Meldrim Thomson, R.I.P - former New Hampshire governor - Brief Article - Obituary

National Review, May 14, 2001 by Jeffrey Hart

Meldrim Thomson was elected governor of New Hampshire in 1972, defeating a Republican incumbent in a primary. He transformed the state Republican party and, through imitation, the state Democratic party. His influence, after he completed three two-year terms, is still strong. New Hampshire was the only New England state won by George W. Bush.

The post-World War II New Hampshire Republican party was middle-of-the- road to liberal. Today, all four New Hampshire national representatives are conservative Republicans: Gregg, Smith, Bass, and Sununu. The state does not have an income tax or a sales tax. Though reared in the South, always courtly and speaking with a drawl, Mel Thomson was Carborundum hard on the central question of taxation. His reply to advocates of a "broad-based" tax was direct. He ran on the platform "ax the tax."

Not surprisingly, New Hampshire began to enjoy an economic boom. Businesses moved in, especially high-tech. Refugees poured across the border from "Taxachusetts." New Hampshire became a good place to invest. After Thomson left office, all serious statewide and national candidates "took the pledge" against taxes. Even Jeanne Shaheen, the present governor and a moderate Democrat, "took the pledge" when running for her first term, and kept her word.

Now, after thirty years, two developments threaten Thomson's heritage: 1) the very prosperity he helped to create. In fact, as people become wealthier, they want more public services. And 2) the state supreme court, which, on dubious grounds, has ruled unconstitutional the established method of paying for the public schools by means of the property tax. But no alternative method has yet made it through the state legislature.

"Ax the tax," "Keep your guns," "Live free or die." Mel Thomson was a great man, though (or perhaps "and so") he was despised in Hanover, home of Dartmouth College. Accused by liberals of having 19th-century ideas, he replied, "They are wrong: My beliefs are rooted in the values of the 17th century, and I'm proud of it." He died at his farm in Orford, N.H., at 89.