Several candidates in the Nov. 8 election took part in a forum presented by the Peterborough Plus unit of the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire (LWVNH) Wednesday, Oct. 19, at the Peterborough Town Library.
Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington was at the event, along with local state Senate candidates Matt McLaughlin, Charlene Lovett and Donovan Fenton.
Kate Coon, chair for the Peterborough Plus Unit of the League of Women Voters (LWV), moderated the event, and read from a list of questions that were submitted by residents, the first of which was for Warmington.
The Executive Council, which is unique to New Hampshire in terms of the authority it has, approves or denies all state contracts over $10,000, nominates judges and heads of various boards and has the right to veto the governor.
Warmington represents Dublin, Hancock, Peterborough and Sharon as the District 2 representative to the council. She said she has always fought for public health issues while on the council, was asked how state legislators interact with the Executive Council.
“One of the things I noticed when campaigning in my first campaign was that I found there was very little interaction between the Executive Council and the state Legislature,” she said, adding that after she was elected, she immediately started to reach out to leadership in the House and Senate. “One recommendation was that the three caucuses – the Executive Council, the House and the Senate – all meet regularly and we now do that.”
There are five Executive Council districts and four of them are held by Republicans. Warmington, the sole Democrat, said one of the most-notable expenses that came before the council during her term was the request to accept and spend $27 million to distribute vaccines last fall.
“The Executive Council voted it down and I moved for reconsideration,” she said, adding that it was put on the table and subsequently rejected again. Vaccine distribution didn’t get started until December 2021, during a time when the country saw a spike and a surge in cases, she said. “That’s a good example of how impactful the Executive Council can be for allocation of federal funds.”
Warmington also said she has voted to accept and spend funds for family planning centers, which she has voted in favor of four times while her colleagues have voted against these funds.
“They’re basing their decisions on an anti-abortion platform that has nothing to do with family planning,” she said.
The $1 million in proposed contracts with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Lovering Health Center and Equality Health Center would have served nearly 17,600 Granite Staters and would focus on people who are low-income, uninsured, underinsured, adolescents, LGTBQ+, refugees and people at risk of unintended pregnancy because of substance abuse. Just four sites are supported with state contracts in Berlin, Laconia, Manchester and Nashua.
Lovett is running in state Senate District 8, which represents Antrim, Bennington and Francestown. She said she chose to run in large part because of the defunding of family planning, which has made it nearly impossible for those in her region to find care without lengthy drives, was asked about her position on bodily autonomy.
“Bodily autonomy means you have the ability to make your own decisions about your own body, your own well-being, and what’s best for you at any given time,” she said.
Fenton, a Keene resident who has spent three terms in the New Hampshire House and is now running for a Senate seat in District 10, representing Dublin, Hancock and Peterborough, was also asked about his stance on bodily autonomy.
“Creating regulations to control women’s bodies is wrong,” he said. “Roe v. Wade was overturned, ending 50 years of abortion rights and there’s no compromise on this subject.”
McLaughlin, who is running for a state Senate seat in District 9 to represent Greenfield, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Sharon and Temple, was asked about his position on lowering the business profits tax in New Hampshire and whether it is accomplishing what it intends or merely shifts the tax burden.
“I do agree if you lower the business tax it’s a theory of trickle-down economy, but I don’t think it works,” he said. “I don’t think it raises the state revenue level and I think it forces the taxes to be paid by someone else. It might be great for the top five or one percent but it forces property taxes to increase. I know mine have gone up since Governor [Chris] Sununu took office.”
Coon said she was pleased with the speakers and their responses to questions. All of the candidates at the event were Democrats, and Coon said that in the past this hasn’t been the case.
“They make it hard to find them,” she said, adding that Republicans often don’t put their information in Citizens Count, which tracks candidates. “I have to track them down. All three of the state Senate candidates sent their regrets they would be unable to attend.”
Overall Coon said she loved the quality of people running and their responses.
“They’ll be good representatives for us,” she said.
On Thursday Oct. 27 at 7 pm, the LWV of Greater Nashua will have a meeting open to all LWVNH members. The Zoom link can be found by emailing lwvgreaternashua@gmail.com.