Democrat Paul Hodes heads to Congress to stand up and speak out

CONCORD, N.H. --Democratic U.S. Rep.-elect Paul Hodes, a lawyer and longtime musician, once wrote and recorded a song called "Stand Up, Speak Out."

Looking back, he says this describes one common thread in his diverse careers -- in the arts, in law and now, in politics, after winning the 2nd District seat Tuesday over six-term incumbent Charles Bass. Final election results showed Hodes received 53 percent of 206,107 votes cast to 46 percent for Bass. About 1 percent voted for Libertarian Ken Blevins.

"There's been some of that in my music and as an attorney, you stand up for people. That's what it's about, standing up for people who don't have a way to stand up," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Stand up, speak out. Let your voice be heard. It only takes each one of us to make a better world," goes the chorus of the song, written in 1995.

Hodes was raised in New York City of Russian and Hungarian Jewish immigrant families. His father was a lawyer. His mother stayed home to raise Hodes and his younger brother.

"On my grandmother's side, we're related to the family of Bernard Malamud. He was 'cousin Bernie'....So some of my family's history is actually told in his books," Hodes said of the Pulitzer-prize winning novelist.

Hodes' younger brother died in his teens of Hodgkins disease, a lymphatic cancer. As the family struggled with the illness, Hodes said he spent a lot of time alone. He first picked up the guitar at age 15 and has continued to play ever since.

"It was the middle of the Vietnam War, 1970. I had become very sensitive politically and really dead set against the war," Hodes said. The day Hodes graduated from high school, Robert F. Kennedy died.

"To say that I grew up in a tumultuous time, I think, is an understatement," he recalled.

But the turmoil, both in his family's life and in the larger world, made him a better man, he says now.

"It has made me particularly empathetic and sensitive and at the same time, I'm tough. I'm a survivor. It's given me a clear sense of a purpose in life, in terms of standing up for people who don't have a voice."

Hodes has used his voice in a variety of ways since graduating from Dartmouth College in 1972 -- as an actor, as a playwright, as a musician and after 1978, as a lawyer.

"I've never been short of words," he says with a laugh.

Hodes studied French and theater at Dartmouth and returned to New York City after graduation, getting a role in the comedy revue and off- off-Broadway show "What's a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This?"

He went on to make a couple of documentary films, including one on visiting nurses in the Bronx.

"We visited young mothers with children sitting in empty apartments with nothing but a stove, no furniture. It was a pretty devastating scene," he recalled.

He also wrote a play, "The Edsel was a Mistake" produced at Playwrights Horizon in 1975.

That was the year he decided to go to Boston College Law School. He felt a law degree could help in the future, he said. "Or as my grandmother said: it couldn't hurt."

It was in Boston where he met his wife, Peggo, when she and another musician put an ad in the paper: Folk/blues duo seeks guitar player.

They've been performing ever since, both as "Peggo and Paul" and as "Peggosus," producing several popular recordings for families and children. They married in 1979, a year after Hodes graduated from law school and came to Concord to work in the attorney general's office.

He was offered a job by then-Attorney General David Souter, a man Hodes said he was drawn to for his "fierce integrity, intelligence, kindness and charisma."

Hodes still speaks of Souter as a mentor and role model, though Hodes did most of his work under former Attorney General Greg Smith, who took over in 1980.

"He has an artistic side," Smith acknowledged Wednesday. "He was also a serious, effective prosecutor."

Smith said Hodes handled everything from homicide cases to white collar crime and environmental polluters. He regularly argued cases before the state Supreme Court.

In the early 1980s, Hodes and Peggo volunteered with a national group concerned about nuclear proliferation and the danger of nuclear war. Beyond War was an educational organization that aimed to get people talking about the risks and about alternatives, one of its founders, Kent Evans said.

"One thing about Paul, he's very open. He's easy to talk to and he's a hard worker. He's very passionate about life and the way things ought to be," said Evans, now living in Pebble Beach, Calif.

But he said, Hodes doesn't preach as much as he listens and gets people to think.

"He's very good at getting people together and working to a consensus," Evans said.

Jamie Hage, Hodes' former law partner, agrees.

Hodes may have a strong streak of idealism, "but he can also be a fighter," Hage said.

In 1990, Hodes was tapped by fellow lawyer and arts lover Martin Gross to head up an effort to restore the Capitol Center for the Arts, an old vaudeville hall.

Hodes said the project inspired him on many levels to look at what he could contribute to his community.

"That really was critical for me in wanting to make a difference in politics," he said.

Hodes was chairman of the board for the arts center until 1996, as his two children Max and Ariana grew into teenagers. Hodes said he kept his focus on his family, his law practice and various artistic endeavors until national events pushed him toward politics.

By 2004, Hodes said he was so appalled at the direction of the country, he decided to challenge Bass for Congress. And even after a 20-point loss to Bass that year, he came back to try again in 2006.

"I was ready to stand up for what I believe in," he said.

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On the Net: http://www.hodesforcongress.com