Jim Bender

Jim Bender is an American Businessman who is currently running for United States Senate in his home state of New Hampshire. Prior to his senatorial candidacy, Mr. Bender was a businessman who founded and led some of America's most successful privately owned businesses, including IDEA, Logicraft, and AWARE.
Early Life
Bender is the oldest of six children. He began working at the age of eight on a paper route. Growing up, he worked in a butcher shop, as a stock boy, a janitor in a hospital, a cook, a lumberjack and as a construction worker. By his college years he had been a member of three labor unions.
Bender graduated from Harvard Business School in 1979. His classmates included Meg Whitman, former CEO of E-Bay; Jeff Skilling, former president of Enron; and Elaine Chao, former US Labor Secretary.
Business Career
Bender helped start IDEA, a computer peripherals company in New Hampshire. IDEA was a profitable venture, reaching over $25 million in revenue in three years. After success at IDEA, Bender became the CEO of Logicraft, a company that manufactures computer networking products, based in Nashua, NH. Under Bender's leadership, Logicraft was named by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the nation three times.
Senate Candidacy
In September 2009, Bender entered the race for the open US Senate seat in New Hamphsire vacated by Judd Gregg. One of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the seat, Bender's campaign gained legitimacy with the hiring of campaign manager Beth Lindstrom, former manager of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown's unexpectedly successful campaign. Polling in May 2010 showed Bender in a statistical dead heat with Democratic candidate Paul Hodes despite being well behind in name recognition numbers.
Issues
Term Limits
Bender is a strong supporter of the institution of Congressional term limits. He is opposed to the idea of a governing class or career politicians.
Taxes
Bender has pledged to never vote for a tax increase, and has signed American's for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Budget
Bender supports a balancing of the federal budget and a reduction in national debt through a decrease in spending and government waste.
Health Care
Bender has stated that he will seek to have the recent health care reform bill repealed, and would seek to enact policies that emphasize free-market solutions to health care issues.
Education
Bender is in favor of a school voucher program to increase school choice among parents. He also favors a merit pay system for teachers .
Energy
Bender supports lower taxes and fees on the alternative energy industry as a way to encourage competitiveness and reduce American dependence on foreign oil. Bender opposes cap and trade legislation.
Gun Rights
Bender fully supports the constitutional right for individuals to keep and bear arms, and is a supporter of the Castle Doctrine.

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