He joined the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet in his teenage years, and after leaving the cadet corps rose through the organization to the rank of Major. In 2009 he was transferred from the unit in Nashua to take over as the Squadron Commander for the unit in Manchester New Hampshire.
Political career
Timothy Smith started in politics with serving a year on the school district budget committee in Milford, New Hampshire, where he graduated from High School only several years earlier. In 2012 he first ran for elected office in Manchester, New Hampshire, running in an uncontested primary for State Representative. In his first general election, he was the top vote-getter after earning 27.4% of the vote in a four-way race for two seats. In this election he defeated two incumbents including the chair of the local Manchester Republican Party as well as an incumbent who had been in office for 30 years. In his bid for re-election in 2014 he faced off in a three-way primary for two spots on the general election ballot, and again was the top vote getter with 43% of the vote. He went on to win the general election with 26.4% of the vote, the top slot again among four candidates for two seats. He has not stated publicly if he intends to run for office in 2016. In 2015 he was elected to a position on the New Hampshire Democratic Party state committee. During his time in the legislature he has written bills on a variety of topics including overturning citizens united with a constitutional amendment through Article V of the US Constitution, protecting rape victims against prolonged child custody battles, and raising penalties for corporate crime. During his time in the New Hampshire House Of Representatives he has gained a reputation for using strong language in floor speeches and has attracted attention for his linguistic style, going so far as to openly describe one bill as being a "scam" and calling out other legislators at the podium who supported bills they may have had conflicts of interest on. Smith was recognized as the 2015 "Young Elected Official Of The Year" by the NH Young Democrats.
Involvement in satire controversy
In 2013 Timothy Smith was involved in an email discussion with a fellow legislator, Representative Jordan Ulery, which led to national attention because of an email Representative Ulery had sent to the entire New Hampshire House listserv where he failed to recognize satire news articles, and passed them along as legitimate stories. Timothy Smith sent Ulery a harsh reply, which was also sent Reply-All to all 400 of their fellow legislators, and which someone subsequently leaked to the press for comedy value. Later, Ulery left a comment in response to a post about the incident indicating that after further thought he no longer suspected Smith of leaking the emails. Smith had subsequently stated he did not know how the original website got the story.
