Editor's note: House District 30 Republican candidate Kevin Kervick of Portsmouth publicly endorsed Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson on Wednesday at a campaign event that Johnson held at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. What follows is a letter to the editor by Kervick that futher explains his reasons for endorsing Johnson.

I love my country. I want my children to be able to have what I had. Like most Americans, I am sick of political corruption. I despise juvenile tribal warfare that is fueled by groupthink. I hate politics and posturing. I want my political leaders to act with integrity. I am desperate for common sense leadership that puts the long-term needs of the country first, ahead of short-term special interests.

I am proud of our New Hampshire Republicans. During this last term they put the long-term needs of the state first by reforming government and cutting spending, in the face of harsh criticism from those that were benefitting from the status quo. That is leadership. I hear good things coming from our New Hampshire Republican candidates. All of them are promising to keep taxes low, to continue to look for savings and efficiencies in state government, to stand up to Washington mandates, and to keep New Hampshire free. Therefore I am honored to support the New Hampshire Republicans wholeheartedly.

However, I see no such leadership coming from either party at the national level. I see a Democratic Party that wants to expand the rate of federal spending in order to pay off their special interest factions. I see a Republican Party that has historically spent as much as their Democrat counterparts, and is presenting a budget that won’t balance for over twenty years. Both parties want to grow government. They just prefer different recipients. This is simply not good enough.

The Democratic Party, locally and nationally, has become the party of economic and cultural Marxism. They are the entitlement party that uses guilt tripping and demonization to get ahead. The party of John Kennedy is gone forever. The Obama Progressives have won the day.

In the national Republican Party I see a party in an identity transition. It knows it needs to change but it can’t get itself to take the steps it needs to take to reinvent itself. The establishment power brokers within the party are holding on tightly to their influence, and instead of welcoming new energy to the party that could make it viable, they are alienating that new energy. The way the GOP establishment treated Ron Paul supporters at the national convention was despicable. They undertook a power play that alienated the grass roots of the party in order to maintain establishment control. They seem to be more concerned about the present than the future. The party is getting older and more culturally homogenous, and yet it seems to be doing nothing to diversify. It is stuck in the past.

I endorsed Ron Paul for President last year. I believe Paul’s Liberty Coalition is the future. The national Democrat and Republican Parties as they are currently configured are the past. A new radical center is emerging that will win the day. I call it common sense conservatism, but it could easily be characterized by other labels. It calls for serious reforms in the way we currently do business. It offers a new identity that takes us away from the tired old right-left paradigm. It is a new day.

Thus, I cannot in good conscience, support either of the national candidates for President of the United States. Neither is offering a platform I can support. I refuse to support one man, only because he is better than the other guy. Both guys are unacceptable. We need an entirely new way.

I support Gary Johnson for President, not because I agree with him on everything. I do not. But like Congressman Paul, Johnson is an honest man who is offering a bold vision to restore America. He is right on all of the key issues of our time. We need honesty and we need a bold vision.

We also need to do everything we can to open up the media-controlled political process to other voices. We need to end the two-party duopoly because it is destroying us. Governor Johnson must be included in the national debates to provide an alternative voice. I believe his ideas best represent the emerging radical center that can save the country. Saving the country is more important than advancing the interests of any political party.

Kevin Kervick

Republican Candidate for State Representative

Portsmouth District 30