| Bill Binnie | |
|---|---|
| Republican Party candidate for New Hampshire US Senate Seat (defeated) |
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| Election date September 14, 2010 (primary) |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | February 2, 1958 Scotland |
| Nationality | US |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Nina |
| Residence | Rye, New Hampshire |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, Harvard Business School |
| Occupation | Businessman, president of Carlisle Capital, owner of WBIN-TV |
| Religion | Christian - Presbyterian |
| Website | Campaign Website |
William Harrison "Bill" Binnie (February 2, 1958—) is a New Hampshire industrialist, investment banker[1], and former political candidate who currently serves as president of Carlisle Capital Corporation [2] and was formerly chairman of Carlisle Plastics, Inc. until Carlisle Plastics was sold to Tyco International in Sept, 1996.[3]
Binnie currently resides in Rye, New Hampshire.
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Binnie was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States at the age of 5.[4] Binnie attended Harvard University on a scholarship.[5] As a student, Bill served as a research fellow for the Accounting Review, a journal on finance and accounting. Upon graduation from Harvard College, Binnie attended Harvard Business School. where he served president of the Management Consulting Club. Upon graduation, Binnie began his business career as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Over the years, Binnie has founded a number of corporations large and small. Until September 1996, Binnie was the chairman of Carlisle Plastics, Inc., a manufacturer of plastic trash bags, coat hangers and plastic sheeting.[3] Binnie served as the chairman of the board of Carlisle Plastics from 1985 onwards and as Chief Executive Officer and President from 1985 to 1994. In 1996, Binnie owned 62.5% of Carlisle's class B shares making him the majority and controlling owner.[6] In September 1996, Binnie sold his controlling interest to Tyco International.[7]
Binnie built Carlisle Plastics into a large plastics products manufacturer which employed thousands of workers. Carlisle Plastics was voted one of Walmart’s “Vendors of the Year”. During Binnie's tenure, Carlisle Plastics expanded significantly, employed thousands of workers and opened facilities throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. [8]
Binnie is currently the President of Carlisle Capital Corporation, an investment and venture capital company in New Hampshire.[9] "Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $2.5 to 5 million and employs a staff of approximately 5 to 9," said the tracking site Manta.com in 2009.[9]
Binnie currently owns the Wentworth By The Sea Country Club in Rye, once part of the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle. [10]
In 2011, Binnie acquired Television station WZMY, renaming it WBIN-TV. [11]
A lifetime driver and mechanic, Bill drove for Lotus before forming Binnie Motorsports. Binnie is a two-time class winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, twice as a driver and once as a team owner.[12] Bill has also won the ALMS Petite Le Mans Road Atlanta in Georgia, as well as the 12 hours of Sebring. The Team Binnie car is emblazoned with the Saint Andrew's Cross, the national flag of Scotland, which also adorns the side of their garage building.[13]
After the death of his long-time friend George Jackson, Binnie became a co-founder of the George Jackson Academy in New York City, NY which serves underprivileged youth.[7]
Binnie also makes a number of large anonymous charitable contributions which he refuses to publicly disclose.[14]
Binnie unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for the United States Senate seat currently held by Kelly Ayotte. The primary was held on September 14, 2010. Binnie ran for the Republican nomination against Hollis businessman Jim Bender, former State Board of Education chair Ovide Lamontagne, and former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who won the primary contest and went on to win the election.
Binnie announced his candidacy in November 2009,[15] stating that his political beliefs were modeled after the former President Ronald Reagan's vision of a limited government that fostered economic growth.[4]
Individuals working on the Binnie campaign included Republican consultant Arthur J. Finkelstein, based in New York, former NHGOP executive director[16] Paul Collins, and Sheri M. Keniston, formerly a congressional staffer for John E. Sununu.
During the 2010 Senate run Binnie's pro-choice view on abortion attracted death threats from radical anti-abortion terrorists, both against Binnie himself and against his elderly father. Other acts against Binnie and his family included vandalism of his daughter's car and threatening and harassing phone calls and postal mail.[17]
Binnie and his wife have a history of making political contributions to a variety of political causes and candidates. [18]
In 2010 Bill gave tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to New Hampshire Republican candidates for state and federal offices including New Hampshire Republican Congressman Frank Guinta, Florida Congressman Connie Mack, and Connecticut Candidate Tom Foley, as well as hundreds of thousands for New Hampshire Congressional Candidates through Revere America and sizable contributions to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. [19]
Binnie gave $8000 during the '00 political cycle, $5000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $2000 to New Hampshire Republican John Sununu's campaign, and $1000 to New Hampshire Democratic state Senator Martha Fuller Clark. [20]
Binnie also donated a total of $5000 to Ronald DiNicola in 1996, a Democrat in Pennsylvania; $1000 to Marty Meehan, a Democrat in Massachusetts; $3850 to Bill Zeliff, a Republican in New Hampshire. [21]
According to The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border by journalist and communist activist David Bacon (University of California Press), Carlisle Plastics closed a factory located in Santa Ana named A&E Plastics in 1989 and transferred its production to a factory located in Tijuana, Mexico, [8] a claim that has been disputed by Former Carlisle Plastics CFO Rajiv Bhatt in signed affidavits. [22]
Binnie has stated that Carlisle Plastics' labor relations with employees under his tenure had been excellent and that Carlisle's holdings had included a number of unionized U.S. facilities, that there had never been a strike at Carlisle during his tenure as the CEO, and that it is incorrect to say that the operations of A&E Plastics were moved to Mexico. [23] Binnie claims, "the employees were retained, they were doing different things."
2010 promotions in the form of personal television appearances made by Binnie, a New Hampshire resident, in advertisements aired by the tax-exempt 527 organization Americans for Responsible Health Care in favor of the campaign of Massachusetts senator Scott Brown in the special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy resulted in accusations from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that Binnie's promotion of Brown, as one Senatorial candidate promoting a different Senatorial candidate in a separate race, was illegal.
DSCC spokeswoman Deirdre Murphy told an affiliate of Congressional Quarterly, "Senate candidates are, by law, not allowed to form a '527' Issues Advocacy Group and run television advertisements for other candidates."[1]
Americans for Responsible Health Care stated that it was formed by and is run by Parker Collier of Naples, Florida, a friend of Binnie[24] but that Binnie did not found it and does not fund it.[25] However, Binnie simultaneously stated to the New Hampshire Union Leader that he had formed the group.[26][27]
The accusations did not result in formal charges. Binnie stated to journalist James Pindell, "The advertisement I appear in to support Scott Brown is entirely lawful and appropriate. Indeed, it was carefully reviewed by experienced campaign lawyers. The ad is being paid for entirely out of hard-dollar funds consistent with the federal election laws out of Mrs. Parker Collier’s personal funds and will be reported to the FEC as such."[28]
During Binnie's candidacy, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Concord Monitor, and several other newspapers raised questions about Binnie's business ethics in various articles discussing Binnie's candidacy.[10] At one point Binnie personally visited the Union Leader offices offering documentation to contradict the signed Carlisle Plastics annual report mentioned above that was quoted in the paper's August 22nd, 2010 story [1], calling for a retraction of that story. The Union Leader refused. The Binnie campaign then requested that an unaffiliated paper, Foster's Daily Democrat, retract the Union Leader's story, which Foster's and The Portsmouth Herald had reprinted. Foster's Executive Editor Rodney Doherty explained that it is the responsibility of the newspaper that originally prints a story to retract it.[29]
As of October 27th, 2010 Binnie had spent more than six million dollars on his campaign.[30]
Binnie publicly stated that he would have voted "no" on the stimulus plan had he been in office at the time. Binnie also publicly stated he would have fired CEOs on Wall Street had they had taken public monies because their companies had failed and it was therefore time for new management to be brought in.[31]
As an immediate solution for unemployment, Binnie stated that "he would advocate proposals for a job tax credit to aid the unemployed get jobs and by helping help employers afford their salary."[4]
After announcing to the Rye Republican Party that he would be filing for the US Senate, Binnie stated that he would make holding Washington spending accountable one of the key platforms of his campaign.[31]
Binnie proposed building new public medical schools for doctors, dentists, and nurses to handle the expected increase in demand for medical services.[15] [32] Binnie also said he would work to repeal the 2010 health care legislation, which he says is ineffective because it does not address affordability.[33]
During his own 2010 New Hampshire Senate campaign Binnie simultaneously founded and assisted the tax-exempt 527 organization Americans for Responsible Health Care in support of the campaign of victorious Senator Scott Brown in the neighboring state of Massachusetts.[1][24][25][26][27][28] Brown's success in that election altered the balance of power in the United States Senate, depriving the Democratic majority of the ability to overcome the filibuster parliamentary procedure, and hence affected the course of the legislative work on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In 2009 Binnie told reporters that he personally believes the term marriage applied only to a union between a man and a woman, but took no issue with the settled law in New Hampshire.[5] New Hampshire law allows both same sex and heterosexual couples to marry.
Binnie identifies himself as pro-choice.[5]
Binnie, himself a legal immigrant,[34] said during his 2010 campaign that he favors a path to legal citizenship for illegal aliens.[32] He stated during a debate that he opposes Arizona SB 1070 then subsequently released a radio advertisement saying that he understood why Arizona passed it.[35]
In a video campaign advertisement, Binnie stated that if elected he would insist that immigrants learn English.[36][35][37][34]
In the same advertisement Binnie stated that Americans "should have allegiance to one flag."[36][35][37][34]
Binnie stated in 2010 that he is in favor of constructing a wall or fence across the southern border of the United States for the purpose of controlling immigration. "The most profound problem we have with illegal immigration and the one that so disturbs fair-minded Americans is the inflow over the border of illegal aliens. We just feel viscerally that that's unfair, illegal, and wrong... we as a great superpower can certainly build a secure wall or fence that secures our borders."[34]
He said that although he supports the idea of a fence along the Mexican border he does not think that this is part of the solution for securing the Canadian border because the immigration challenges are different.[34]