By Max Scheinblum-Granite State News Collaborative

The job of New Hampshire governor is largely like that of any other state. Propose a budget, sign or veto bills and be the “face” of the state, among various other duties. 

But New Hampshire’s chief executive position comes with one catch: the Executive Council. 

A few other states have similar set-ups, but their councils are largely advisory. New Hampshire’s, on the other hand, has significant authority within the executive branch. Its five members each represent a district in New Hampshire and vote on the governor’s state agency and judicial nominations, pardons and have to approve any government contract over $10,000.

“So, with that, it makes it very difficult for governors of New Hampshire to actually be truly a full-power chief executive,” said Tama Andrews, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. “And they get to deal with the second-largest legislative body in the United States, which is [New Hampshire’s] state legislature, and it's 424 members.”

“Like, who would want to be doing this?” she added.

Another power sapper is the two-year term limit for the role, meaning the governorship is up for grabs every even-numbered  year. New Hampshire and Vermont are the only states with two-year gubernatorial terms, and candidates in each can run as many times as they want - something 37 states cannot say. But the Executive Council and shorter term length make New Hampshire’s chief executive among the least powerful in the country. So, Andrews said, they must be calculated in how they use the power of the position to get things done. 

Some of their duties, which the  New Hampshire Constitution outlines, are more formal and procedural – like the ability to call a special legislative session during the offseason. Others are more a measure of the governor’s standing within their party and the country, like how effectively they lobby the federal government for things like natural disaster aid. Andrews noted current Gov. Chris Sununu was very effective at using both types of power.

But he is ending his record-tying fourth term this year and not seeking reelection, leaving a wide-open gubernatorial field for the first time since 2016. Kelly Ayotte, the former New Hampshire attorney general and U.S. Senator, picked up Sununu’s endorsement in her campaign against Chuck Morse, the former N.H. Senate president, for the Republican party nomination for governor on November’s ballot.

On the Democratic side, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, Cinde Warmington, the Executive Council’s lone Democrat, and former Newmarket Town Councilor and restaurateur Jon Kiper are running for the Democratic nomination

.

The Know Your Vote, youth voter guide  project was designed, reported and produced by student and young professional journalists from The Clock,The Concord Monitor, The Equinox, Granite State News Collaborative, Keene State College, The Laconia Daily Sun, The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nashua Ink Link and The Presidency and the Press program at Franklin Pierce University. See the full guide at  www.collaborativenh.org/know-your-vote.