Linda Luhtala

Candidate for State Representative

District: Grafton 6
Website: www.twoforhouse.com

I was born in the Old Plymouth hospital in 1946. The most popular movie star that year was Linda Darnell, so like millions of babies that year, my parents named me Linda. I was the seventh child in a family of nine, this was in an age when big families were very common.

Growing up I attended local schools, hiked the local trails, and on hot summer days, swam in Squam Lake. I had a wonderful childhood right here in the Lakes Region and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My family was poor, but we had so much. We had the freedom to explore and to create our own games. We had Saturday matinees with Roy, Hoppy, and Gene. We had long Sunday drives through Franconia Notch with two mandatory stops along the way: one to swim and one to check that the Old Man still hung in his place.

I grew up loving the people of New Hampshire. They were hard working people who knew how to make do. I lived in Ashland and I can still remember the daily shift changes at 7am, 3PM and 11PM. I would watch the men and women, lunch pails in hand, going to and coming home from work in the mill. On Sunday mornings we were all in church. Each one attending his own church and worshiping God in his own way. At the end of the day we would come back together as friends, as neighbors, as Americans.

Growing up, I knew the ladies that worked in Bailey’s 5 & 10. I knew the men who worked in the mill. I even knew all of the stay-at-home Moms, raising their children and caring for their families. We counted ourselves blessed to live in such a beautiful state with people like us: hard working, resilient, independent, never looking for a handout, but always there for our neighbor in his time of need.

I married Nick Luhtala 30 + years ago. And we have lived in the same home in the Baker River Valley all of that time. In Rumney and Wentworth I found the same people I had known in Ashland. Loggers rising long before daylight to have their equipment ready to go at dawn, ladies who cooked for church suppers, and kids growing up and wanting (as I had) to stay, live and work, here in the Granite State.

Slowly I have seen the New Hampshire I knew change. Taxes have become so oppressive and intrusive that citizens are now angry to pay them. We have begun to see unemployed men and women looking for jobs that just are not here anymore. We now have a government that seems to have no understanding of our people, their limits, or their needs. Families that have owned land for generations, now worry that they and their children will never be able to pay their property taxes. Handouts are going to people who can and should be caring for themselves. Small businesses are being taxed to the breaking point. There are now so many obscure laws on the books that it’s difficult to know when you are breaking one. We have a legislature that is unable to balance the budget and unwilling to control spending.

Two years ago Charlie Brosseau and I placed our names on the ballot. We knew at the start that we would probably lose that race. After all, it was 2008 and we all knew that it would be a big year for the Democrats. We ran because we wanted to give the voters a choice. Once again we have placed our names on the ballot in the 2010 Republican Primary to represent the towns of Campton, Rumney, Wentworth, Orford, and Ellsworth in the state legislature. It would be an honor and a privilege for us to represent you in Concord.

Vote for two!