Veteran Democratic Leaders Jean Hennessey,
Marion Copenhaver
Lead Upper Valley Activists Announcing Their Support for Kerry
MANCHESTER, NH – Veteran Upper Valley Democratic leaders Jean Hennessey
and Marion
Copenhaver and other Upper Valley Democratic activists today announced
their decision to
support John Kerry in New Hampshire’s presidential primary.
Hennessey, who is a veteran of New Hampshire Democratic presidential campaigns
going back
to John Kennedy and has spent her professional life on environmental matters
and international
policy issues, said, “I believe that John Kerry's service on the Foreign
Relations and Intelligence
Committees of the Senate puts him in the strongest position to repair our
badly damaged
credibility in the world. His courageous military service in Vietnam will
make him invulnerable to
the Republican strategy to defame Democrats as `unpatriotic.’ Kerry’s proposals
for energy
sustainability will reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and he is in the
best position to implement
an effective international program to halt global warming.” Hennessey has
served as the U.S.
Director of the NAFTA Commission on Environmental Cooperation, Commissioner
of the
International Joint Commission for the United States and Canada, Director
of Dartmouth's
Institute on Canada and the United States and as board member of the Woodrow
Wilson
International Center for Scholars. Hennessey also was the first director
of N.H. Charitable
Foundation.
Copenhaver, who served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives representing
Hanover
for 14 terms and concentrated on health care issues as a member of the
Health, Human Services
and Elderly Affairs Committee, said, "I agree with the consensus of independent
health care
experts who recently announced that John Kerry's proposed health care plan
is the most cost
effective and strongest. Not only will Kerry’s plan cover all Americans,
but by helping employers
cover the cost of catastrophic health cases, it will lower the premiums
for the 163 million who
already have insurance through their workplaces. Kerry’s plan simultaneously
provides more
protection for those who are the sickest and, by reducing employers' costs
by 10% or more, it
will stimulate the economy.” Copenhaver has also served on a number of
non-profit boards
including the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, the Norris Cotton
Cancer Center Board of
Overseers, and Grafton County Soil Conservation Board.
Other Upper Valley Democratic activists announcing their support for John
Kerry today include
Richard Abel, Lebanon; Carman Deuso, Lebanon; Susan Gray, West Lebanon;
James Heffernan,
Hanover; Elizabeth Hunter, Hanover; Barbara Jones, Lebanon; Judith Kaufman,
Cornish; Claire
Lobell, Hanover; John and Merideth Lunn, Newport; Howard Shaffer, Enfield;
Molly Shatavsky,
Hanover; Ginny Smith, West Lebanon: George and Jayne Sykes, Lebanon; and
Flobert Tanga,
Lebanon.
Upper Valley Democratic activists who previously announced their endorsement
of John Kerry
include former Congressional nominee Barney Brannen, Lyme; State Senator
Clifton Below;
Lebanon; State Representative Susan Almy, Lebanon; Dartmouth's student
body president Janos
Marton; Lilla McLane-Bradley, Hanover; and Perry Williamson, Hanover.