GSNC/NHPBS

The State We’re In program

What are the differences between the candidates for governor or US Senator? Where do candidates stand on the issues that matter to you? The midterm election is next week, and there's a lot of information to sift through. The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda and a panel of journalists and state political experts talk about some of the major candidates and races on the ballot.

This content has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview on NH PBS's The State We’re In.

Melanie Plenda: Anna, let's start with you. Can you give us an overview of what's on the ballot?

Anna Brown: New Hampshire voters are going to be choosing almost everything except the US president at this point. We have races from the county level all the way up to the governor, to US house districts, and the US Senate seat currently held by Senator Maggie Hassen. There will be two ballot questions. One about eliminating a position called the registers of probate, and one about a constitutional convention.

Registers of probate are a traditional position, usually handling wills and other historical documents from the courts. Due to a reorganization of the courts in New Hampshire, Registers of probate don't really have many positions or duties at all anymore. It would take a constitutional amendment to eliminate that position, so that's what that question is about. Fun fact, you won't actually see the phrase ‘registers of probate’ anywhere in that question because it shows how the Constitution would look if you took out that reference to the position. The Constitutional convention is a question that appears on the ballot every 10 years and asks if we should have a convention to potentially rewrite the entire state constitution. As you can imagine, there are pros and cons to that. Either you get to have a fresh start and consider what's important going forward or alternatively, maybe we should leave things as they are because why mess with something that's mostly working.

Melanie Plenda: What would you say are some of the major issues that candidates have been talking about, and what seems to be resonating with voters?

Anna Brown: Inflation and abortion are definitely the topics that seem to come up most frequently. We've seen that reflected in polls. You'll see it in the ads from candidates on both sides of the issue at the state level. In New Hampshire, energy prices are really the focus of those inflation concerns. Democrats are arguing that renewable energy investments would've helped cushion the blow of rising natural gas prices, whereas Republicans argue those renewable energy investments would've blown up our prices even more and that the real problem is we need to increase supply, which comes down to federal action in particular. There's also the education freedom account program that I've seen is a very popular talking point among state candidates of both parties that allows students to take the per pupil share of state education funding and spend it on home schooling or private school expenses. Very controversial, very small percentage of overall school spending in New Hampshire. The public school funding system is really a much larger problem that legislators will have to tackle in the coming years. But in some ways, the smaller program is that flash point of the division between private investment versus public investment in a lot of public programs.

Melanie Plenda: Daniela, let's unpack that a little bit more. I know immigration and border issues have come up frequently, especially in the US Senate race between incumbent and former governor, Maggie Hassen, and her challenger, Doug Bullock. What's going on there?

Daniela Allee: Both of them have some similarities in terms of wanting to increase the border patrol ranks and keeping Title 42 in place, which authorizes the director of the CDC to suspend entry of individuals into the US to protect public health. That was implemented during the Trump administration. That's something the Biden administration wanted to retract back in April that was voted down, including by Senator Maggie Hasen. Hasen has also said that she supports physical barriers in specific areas along the border. Bullock says that he wants to see former President Trump's vision of a wall completed. Bullock is pretty critical of Hasan's record. His main message is that the border needs to be bolstered to protect the country from drug cartels, human trafficking, and weapons. Our reporter, Gabby Lozada, has been covering a lot of these issues over the past few months and one area that Hasan has actually received a lot of criticism for from Latino advocates in the state is about her support for that Title 42 policy. She's received a lot of pushback in recent months from that but as Anna alluded to earlier, inflation and abortion are kind of the top issues. Some advocates are setting immigration aside and hoping that some of those things can be resolved after the election because they see some of these other issues as needed to be contended with first.

Melanie Plenda: Another issue that's been top of mind for some folks is climate change, and what New Hampshire can do to slow it down. That's been an issue in the governor's race. Can you talk to us more about that?

Daniela Allee: My colleague, Mara Hoplamazian, has also been focused on this. Energy prices are really the focus of a lot of these discussions. I think Anna summed it up really well in terms of the differences in positions. But sometimes that connection between climate change and energy isn't always made on the campaign trail. What we are seeing is that some voters might feel that that's not being talked enough about. Sununu news focused his campaign on the way that New Hampshire hasn't followed the rest of the New England states and opposing climate initiatives that those states have adopted and vetoing a variety of legislation in the past. Related to the energy transition Sherman says that the state should be doing more to fight climate change, and he sees clean energy as a way to lower costs for rate payers.

Sununu says that if that happens too quickly, it'd be costly for rate payers. One thing that was interesting that Mara pointed out in some of their reporting was just that experts that they talked with found that it's hard to run on climate change and that neither political party has necessarily found a way to make that compelling to voters. It's just a tough time to talk about changes that could be happening. Obviously the energy prices are things we're experiencing now, but to talk about projects or things that might come online like offshore wind five to ten years from now, it's hard to talk about that in a compelling way when there are many issues that people are concerned about in the here and now. 

Melanie Plenda: Rick, Andrew and Steven, let's talk about some more about the governor's race. What sets the two candidates, current governor Chris Sununu and Challenger State Senator Tom Sherman, apart?

Rick Green: Well, a big issue that separates them is abortion, and Sununu signed a ban on abortion for women who are more than 24 weeks pregnant. This was last year he did it, and it's become a centerpiece in the campaign against him, and really a centerpiece a lot of democratic campaigns right now. Sherman says that having an abortion should be between a woman and her doctor and feels the government shouldn't be involved and Sununu who said he had his hands tied and signing that abortion ban because it was part of a budget trailer legislation, and there's some debate on how much flexibility he did have to veto that. Meanwhile, the issue took on even greater significance this summer when the US Supreme Court overturned its Roe v Wade precedent, and that basically turned the abortion issue and restrictions on it into the hands of the state. Sherman being a medical doctor, this is right in his wheelhouse and he's been talking about abortion a lot. And Sununu feels like this could put Sununu on the back foot a little bit. 

Steven Porter: I think another major issue in this race has been the topic of housing affordability. I know that Governor Sununu has touted the $100 million invested in each plan that has been approved and is on its way to being disbursed. Senator Sherman, Dr. Sherman has said that a hundred million dollar plan is great, but let's add to it because the hundred million dollars was part of the American Rescue plan that Democrats in Congress approved. The state has just decided how to use those funds in the most effective way, but it's a onetime investment. Dr. Sherman's response has been, let's do a $35 million recurring investment on an annual basis. We've got hundreds of millions of dollars in state clerk surplus funds each year, so let's take some of that money and reinvest it in housing affordability. And so that's been a, a major touch point for the two of them.

Andrew Sylvia: Building on what Steven said, I know Senator Sherman has attacked Sununu on not following up on the rental assistance from federal government while Sununu has attacked the federal government for not continuing the rental assistance. Also name recognition has been a big factor. Sununu has been governor for a long time. He comes from a family with a long political background while Sherman has been struggling to get his name out there. It's going to be tough with such little time left to get voters to know who he is. I know in the NHIOP poll, it still looked like he had a lot of voters out there who still didn't know a lot about him. From people I've talked to in Manchester, they say they're still doing research on him, but there are a lot of voters out there who won't make their up their mind until a day out. 

Melanie Plenda: Anna, Andrew and Steven, the US Senate race between Hassen and Bullock has also been pretty lively. Let's talk about the arc of that race and what sets those candidates apart. 

Anna Brown: I think one of the most remarkable things about this campaign has been the stark differences between styles of the two candidates. Senator Maggie Hassen has held often tightly controlled semi-private events, whereas General Don Bullock has spent the last two years going around the state and talking to voters. Part of what we're going to see in the election is which of those campaign styles were more effective? Sometimes they are similar on issues related to immigration and border policy, but on other issues such as election integrity, stark contrast. General Bullock has doubled down that he's heard voters are being busted up from Massachusetts, for example, something that Governor Sununu knew and the Secretary of State say did not happen, is not true. No evidence of widespread fraud. Senator Maggie Hassen highlights this in saying General Bullock is undermining trust in our democracy. Once again, we come back to the issue of abortion. Of course, General Bullock says he would not vote for a federal ban, but Senator Hassen has said you can't trust him on that. We need to have a senator who's going to vote to protect the right to choose. It's an interesting campaign, not just on the issues, but also in styles.

Andrew Sylvia: There's definitely a big difference in styles between the two candidates for US Senate, and also going from that race to the first house race as well. It is kind of a parallel in the fact that both Maggie Hassen and Chris Pappas have run on bipartisanship. Both of them talk about their bipartisan record. The Luger Center named Senator Hassen as one of the most bipartisan senators ever this year. She's been trying to react to the claims about town halls by doing on the street meeting with voters. I've been with her on a few of those trips recently. So, but like you said, like was said before, she does not do town halls. I often wonder if that's in part due to things like the recent attack on the husband of Speaker Pelosi, if there's concern with Democrats about people who might be in town hall audiences. 

Steven Porter: I think that this issue of campaign style really is front and center. That's why it came up in the NHPR debate. That's why Maggie Hassen was asked about it in a recent WMUR closeup interview. If you are watching this contest unfold through the press, you might not realize exactly how different their campaign styles have been. I went to an event with Maggie Hassen in Rochester, where she sat down at a round table with about seven or eight employees of a local business, and she listened to them about the local employment environment and talked to them about the CHIPS Act and how that will help their business in her view. I think that that type of event where she's sitting down face to face in a very controlled, semi-private environment; it really characterizes her approach. Whereas Dawn Vick's campaign says that he's held 75 of these town halls, and I've been to those town halls, and I think that it's fair to characterize the way he interacts with those crowds as gregarious. That's just a stark difference in campaign style that we could see play out on election day.

Melanie Plenda: Steven, Andrew and Anna, the first Congressional district, which we touched on, has also been very lively and contentious. Steven, let's start with you. Tell us about the candidates incumbent Chris Pappas and Challenger Caroline Leavitt, and some of the issues that have been bandied about there.

Steven Porter: Pappas is the Democratic incumbent. He is 42 years old, was first elected in 2018, reelected in 2020, so he's looking for a third term. He made history as New Hampshire's first openly gay member of Congress. He also served previously on the New Hampshire Executive Council and the State House of Representatives. Caroline Leavitt is the Republican challenger. If she wins, this would be her first time holding public office but she has served closely with high ranking officials, including working in the White House Press office under President Trump. She has also worked for representative Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York. Leavitt is 25 years old, just barely old enough to qualify for this race. If she does win, she would make history as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress on the campaign trail. Leavitt has accused Pappas of being lockstep with Democrats in Washington, including President Trump and Nancy Pelosi. She has placed blame for our current inflationary pressures on Pappas and the Democrats; Pappas meanwhile, has argued that he has a track record of bipartisan problem solving, and he's accused Leavitt of using national attack lines and treating politics as performance arts. 

Andrew Sylvia: It's very similar to the Hassen and Bullock race, except for the fact that Bullock is a little bit more gregarious, as was said earlier. I don't know if scripted is the right word, but she sounds like many other Republicans across the nation focusing on inflation. The St. Ansen poll that came out yesterday said she now has a lead over Pappas. We'll see if that lead holds up, I noticed that that poll was taken on Friday and Saturday nights, so there might have been some young people who didn't respond. I know young people respond to Democrats more than Republicans. Pappas had been trying to lean on his bipartisan record while Leavitt is mostly focusing on attacking Pappas as being lockstep with national Democrats.

Anna Brown: I would say that a lot of the attacks that we see on TV ads are questionable. I would say, honestly, from from both sides, that at multiple levels of campaigns, I know that for example, a lot of the attacks on Caroline Leavitt say that she would vote for an abortion ban, which she says very clearly, I would not vote for a federal abortion ban. Democrats then bring forward previous statements she's made about being a pro-life candidate voting for pro-life issues. But it's left to the voter to decide. Do you believe the words that Caroline Leavitt is saying now, that she would not vote for a national abortion ban? Or do you believe that before Roe v Wade was overturned, before this became more of an immediate policy issue, that she would support pro-life policy? 

Similarly, when you're talking about Chris Pappas and the attacks against him, it can be simultaneously true that he does work in a bipartisan fashion. He does try to bring people together on issues. It can be also true that he does support that larger democratic agenda on issues such as the Inflation Reduction Act. It's very hard for voters to evaluate what's true and what's false, because there's always a kernel of truth in these accusations. But you really have to dig into the nuance and be a judge for yourself about what sort of candidate would this person be if they held that office, If their foot was to the fire and they had to vote on a controversial bill.

Melanie Plenda: Rick and Anna, let's talk about the second Congressional district. What's been going on with that race and what sets the candidates incumbent Alan Custer and Robert Burns apart? 

Rick Green: Like a lot of races this year, inflation is center most on a lot of people's minds. With Burns really challenging Custer and trying to lay inflation at the feet of the Democratic incumbents, saying the trillions of dollars of spending during the pandemic were directly related to the high inflation we're seeing right now. It's about 8.2% in the consumer price index increase year over year. Annie Custer says we were facing potential economic collapse at that time and a lot of the pandemic related spending was approved under both the Trump administration and the Biden administration. Inflation is a worldwide issue affecting many countries, even more severely than the United States. And the war in Ukraine. Of course, supply disruptions caused by the pandemic are also to blame. But this is something where it's just a huge issue between Republicans and Democrats, on spending. Burns talks about it's just too much federal spending, and Kuster defends a lot of the spending that has been done.

Anna Brown: I feel like you can't talk about the second congressional district without noting the stark difference in fundraising between incumbent Custer and Challenger Robert Burns. Custer has had over a decade of fundraising under her belt. She's won many times. The district leans left, and she has, I think it's close to 10 times the amount of Robert Burns who is not getting a ton of support from state or National Republicans to run his campaign, because it is seen as a very challenging uphill battle for Republicans. I've noticed him stake out some very interesting positions that are perhaps appealing to some democratic voters at the NHPR/New Hampshire Bulletin debate last week. I remember he notably said he supported Medicare for All, and he said that he was actually the only Republican he knew of who supported Medicare for All. He's also really focused on the donations Custer receives from pharmaceutical companies and argues more or less that she's in the pocket of pharmaceutical companies. He's teasing out these healthcare issues that are unconventional for Republicans, but also not so present in the first Congressional district or the US Senate campaign. 

Melanie Plenda: While a lot of the statewide and federal races get most of the attention, local races will have some of the biggest impacts on the lives of Granite Staters. Let's talk about some of those more local but impactful races. Anna and Steven, let's talk about the executive council. Anna, can you explain what the executive council is and what they have tackled in the last year? Then we'll go to Steven to tell us about the candidates.

Anna Brown: The Executive Council is responsible for approving government contracts and then approving appointments to various government agencies and judgeships. The executive council usually makes the news when there's a really controversial vote, which is why voters may not be so familiar with what they do. Last year, at one point they voted to reject federal funds for vaccines. They ended up reversing that vote later on, but it was very controversial at the time. Recently they've been in the news for rejecting family planning contracts that would potentially direct money towards Planned Parenthood for family planning and healthcare services. They also recently voted to reject funding for some sex ed contracts, arguing that there should have been more emphasis on abstinence, just completely abstaining from sex. These are definitely hot button social issues in particular for an office that otherwise is a lot of number crunching and budgeting, and people not really paying attention.

Steven Porter: Currently the council has four Republicans and one Democrat. With the redistricting process that was just completed, there are widespread expectations that all of the incumbents are favored to win reelection, which would mean that the Republicans in that scenario, if all of the incumbents win, would hold onto their majority on the council. The one Democrat on the council, Cindy Warmington, told me that partisan gerrymandering is clearly the reason why there's a four to one split on the council. She said that New Hampshire is not an 80 20 state. The council currently doesn't represent New Hampshire's values. She's been working for the past two years in order to get a full slate of candidates to challenge all five races. That's why you see five candidates, one in each of the five districts running for one for reelection and for challenging Republican incumbents.

I wrote a story highlighting a couple of those races, including in district three, where incumbent counselor Janet Stevens is being challenged by Democratic nominee Katherine Hirai. That is the one district of the five that Andrew Smith with the UNH Survey Center told me leans toward Republicans, but could go to Democrats in a big democratic year. He added that this is not likely to be a big Democratic year. From his perspective, he thinks that we will still have to afford one Republican majority on the council after this election. 

Melanie Plenda: State senators and representatives all also have a huge impact on local life and issues. Anna and Daniela, why are these positions important and what are some of the decisions that have been made at the State House this session? 

Anna Brown: There's certainly a lot of attention on the national stage with federal spending, the war in Ukraine, Trump looms large at all times, but a lot of what people experience as voters comes from the state and local level. A perfect example is property taxes. Those are set at the local level, but greatly impacted by state funding choices, particularly related to public education. We've talked earlier about the housing shortage. That's another problem that's not really solvable at the federal level. That's why Governor Sununu and Senator Tom Sherman both support investing state funds in housing in one way or another. Marijuana legalization, another one that could hit close to home. For a lot of people, state revenue is an issue there. Also concern about public safety, particularly drugs and driving. How do we deal with that? Meanwhile, neighborhood states already legalized it, so we're in the middle there with an island of prohibition. That's an issue that Senator Tom Sherman in particular has tried to bring into the gubernatorial debate, but I'm not sure if it's going to get people to the polls.

Daniela Allee: One thing that my team and I are focused on in our reporting is a lot of energy and climate and environment policy gets made at the state level, in particular by state reps and state senators. What gets passed or voted down there can have an effect on the direction New Hampshire's going. Last year a couple of Senate bills meant to help New Hampshire get ready for an offshore wind industry passed through both bodies and were signed by governor Sununu. Other energy and environment items are a lot more contentious and often don't come through. Like establishing greenhouse gas emission reduction goals that would be binding. New Hampshire is an outlier in the region and not having those. Those are some other issues too, that if that's something that voters care about or are interested in, a lot of that gets done at state level.

Melanie Plenda: Anna and Daniela, can you tell us about the voting information and resources available at Citizens Count and NHPR'S websites? 

Daniela Allee: We have voter guides in English and in Spanish available on NHPR’S website. We've also been doing interviews with our reporters about where candidates stand on issues like immigration, the economy, education, energy, and climate change so people can compare and contrast to there. Along with the Granite State News Collaborative and Citizens Count, we have a website where people can check out the survey responses that candidates have filled out for Citizens Count in Spanish so that folks can look and see where everyone from the executive council to their local potential representatives stand on a number of issues.

Anna Brown: Our website, citizenscount.org, has profiles for every state candidate, from State House all the way up to US Senate. That includes issue positions and background. As Daniela mentioned, we do send a survey to every single candidate. Over half of those have responded, but for those who don't respond, we also go out and research, look for issue positions on their website, statements on Facebook, and other video interviews. We really want to be that one stop shop for unbiased voter information. You can also find your polling location and time if you need to. Citizenscount.org, if you select elections and go to that page on our website, it's in the navigation bar, you can select your town from the drop down menu to get all that information.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.