by Ed Naile
Rochester, NH’s George Lovejoy has passed and NH is going to miss a man who stood up against the tax and spend crowd in our state for three decades. He left behind an energized base of activists who have benefited from his calm, thoughtful way of dealing with political opponents. Not every activist can do that. George Lovejoy led through example.
I think I ran into George at one of the first organized meetings I ever went to regarding New Hampshire government. You can tell right from the start the person in an organization, people look up to. That was George Lovejoy.
At the start of almost any endeavor, be it a political campaign, issue advocacy, testimony on a pending piece of legislation, or quest for historical background on something regarding NH taxes one of the first items on the list would be to check with George.
Many on the small government side of a political issue are called “tax fighters” and that in just one description newspapers and critics use for taxpayer activists that missed the mark with George Lovejoy. I think he was always more of a champion of the little guy, people on fixed incomes, those who favor fair play and rule of law – the people he saw who were hurt the most by growing government at the state and local level beyond the capacity the NH Constitution provides and common sense demands.
Knowing exactly where the millions of dollars, some in government think “belong” to all of us, come from is what motivated George Lovejoy.
That is the secret to George Lovejoy’s success in keeping New Hampshire broad based tax free, something his tax and spend opponents never quite understood.