Doug and Stella Scamman to leave the N.H. Legislature

STRATHAM — With the end of 2010 comes the end of a political era.

W. Douglas Scamman of Stratham will not seek re-election, ending his 13th term as a state representative Dec. 31. After serving in each of the past six decades as a District 13 representative and two terms as speaker of the House, Scamman will be stepping away from the Statehouse and looking to spend more time with his family including his wife, Stella, a fellow representative.

Currently serving in her third term in the Legislature, she will be joining her husband in stepping down from the political post to focus on a life away from bills and vetoes.

The Scammans, who have been married for 47 years, served together for four years working to make the state a better place. The experience together has "been great because Doug is such a wealth of knowledge of everything in Concord," Stella said.

Doug said the pair have always had a strong interest in government and both he and Stella majored in political science at the University of New Hampshire.

Although 1968 was the first time Doug was elected to serve as a state representative, it was hardly the first time he had been exposed to the world of state politics.

"In the 1940s my father was in the Legislature so in the '40s and '50s I visited the Legislature so I certainly was exposed to it early on," he said. "My father was also on the School Board and my grandfather was on the Board of Selectmen."

With the precedent set for a career in politics and constituent service, Doug said serving in the political realm was "what I knew and it was a natural thing for me to enter into."

"Being involved in state and local government has just been a part of our lives," Stella said. "It's just natural for us to want to help and keep Stratham beautiful and a great place to live and we feel that way about the state too."

Over his storied tenure Doug said his straightforward and honest approach helped him to develop strong relationships on both sides of the aisle and a rapport with his constituents.

"After my first term as speaker I received the compliment from the former speaker who said, 'I never saw anyone go through two years as speaker and not have one enemy,'"‰" he said. "The right way for you to vote is the way you think and as an elected official I've always wanted to do what's best for my country, my state, my community, my constituents and then my party. You're doing your party a favor if you do what you know is best for the state."

"It's so important that people work as a team," Stella said, "and not be so politically divided.

"It would be so much better if they would stop and think 'is this what's best for N.H.?' Not 'is this what's best for the Democrats or the Republicans?'"‰"

Doug spoke to the numerous changes in the past six decades in the Legislature and his love of the process.

"The process is what makes it work and in order to work it needs to be free-flowing," he said. "The strength of our 400-member Legislature is if you get the right people on the right committee and communicate you can accomplish just about anything."

Even as they are stepping away from serving as District 13 representatives, the Scammans will not be stepping away from the political realm entirely as they will look to stay involved in local politics as well as working for the campaign of Republican Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne,

"Neither one of us regret having spent the time we did doing this," Doug said. "I think it's time for us to spend the time doing what we want which is spending time with our three grandchildren in town and two others."

"We're going to really miss it," said Stella, "but it's good to make those choices while you're on top of them rather than being forced into a decision that's beyond your control."

With all of the free time Stella said she will be looking to work on personal projects such as genealogy for family and a family cookbook.

"All these things take time so if I keep going to Concord these things are always going to be on the back burner so hopefully by not going to Concord I'll have time to work on these projects," she said.

Another project for the Scammans will be the continued work to conserving the over 200 acres of the Scamman's Bittersweet Farm.

"We look forward to conserving all of our land," she said, "and seeing these open fields forever."

election news

District 13: Reps. Judy Day, Joe Russell, and John Henson not running.

District 12: Reps. Doreen Howard and Dennis Abbott call it quits.

District 11: Rep. Kim Casey continues

Also check out who's signed up so far for state office

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