Area readers have long ago come to expect the partisan slant typified in your editorial chastising Grafton County Commissioner Wendy Piper and Register of Deeds Kelley Monahan for having joined the Republican Party (“Change of parties raises questions”; July 19). Both former Democrats are more than capable of explaining themselves, as they did to your reporter. Bottom line, New Hampshire Republicans are focused on government frugality and the concerns of working Americans. Dems prioritize open borders and identity politics.

If higher taxes, meddlesome bureaucracy and progressive doctrine enforcement were the instruments of better government, as the Valley News so clearly prefers, Vermont would be prosperous and New Hampshire would remain a rusting mill town. As officials inside Grafton County government dominated by Democrats, Piper and Monahan are perfectly situated to see the contrast.

Clinching Piper and Monahan’s decisions to switch parties, county Dems have shut off public participation in county meetings. Dems have shut down Zoom access to these meetings in our huge, Rhode Island-sized county. Illustrating their fiscal disconnect, the Dems running our county seem hell-bent on socking county taxpayers with the cost of a new $47 million courthouse. Valley News readers would benefit from detailed coverage of these issues (“Court project under debate”; July 22).

In sharp contrast, over the decades of leadership at the state level, Republicans have transformed our state into a prosperous and healthy place where people are generally free to live their lives as they see fit. Among the 50 states, New Hampshire is:

·No. 1 in overall freedom and No. 1 in economic freedom, according to the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute, respectively.

No. 1 safest state, according to US News and World Report

No. 1 healthiest state, according to americashealthranking.org

No. 1 in child well-being and lowest child poverty rate as ranked by the Annie E. Casey Institute’s Kids Count Data Book.

No. 2 in K-12 school performance, according to worldpopulationreview.com

No. 2 in lowest overall pollution, according to U.S. News and World Report (behind only Vermont)

No. 2 “best state” as ranked by US News & World Report

No. 4 highest median household income and #7 lowest unemployment, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, respectively

Let’s closely examine what the Valley News views as New Hampshire Republicans’ chief moral failing: New Hampshire’s high property taxes and zero income tax. The net effect is more localized and cost-efficient government. Among the states, we benefit from our No. 3 lowest combined state and local tax burden as a share of total personal income, according to wallethub.com.

As to “tax fairness” for the bottom 20% of households, we are No. 11 lowest in total tax burden, according to the very left leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Those earning lower incomes get to keep much more of what they earn than they would in New York and California, and about the same as they would in Massachusetts. (Vermont is third lowest.)

Where the Dems are extraordinarily vigilant on language policing and defunding our county sheriff, New Hampshire’s “big tent” Republicans win on social tolerance and protecting public safety. The New Hampshire Republican Party ran and won big last year by endorsing unrestricted abortion rights through the 24th week of pregnancy.

New Hampshire, Grafton County and Upper Valley Republicans want you to know that we are not the party depicted by the Valley News. We welcome independent-minded voters who prefer open, transparent government focused on kitchen-table and pocketbook issues.

Jim Rubens is chairman of the Upper Valley Republicans and a former state senator. He lives in Etna.