Peterborough-based entrepreneur Jeanne Dietsch and New Boston Town Moderator Lee Nyquist met Tuesday, Sept. 6, for the primary season’s final Monadnock Debate.
The candidates are competing for the Democratic Party nomination to run for the State Senate seat for District 9. It is currently occupied by incumbent Andy Sanborn of Bedford.
The debate, which is co-sponsored by the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and Franklin Pierce University’s Fitzwater Center for Communications was held at FPU.
A video of the debate can be seen here.
The first question – who is your political role model – was the lone character-based question, and subsequent discussion was purely issues-based.
Dietsch picked fellow entrepreneur Benjamin Franklin, about whom she owns eight books. Nyquist named former Gov. and FPU President Walter Peterson, a Republican and “source for moderation, collaboration and ultimately good government.”
At the end of the debate, both candidates were asked what they thought the most important issue facing District 9 is, and Nyquist said it was the opioid crisis, which was also the subject of an earlier question.
“We are on the road to full disaster,” he said.
He said supporting Medicaid expansion and the Patient Protection Act are crucial, since the state only has about one-third the neccessary funding to fight addiction.
He and Dietsch agreed on the importance of the five-point plan for recovery: restoring the state’s “alcohol fund” (which uses up to five percent of liqueur sale revenue to fight dependence), making Medicaid expansion permanent, creating education programs, developing a bigger behavioral health workforce, and removing barriers to insurance coverage.
Dietsch praised what Gov. Maggie Hassan’s administration has done so far for this cause. She added that she believes this is an economic issue, and that her plans to bring more jobs to New Hampshire will keep people from getting addicted.
“We need to stop telling children that their future is dire,” she said. “We need to convey optimism and hope and promise about the future.”
Dietsch thinks the most pressing issue is the constant growth of property taxes.
One of her principal focuses in the debate was on how many voters she has visited personally, roughly 3,200 she said. Of those, she estimated one-in-five expects to move within five years because of taxation. The former Peterborough Zoning Board chair thinks that this is evidence the state Legislature is “working against us.”
The debate was moderated by Kristen Nevious. The panel included Heather McKernan, publisher of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript; Michele Nuttle, its news editor; and Christina Cliff, a professor of political science at FPU.
District 9 Democratic voters will choose to nominate Dietsch or Nyquist in the Sept. 13 primary. The winner will try to unseat Andy Sanborn on Nov. 8 in the general election.
New Hampshire State Senate District 9 contains the towns of Dublin, Greenfield, Hancock, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Peterborough, Sharon, Temple, Bedford, Fitzwilliam, Mont Vernon, Fitzwilliam, Richmond and Troy.