Nov 4, 1976: Two days after winning a third term, Gov. Mel Thomson sums of the voters’ mood: “They think I’m an SOB, but they still vote for me.” Thomson says he may seek a fourth term or even a stint in the U.S. Senate. (Ultimately, he will lose to Democrat Hugh Gallen.)
Nov. 5, 1996: Jeanne Shaheen defeats Ovide Lamontagne to become the state’s first female governor. Voters re-elect U.S. Sen. Bob Smith.
Nov. 5, 1996: For the first time ever, Concord elects an all-female delegation to the State House. The members: Reps. Carol Burney, Jean Wallin, Mary Stuart Gile, Gloria Seldin, Liz Hager, Carol Moore, Toni Crosby, Marilyn Fraser, Katherine Rogers, Tara Reardon, Miriam Dunn, Mary Jane Wallner, Betty Hoadley and Sen. Sylvia Larsen. Come 1998, however, Rep. Dave Poulin will break up the old girls club.
Nov. 6, 2001: Mike Donovan beats Jim O’Neill in Concord’s mayoral election in a sweep of all 10 wards. The tally is 3,537 to 2,126.
Nov. 6, 1947: The Concord Monitor’s editorial writer expresses disbelief at voters’ rejection of a plan to build a man-made lake. “The Concord Lake proposal had been developed out of the soundest methods of government administration now known. Known advantages of the plan far outweighed disadvantages. In spite of all this, Concord said ‘No.’ ”
Nov. 7, 2001: Concord parking enforcers give out the first boot, a metal lock that fits over a car’s wheel and prevents the vehicle from moving unless removed. It has been three months since the city announced that it would boot any car whose owner owed more than $100 in parking tickets.
Nov. 7, 1995: Bill Veroneau is re-elected Concord’s mayor.
Nov. 8, 1988: U.S. Rep. Judd Gregg is elected governor.
Nov. 8, 1983: On his eighth try, longtime city gadfly Bob Schweiker is elected to the Concord School Board. Even he is surprised by the vote. “I really expected to lose,” he says.
Nov. 9, 2002: The Concord High girls’ cross country team, already owners of the Class L and State Meet titles, adds a mud-caked New England championship to its cache in Portland, Maine.
Nov. 9, 2000: Inspectors from the Division of Motor Vehicles go to the Boscawen home of Paula Werme and remove the license plates from her Ford Aerostar. The tags read “H8DCYF,” a reference to the state Division for Children, Youth and Families. The plates are deemed offensive by Motor Vehicles Director Virginia Beecher.
Nov. 9, 1920: George Freese of Pittsfield is born. He will be a longtime state senator and state representative, president of Globe Manufacturing Co. in Pittsfield and a member of the Pittsfield School Board.
Nov. 10, 2002: Aspiring 2004 presidential candidates take note: Robie’s Country Store may be closed, but it still has political clout, the Monitor reports. Of the major candidates in this year’s New Hampshire elections, only Bob Smith, Jeanne Shaheen and Katrina Swett did not pay tribute to the longtime stopover for politicians. They all lost.
Nov. 10, 1777: Loudon townspeople vote to build a meeting house “the same bigness as the Epsom house.”
Nov. 10, 1854: Concord’s Unitarian Church is destroyed by fire.
Nov. 10, 1887: Robert O. Blood is born in Enfield. He will be a World War I hero, physician, dairy farmer and, throughout World War II, governor of New Hampshire.
Nov. 10, 1978: William Loeb, publisher of the Union Leader, blames Gov. Mel Thomson’s stunning election defeat on a poorly organized campaign and a failure to advertise extensively on Boston TV.
Nov. 10, 1995: The refurbished Capitol Center for the Arts reopens on South Main Street. The opening show features folkies John Sebastian, Jonathan Edwards, Janis Ian and New Hampshire’s own Tom Rush.
