Ovide Lamontagne

Ovide Marc Lamontagne is a New Hampshire attorney. He was a 2010 Republican Party (GOP) candidate for United States Senate, losing to Kelly Ayotte. Lamontagne is a native of Manchester, where he currently resides. He endorsed Mitt Romney for president in 2007.
Early life and education
Lamontagne was born into a family of French Canadian ancestry. He graduated from Trinity High School in Manchester in 1975. In 1979, Lamontagne received a Bachelor's degree from Catholic University. After graduation from Catholic University, Lamontagne taught high school social studies for three years at St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, Maryland.
From 1993-1996, Lamontagne served as Chairman of the New Hampshire State Board of Education .
Public service
Lamontagne has long been active in New Hampshire's charitable and non-profit communities. In June 2009, Lamontagne was named New Hampshire’s "Distinguished Citizen of the Year" by the Daniel Webster Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Lamontagne is a former director of the Easter Seals of New Hampshire, former president of the Franco-American Center and current chairman of the St. Mary’s Bank Board of Directors.
In an op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader, former New Hampshire GOP State Party Chairman, Fergus Cullen, said:

"Lamontagne is the model of the compassionate conservative. He's been a leader in Easter Seals, Catholic Charities, Court Appointed Special Advocates, the Boy Scouts and the list goes on. Whenever a Manchester nonprofit has a capital campaign to fund, they want Ovide on the committee. Nonprofit leaders describe him as an invaluable connector and catalyst."

Political campaigns
Lamontagne ran for Congress in 1992, and lost in a primary to Bill Zeliff.
Lamontagne then ran for Governor of New Hampshire in 1996, against Democratic candidate Jeanne Shaheen. Lamontagne was running for the seat vacated by Republican Governor Steve Merrill and lost to Shaheen by 17 points.
Lamontagne ran for the Republican nomination for Senate from New Hampshire in 2010, losing to Kelly Ayotte by less than 2%.
Policy positions
Supreme Court nominations
Lamontagne opposed the nomination of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor of appointment as Supreme Court justices.
Term limits
Lamontagne supports term limits for all Members of Congress.
English Language
In his 2010 campaign for Senate, Lamontagne supported federal legislation to make English the country's official language. However, in his 1996 gubernatorial campaign, Lamontagne lobbied Governor Steve Merrill to veto a bill making English the official language of New Hampshire. Nashua Telegraph Reporter Kevin Landrigen wrote that Lamontagne lobbied against the bill because he wanted to curry favor with the French speaking population of Manchester.
Taxes
Lamontagne supports efforts to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, further cutting taxes for working families, phasing out the capital gains and interest and dividends taxes, and further reduction of corporate taxes.
Labor issues
Lamontagne opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and its ‘card check’ provisions.<ref name="ovide2010.com"/><ref name="http://ovide2010.com/?p=1362"/>
Energy
Lamontagne supports further domestic oil exploration and drilling in places like ANWR.<ref name="ovide2010.com"/><ref name="http://ovide2010.com/?p=1362"/>
Lamontagne supports the development of additional nuclear power facilities.<ref name="ovide2010.com"/><ref name="http://ovide2010.com/?p=1362"/>
Lamontagne supports the promotion of renewable sources of energy such as solar, bio-fuel, wind and geo-thermal power, and the development of new clean coal technologies.<ref name="ovide2010.com"/><ref name="http://ovide2010.com/?p=1362"/>
Healthcare
Lamontagne has signed a Club for Growth pledge to vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) signed into law on March 23, 2010 and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 signed into law on March 30, 2010).
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Lamontagne supports market based healthcare initiatives, tort reform, small business insurance pooling and cross- state border medical insurance sales,and other state based policies that do not grow the size of the federal government.<ref name="ovide2010.com"/>
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