Looks as though another Republican may run for Democrat Paul Hodes's Second District congressional seat. Rick Perkins, a Hopkinton resident and longtime member of the U.S. Marine Forces Reserve, is considering a run.

A Keene native, Perkins attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned into the Marine Corps in the early 1980s, where he spent about 12 years on active duty. He is currently on his 26th year in the Marine Forces Reserve. In recent years, he's been deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq with the Marines' Special Operations Command. In his civilian life, Perkins is a pilot for FedEx - much of his work takes place in Europe.

"I'm not a political person," Perkins said. "I'm not a lawyer; I'm not schooled in that kind of stuff. But this state is very important to me, and so is our nation."

Perkins delivers a bipartisan message: "The partisan-type politics, one side or the other, I think people are tired of that, and I am as well." Perkins is concerned about the care and benefits offered to veterans. And after spending considerable

time with his elderly parents, he's convinced that Social Security must be salvaged. "We have people that are living on it, and we have to make that work and we have to save it. In my opinion, we have to make it more flexible, we have to offer other investment opportunities for younger workers."

Last week, Jim Steiner, a Republican lawyer from Concord, announced his own intention to run for the Second District seat.

Religion and politics

While Secretary of State Bill Gardner hasn't said it yet, Jan. 8 is looking likelier and likelier as the date for New Hampshire's primary. (That's because Michigan, the nearest encroaching state, has moved to have a primary Jan. 15 - but those plans aren't entirely final.)

But Jan. 8 isn't good for everyone. It's the Orthodox Christmas, at least for those Orthodox churches that are on the Julian calendar.

Rep. Shawn Mickelonis, a Rochester Democrat who is of the Orthodox faith, stopped by Gardner's office yesterday to hash it over. He said that he's a supervisor of the checklist in Rochester.

"If they put the presidential primary on an Orthodox holiday, I would attend my duty as supervisor of the checklist," Mickelonis said. "And if I did that, my family would be upset."

To figure out the issue, Gardner turned to his old UNH classic professor, Richard Desrosiers, who is now retired but wrote up a multi-page fact sheet for the secretary of state about the Julian calendar and Orthodox churches. The sheet noted that there are Orthodox churches in Manchester and Concord.

The Orthodox Christmas isn't the only holiday Gardner has thought about. Hanukkah is Dec. 4 to 12, he said, and he wondered whether that would impede Jewish New Hampshirites from voting if the primary were held then.

Rep. Jason Bedrick had previously weighed in against a Saturday primary, Gardner said, because as an Orthodox Jew, he can't work or drive on Saturdays and couldn't partake in a primary.

"So I called him up, and I said 'Jason, explain to me Hanukkah,' " Gardner said. "Is Hanukkah to you like what you said to me about Saturday?"

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