Tuesday, Sept. 10 was one of those days when everything seemed to be happening at once. It was the state primary election day in New Hampshire. Then, without organizers realizing the timing, the Bishop’s Summer Reception was scheduled for the Currier Museum in the evening. Later, the presidential candidates scheduled their first, and maybe only, debate for 9 p.m. And that was the date I got our firm’s Red Sox tickets to take clients to Boston.
In the primary, the major races for November were decided. On the Republican side, as expected, former senator and attorney general Kelly Ayotte handily defeated former state Senate president Chuck Morse for the gubernatorial nomination.
Morse, in an inexplicable flub, answered a question in the debate on WMUR that he disagreed with former Vice President Mike Pence’s actions on Sept. 6, 2021, which was a change from his comments at the time.
Ayotte, having a strong lead in most polls, targeted Democrat Joyce Craig in her ads, blaming all sorts of alleged problems in Manchester on Craig. Democrat Cinde Warmington similarly blamed Manchester’s ills on Craig in her ads.
When Craig defeated Warmington by about 6% in the Democratic primary, the refutation of the negative picture of Manchester was satisfying to many of us Manchester residents. Expect this to accelerate in the general election campaign.
In the open congressional campaign in the 2nd District, the victory of Democrat Maggie Goodlander by a wide margin, defeating Colin Van Ostern, was a surprising margin, in that relatively safe seat for Democrats. More surprising was the victory of very conservative Lilly Tang Williams over businessman Vikram Mansharamani by more than 8%. This should ensure a Goodlander victory in November.
In the 1st District, GOP voters picked Russell Prescott, former state Senate member and Executive Council member, to face Chris Pappas, sparing the voters from having to be exposed to Manchester Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur for the duration of the campaign. Prescott has a hill to climb getting known district-wide, as he won with 26%, although he is an experienced and capable campaigner. Incumbent Pappas undoubtedly enters the race as the favorite.
Two Executive Council races had no incumbent. In the 2nd District, being vacated by Warmington, Karen Liot Hill defeated Michael Liberty for the Democratic nomination in this heavily Democratic district. She will face GOP candidate Kim Strathdee. In the 4th District, open when Ted Gatsas retired, former Health and Human Services commissioner John Stephen beat four opponents for the GOP nomination and will face Manchester School Board Vice Chair Jim O’Connell in the general election. In the 5th District, former state Senate member Melanie Leveque beat Shoshanna Kelly for the Democratic nomination to face incumbent David Wheeler.
Of course, there also were contests for the 400 House members and 24 Senate members (although not many contests in either party for the Senate), and county offices as well. What will concern many is the small number of actual votes that decided who will face off in the November election, and why more voters did not turn out.
While all this was going on, this writer, in my capacity as chairman of the NH Ballot Law Commission, accompanied state Secretary of State David Scanlan to Manchester Ward 9 and Londonderry High School, to help show the U.S. head of cybersecurity our elections and why they are secure.
Steady streams of voters came through both polling places, with Londonderry Town Moderator Jonathan Kipp keeping his steady hand on voting with newly certified vote-counting devices. The many safeguards in New Hampshire elections, chief among them that each voter has an actual ballot, led to positive comments from Jen Easterly, the cybersecurity agency director, about the safety of elections here.
The Bishop’s Summer Reception was a respite between the election tour and the later debate. This event caps fundraising for the Bishop’s Charitable Assistance Fund, which allows the bishop of Manchester to support agencies all over New Hampshire, providing services for basic needs. The fund has raised and distributed over $7 million since it was started in 1985.
The day was capped by the debate. Former President Trump continued to amaze with false statements, outright lies, fiction and taking the bait from Vice President Harris, who accomplished her task of taking charge of the debate and executing her plan.
Two answers struck me.. First was Trump’s failure to explain how he would improve or replace the Affordable Care Act. Second was his story about immigrants eating “pets” in an Ohio town that had seen large settlement by immigrants. This allowed both the questioners and the commentators afterward, easy material to demonstrate Trump’s repeating fiction he sees online.
I never made it to the Red Sox, but they lost anyway.
Brad Cook is a Manchester attorney. The views expressed in this column are his own. He can be reached at bradfordcook01@gmail.com.
