Dwyer Taking on Bragdon For Senate Seat

Town Councilor Dan Dwyer, R-Merrimack, has filed to run in the newly redistricted District 11 state Senate seat that will have him facing off against current Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford.

The same redistricting that split up Bedford and Merrimack moved Bragdon into Merrimack and Amherst territory.

“I’m very excited, very excited,” Dwyer said about his run. “It’s a big opportunity for Merrimack because of the new district which is really why I’m here.”

Dwyer said the newly formed district – which also includes Wilton – will be a very competitive district and he looks at the race from the point of view that Bragdon isn’t really the incumbent but, instead, is a senator from another district running in the newly created district.

“He’s in a new district,” he said. “So he’s not the incumbent of anything this time.”

Dwyer readily admits that the race will be a challenge and he’s heard that since he announced his run in March. While some people came forward to support him, he was surprised by the discouraging comments from others too.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people said, ‘Really? You’re going to run against Senator Bragdon,’” he said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, he puts his pants on just like me.’”

If elected to the state Senate, Dwyer will try to maintain a balance between taxing and spending in an effort to “keep New Hampshire strong.”

“I’m afraid of the future … of where we’re going in New Hampshire,” he said. “I’m not sure we have a tax problem as much as we have a spending problem.”

Dwyer, a native of the state, supports “The Pledge,” a verbal commitment not to vote for a broad-based tax like a sales or income tax, calling the lack of the taxes one of the reasons New Hampshire is unique to the area and remains competitive.

“I think we have 5 percent unemployment for a reason,” he said. “I think we need to maintain that independent streak that we have, compared to everybody else. A citizen Legislature may be one of the reasons why.”

Dwyer, who ran for the Legislature as a Democrat in Manchester in the 1980s, was almost one of the youngest representatives elected at the time. He was beat out by another young candidate who was 20 at the time. Since those days, Dwyer’s views have changed over the years, maturing with age, not unlike a lot of folks during the last 30 to 40 years, adding that he was more liberty minded and interested in reducing government regulation, in order to improve the economy in New Hampshire.