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Meldrim Thomson Jr.

Meldrim Thomson Jr. (8 March 1912-19 April 2001) was the Republican Governor of New Hampshire from 4 January 1973 to 4 January 1979, succeeding Walter R. Peterson Jr. and preceding Hugh Gallen.

Biography[]

Meldrim Thomson Jr. was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania in 1912, and he was raised in Georgia and Florida before becoming a lawyer in the latter state in 1936. He became a book publisher and moved to New Hampshire in 1955, and he unsuccessfully ran for governor as a Republican and an American Independent before being elected in 1972. He was a proponent of state sovereignty, battling with Maine over fishing rights in the "lobster war", which was ultimately resolved by the US Supreme Court. Thomson was a hardline conservative who had the state flag flown at half-mast to honor the death of Jesus, ordered the arrest of over a thousand environmentalist protesters, praised the apartheid-era government of South Africa, and claimed that "Xmas" was a pagan spelling of Christmas. In 1978, he briefly formed his own "Constitution Party" after failing to win re-election.

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