Having sparred from politically opposite ends of the table on the Executive Council, Colin Van Ostern and Chris Sununu will now be debating on the campaign trail as they work to secure outgoing Gov. Maggie Hassan’s seat.
While Democratic candidate Van Ostern was able to secure his party’s nomination for governor with a majority support, the Republican side of the ticket had a nail-bitingly close race between Van Ostern’s Executive Council bretheren Sununu and businessman and state Rep. Frank Edelblut of Wilton.
The race was too close to call, even by midday on Wednesday, as the final numbers rolled in on the GOP candidate for governor.
Sununu, Edelblut and Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas started the race fairly evenly as early results came in, but slowly, the gap grew, and despite predictions that it would be Gatsas giving Sununu a run for his money, it was Edelblut that was right on his heels. Edelblut stayed within a close margin to the end, where he ultimately lost by about 800 votes.
But while Edelblut may have trailed statewide, the Monadnock region was clear in their support of a local candidate. Edelblut secured wins in all 16 towns within the Ledger-Transcript’s circulation, in some areas getting twice or three times as many votes as Sununu, his closest competitor in most cases. In several of the smaller towns, such as Mason, Greenville, Bennington and Sharon, where Edelblut monopolized a large chunk of the votes, Sununu did on par with Gatsas or Jeanie Forrester.
“[Edelblut’s] a solid guy that represents my ideals,” said Rindge resident Larry Cleveland. “He’s a fierce fighter against the Common Core and he is a Second Amendment supporter.”
“He’s a solid man of integrity,” agreed Dublin resident Neil Sandford. “I feel that he is a candidate that will tell the truth and stand up for what’s right.”
Edelblut is within the 1.5 percent margin to qualify for a recount of the votes, if he or a petition of voters requests.
Van Ostern garnered 52 percent of the vote, and his race was called early Tuesday night, Van Ostern with a comfortable lead over runner-up Steve Marchand, beating him handily with twice as many votes.
“And if you elect me in November, I will spend every day as your governor focused on good jobs, good schools, and good access to health care – on overcoming the opioid crisis and always protecting women’s health,” said Van Ostern in his acceptance of the nomination. “And we’ll do it with no income tax, and no sales tax.”
For the most part across the Monadnock region, Van Ostern’s domination of the field held true – especially in some of the more populous towns in the region, where a 2-1 lead for Van Ostern led to a significant number of votes, such as Peterborough, Jaffry and Rindge.
There were only two towns in the region where Van Ostern didn’t hold the day – Greenville, where he only gained 16 votes to Marchand’s 44, and Mason, where Van Ostern and Marchand were evenly matched with 33 votes each.
Van Ostern said he will be moving forward with an issue-based campaign, including increasing the state’s access to renewable energy, creating public full-day kindergarten, addressing the opioid crisis and building a commuter rail to Boston.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.