. This book (see cover shown on the homepage) was a labor of love reflecting 35 years’ labors of love -- of “walking the talk” – working with people like you at the grassroots and in local government to “make a difference.” In an age of big government and global corporations, most people are looking for ways for their initiative to count. And you? 
 
We also live in an age of unpredictable challenges, threats and opportunities, an age in which “the only thing that does not change is the will to change.” As President Lincoln said: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate…The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion…we must think anew and act anew.” As President Reagan was first to recognize, we now live in the “Age of the Entrepreneur,” also the Age of Science. 

Thus, a different kind of candidate is called for: a man who is far-sighted, a maverick, an innovator, a scientist and an entrepreneur who is creative, skeptical, questioning and constantly seeking better ways to do things. The old, go-along, get-along, “atta boy,” money-greased Congressional way doesn’t work. Are you surprised that Congress’ job-approval rating ranges 11-14%? -- that this is "the best Congress that money can buy?" "We, the people" can do better, together.  For the sake of our democratic Republic, we must.

In '06 and '08, voters were able to "send a message" to President Bush. What difference did it make? If you REALLY want to make a difference, you'll need a very DIFFERENT kind of candidate in 2010.  

Who is PETER BEARSE?? --

•  An ECONOMIST with 40 years of the right kind of experience -- to help you deal with the current hard recession, international competition, threats of job losses & other economic issues we need to be able to face, together. 
• An expert on ACCOUNTABILITY who would reveal where your tax dollars are going, how they are being wasted, what games are being played in the Congress, and blow the whistle on waste, foolishness, bum-kissing and poor conduct of the public’s business. 
• A man with INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE in more than a dozen countries worldwide who is also... 
• DEVOTED TO GRASSROOTS POLITICS & LOCAL GOVERNMENT – watering the grassroots and strengthening local initiative, serving in elected, appointed and volunteer positions, whose book WE THE PEOPLE shows how we can all “make a difference,” together.  
• One who would work to fulfill the REAGAN LEGACY – that we should move power & money out of Washington – right down to the local level, closer to where people live, work and can get involved to “make a difference.” 
• A “RON PAUL” type of Congressman – FOR liberty, the Constitution, independence and responsibility [personal, fiscal, local]; AGAINST earmarks, excessive debt, deficits and foreign interventionism.  
• An ENTREPRENEUR who has started a successful enterprise, met payrolls and created jobs, and so is prepared to help you deal with a world in which entrepreneurship & innovation are the prime drivers of economic development and international competition. 
• A man who takes the LONG VIEW, with a SENSE OF THE FUTURE, and so is prepared to work with you to address those LONG-RUN problems that will impact the lives of your kids and grandkids – issues like Social Security & pension reforms, global warming, tax reform, growing inequality, globalization & the federal deficit. 
• A SCIENTIST who asks tough questions, is skeptical of quickie answers and who is uniquely qualified to address the increasing number of thorny science & technology issues in the Congress. 
• A SENIOR CITIZEN (hale & hearty), who knows what it is to live in a trailer on Social Security & a limited pension -- who would rely more on the talents and wisdom of seniors than the energy of young political careerists.  
• A SOCCER PLAYER who can keep his feet on the ground, his eye on the ball and use his head, all at the same time.  
• A CRAFTSMAN who loves to work with his hands as well as his head, who would bring the same careful, craftsmanlike approach to work in Congress. 
• AND A MAN WHO…loves life, honors traditional values, believes human life is sacred, plants vegetable & flower gardens each spring, loves to sing [especially old American songs in a baritone voice], loves people, hates robots; is knowledgeable, resourceful and self-reliant [no need to rely on lobbyists here!], cares for community, loves to work with others [and constantly looks for areas where he can do so in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, not partisanship], knows that marriage is an ancient, sacred bond between a man & a woman, and thinks that common values and irreplaceable resources should be conserved, adapted and improved, not diminished, depreciated or destroyed.    

PETER'S PERSONAL HISTORY, BACKGROUND & CAREER

Peter was born to Arthur and Ruth (Underhill) Bearse on May 27, 1941. His father, now deceased, was an electrical engineer, a graduate of MIT, Class of 1929. His mother, also deceased, was a secretary/book-keeper descended from John Underhill, a privateer sea captain who helped to save the Massachusetts Bay Colony, featured in a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. His grandfather was another sea captain who moved from Canso, Nova Scotia, to Gloucester, Massachusetts about 1890 to sail a fishing schooner out of Gloucester. Until about 1960, the family ran a grocery store in West Gloucester. Peter had three sisters but lost two of them and his mother, premature-ly, to breast cancer. He lost his wife to pancreatic cancer in 2008. 

Highlights of the influence of Gloucester and his family on Peter’s growing up to take a serious interest in matters public and political are related in Chapter 3 of his  book, WE THE PEOPLE: A Conservative Populism.  

Peter had a troubled health history during his younger years, suffering from a bad strain of asthma from the age of five. Because of this, he was not called to serve in the military. He was classified 4F even though he had participated in his high school’s ROTC program and would have served in Vietnam if he had been called. His uncle, now deceased, was Lt. General Edward Underhill. 

He was among the top ten members of his class graduating from Gloucester High School’s Class of 1959. The class motto? – “Never try, never win.” Peter went on to Harvard on a scholarship, where he majored in math with a minor in history. After working for IBM following college, he went to New York City to begin graduate studies in economics at the Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, from which he received his Ph.D. with high honors in 1976. Except for one year on a prestigious fellowship named after William McChesney Martin, a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Peter was constantly working full time while studying part-time.  

His professional career has included positions as:

 ·        The first Economic Development Planner for the City of Newark, starting three days after the Newark riots of 1967.

·        Project Director for the New Communities Project, Center for Urban Development Research, Cornell University.

·        First, founding Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Policy, State of New Jersey, and economic advisor to two governors.

·        Lecturer, Research Associate and founding Associate Director of the Center for New Jersey Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.

·        Director of Economic Development, Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, PA.

·        Associate Prof. of Economics, City University of New York.

·        Founder, President and Chief Economist, Development Strategies Corporation.

·        International Consulting Economist who has worked on projects in 14 countries worldwide. 

Peter has been elected to serve locally, at-large, as a member of the governing bodies of two very different municipalities in two very different states – Princeton, NJ & Gloucester, MA. He has been active in local and state government and politics wherever he has lived, accumulating over 35 years of political experience along the way. Thus, when he saw the people-based, person-to-person politics that he loved drying up, replaced by a money-and-media politics dominated by a so-called “political class” and “pro’s”, he wrote the book cited earlier so that the great American majority could take back their politics and honor the legacies of both Ronald Reagan [“Move power and money out of Washington”] and Tip O’Neill [“All politics is local.”]. The book is accompanied by a website: www.politicalcommunity.us.  

Peter was previously nominated to run for Congress in 1984 in New Jersey’s 12^th C.D. Now, armed with a lifetime of lessons, he aims to put his wealth of experience to work with and for the people of New Hampshire’s 1^st C.D.

EXPERIENCE WITH POLITICS, PUBLIC SERVICE & PUBLIC ISSUES 

2007  Town Coordinator for the McCain campaign

          Serving the Town of Fremont as:

          > Member, Budget Committee

         > Co-Chairman, Cable TV Public Access/ Contract Renewal Committee

         > Fremont Commissioner, Rockingham County Planning Commission

Volunteer helping Republicans to fight for seats in the state legislature in special election contests.

 2006 Continuing to serve the Town of Danville as member, Danville Economic Development Committee

          Elected Vice-Chair, NH Republican Liberty Caucus

          Working Member, NHGOP Platform Committee

          Columnist for the EAGLE TRIBUNE

 2005 Member, NH Republican Liberty Caucus (NHRLC)

          NHRLC liason with the House Republican Alliance [weekly meetings in Concord]           

          Continuing to serve the Town of Danville as founding member, Danville Economic Development Committee

          Volunteer helping several Republican candidates contest vacated seats for NH State Representative in special elections

          Featured speaker at many local Republican Committee meetings

 2004  Author of a book (10 chapters, 400 pages) on needs and ways to revive people’s involvement in electoral politics, published, and released Sept.16^th  entitled: We, the People: A Conservative Populism -- TIME for us to take our politics back from the political/ media class that has taken it over. Lafayette, LA: Alpha Publishing.

           Founder, Economic Development Committee, Town of Danville, NH

 2003-2004 Member, Finance Committee, Town of Merrimac, MA 

2002-2003 Member, Master Plan Implementation Committee, Town of Merrimac, MA.

 2001-2002 Member, Steering Committee to Prepare a New Master Plan for the Town of Merrimac, MA, and Chairman, Economic Development Sub-committee.

 1998-2002 Member, Business Advisory Council, Campaign Reform Project/Campaign for America, and author of many articles and letters to editors on campaign finance reform issues.

 1999-2000 Secretary, Gloucester City Republican Committee.

 1993-95 Member, Executive Board, and President, Gloucester Fisheries Association.

 1994 Candidate for State Representative, Massachusetts 5^th Essex Legislative District.

 1987, ’91 & ‘93 Non-partisan candidate for Mayor, City of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Came about 600 votes short of winning the mayoralty.

 1983-94 Principal Investigator for several public policy research projects commissioned by the U.S. Minority Business Development Agency

 1989 Elected City Councilor At-Large, City of Gloucester, Massachusetts, a municipality of nearly 30,000 population.

1975-85 Member and Vice-Chair, Princeton Borough Democratic Committee

1984 Democratic Nominee to the U.S. House of Representatives, New Jersey (NJ) 12^th CD (having won a primary race to become so).

1981-84 Councilor, elected at-large, Borough of Princeton, NJ.  

1979-80 Member, Municipal Consolidation Study Commission (an elected post) and Chairman, Fiscal Impact Study Committee, Princeton, NJ.

“Life Lessons”

 I have learned basic lessons of life the hard way. These include:

 The art of listening: I used to interrupt people, wanting to express my own views. I’ve learned to listen, so much so that I now prefer listening to talking.

 The value of family: I grew up in a Yankee family that didn’t talk very much to one another, so I’ve learned to keep in touch and encourage conversation. Divorce has also brought home the value of family. Divorce laws and the practices of family courts do not encourage marriage and family.

 The difficulty of change: I’ve had great difficulty changing myself, so how can I expect to change others?  I’ve learned humility.

 The high cost of cheap bets or short-term expedients: Short-termitis and Ad-hoc-ism are deeply rooted in us, so I’ve struggled with these in my own life. The lessons are even more important in public life, where we suffer from our inability to confront and deal with long-term issues.

 The great importance of truthfulness: I’ve too often give truthfulness short-shrift, seeking easy ways out, but it’s fundamental to life and politics. The reason science is such an engine of progress is that it’s practice is devoted to truth-seeking and truthful reporting. By contrast, politicians tend to avoid truth-telling in so many ways even though truthfulness is basic to trust which, in turn, is basic to good political dealings. There are two ways to lie, by omission as well as commission, so people aren’t often told what they need to know by their public “servants.” But how often do servants tell the truth to their masters if the masters (that is, you, the voters) don’t want to hear it? The truth usually hurts. The future costs of not hearing and abiding it are far greater than the temporary hurt, but politics is played in the present tense. 

 To be continued….