“I am deeply honored to officially receive the Democratic nomination for the Executive Council in New Hampshire’s Fifth District,” Dan Weeks said in a statement after Tuesday’s primary. “The past few months have been an incredible and humbling adventure.”
Winning an uncontested primary, Temple native and ConVal graduate Dan Weeks is officially the Democratic nominee to represent District 5 in the executive council.
Weeks, who now resides in Nashua, will challenge Republican incumbent Dave Wheeler for the seat in the general election.
“Although I respect Councilor Wheeler’s long tenure in state politics, I believe his record is one of misguided allegiance to the values of the Koch brothers, not Granite State values,” Weeks said in the statement. “New Hampshire and the Fifth District deserve to be represented on the Executive Council by someone who shares their values and aspirations.”
Wheeler, a Milford resident, was first elected to the Executive Council in 2000, and has been involved in New Hampshire politics since 1988.
Weeks announced his candidacy in March in part because he felt underrepresented by Wheeler.
Though the election was uncontested, it was not without its quirks. In Francestown, Weeks was voted as a write-in candidate for US Senate, Congressional District 2, and County Commissioner, positions for which he did not campaign. In Lyndeborough, he got one vote in the Republican primary, and in Mason, Wheeler got one in the Democratic primary.
Executive Council District 5 encompasses south-central New Hampshire and much of the Monadnock Region, including 14 of the 16 towns in the Ledger-Transcript coverage area: Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Mason, New Ipswich, Peterborough, Rindge, Sharon, Temple and Wilton.
District 2, home of Dublin and Hancock, was won by Democrat Andru Volinsky of Concord, who got 57 percent of the vote; and Republican Sam Cataldo of Farmington, who ran unopposed. The District 2 seat is currently held by Colin Van Ostern, who won the Democratic nomination for governor.