District 5 candidates for Executive Council talk issues before primary

Aug. 31--Health care, infrastructure and government transparency.

Those are some of the most important issues facing New Hampshire, according to candidates running in the race for N.H. Executive Councilor in District 5. The district includes the area towns of Antrim, Bennington, Fitzwilliam, Greenfield, Jaffrey, Peterborough, Richmond, Rindge, Swanzey and Troy.

Councilor Colin Van Ostern serves District 2, which covers many Monadnock Region communities, including Keene. He doesn't have a primary opponent.

After incumbent District 5 Councilor Debora B. Pignatelli announced she would not seek re-election earlier this year, four are vying for her seat: Diane Sheehan, D-Nashua, Jennifer Daler, D-Temple, Steven J. Hattamer, R-Hollis, and David Wheeler, R-Milford. A nominee from each party will be chosen on the Sept. 9 primary.

Sheehan, Hattamer and Daler outlined their credentials for the job and talked issues in recent interviews. Wheeler, who served as an executive councilor in the past, could not be reached for comment.

The Executive Council is a small and powerful entity in state government. Its members are responsible for approving state contracts of $10,000 or more, confirming heads of state agencies, members of state boards and commissions, and appointing judges.

The Democrats

Running on the Democratic side of the race are Sheehan, a Nashua alderman, and Daler, a former state representative.

Each has experience in politics and civil service they tout as the necessary to be an executive councilor.

Sheehan said she became involved in politics because of the deep spending cuts across the state in 2010, during the tenure of a Republican-controlled state House and Senate.

"I was so concerned because we saw so much happen in the city with the 2010 administration with cuts to education," Sheehan said. "All the budgets have to be balanced, but all the cuts were passed down to the city of Nashua."

Sheehan said her experience as a city alderman allows her to see how spending decisions in state government affect towns and cities.

"It's seeing how things translate to the community," she said. "I think I would be a better alderman with that information and I think I would be a better councilor."

On her website, Sheehan said she plans to continue her work as an alderman if elected to the executive council.

Like Sheehan, Daler said she also became involved in politics in the wake of the 2010 Republican Legislature.

One day at the Statehouse, before becoming a state representative, "I was up in the gallery and I saw the small number of Democrats there, and I felt I really wanted to be there with them at the hardest time," she said.

Daler won a special election in 2011 to become a representative and served on the health, human services and elderly affairs committee.

She said she wants to preserve a balance of Democrats and Republicans on the Executive Council. Currently, there are three Democrats and two Republicans.

"The Executive Council isn't the Legislature," Daler said. "Just acting on ideologies does not really ever help to make good decisions."

Daler said an example of this is when councilors did not renew a contract with Planned Parenthood in summer 2011, ending some services across the state.

And she said her time in the Legislature makes her a strong candidate.

"I have state-level experience," Daler said. "I know how hard it is to create a balanced budget for the state."

The Republicans

Until recently, Hattamer admitted, he did not know much about the duties of the council and believed councilors were appointed to their jobs.

"The Executive Council is this hidden committee of real power and real importance in the state," he said.

Hattamer, who is the chairman of the department of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, has very little political experience, but he says that bolsters his candidacy.

"I can't think of a better time to have a physician in the Statehouse," Hattamer said, citing the recent changes to state health care with the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion.

Hattamer said all three of his opponents are politicians, and he believes it's time to get someone on the council with a different background.

"I'm not a politician, I am a doctor," he said. "I try very hard not to give political answers. I'm the only one not trying to save my seat; I'm trying to save the state."

On the issues

Hattamer said the most important issue to him is making sure the state budget is balanced and New Hampshire "stays in the black."

Since the Executive Council is responsible for contracts, it has "great sway ... on how that gets spent, and I want to make sure it gets spent on good contracts," Hattamer said.

He and Daler also said they wanted to prioritize transparency on Executive Council contracts and other duties.

"It's a very powerful position and the larger public doesn't seem to know much about it," Hattamer said.

Daler said she would fight for the contracts that "make sense" for the state. "The positive side of having a council is just to ask those questions, making sure things are open and transparent," she said.

All three candidates said they believe in supporting infrastructure projects, in particular, supporting a rail system connecting communities in southeastern New Hampshire as well as linking New Hampshire with Massachusetts.

"Infrastructure can be used to lift the whole community," Sheehan said, citing regional rail as an important economic issue.

Even though he is a Republican and favors smaller government, Hattamer said "you have to invest in infrastructure, too."

"Most of the people in Nashua would like a rail system," Hattamer said. "I do think there's a need for more mass transit. I'd rather invest in it now."

He added he hopes a train linking New Hampshire to Boston would "hopefully keep some of our population base here."

Sheehan said she would also like to see a rail system connecting the eastern and western parts of the state in the future.

Daler, who said she regularly used a commuter bus to get to work in the past, agreed on this point.

"I think a train would be useful to people, certainly as far west as Peterborough," she said.

Speaking on health care issues, Hattamer said he is critical of some parts of the Affordable Care Act and agrees with others, but also said he is concerned about continuing Medicaid expansion. Expansion will be fully funded by the federal government for the first three years, then the state will have to pay 10 percent of the costs.

Hattamer said he was concerned about Medicaid expansion turning into an "unfunded mandate."

In contrast, Daler and Sheehan were vocal in their support of the federal health care law and keeping Medicaid expansion intact.

"That affects so many people that really have to depend on us for a safety net," Sheehan said, adding funding for Medicaid expansion, the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as education, "are critical to helping our state move forward."

Daler agreed. "Keeping health care reform and keeping Medicaid expansion is important across the region," she said.

Ella Nilsen can be reached at [email protected] or 352-1234, extension 1409. Follow her on Twitter @ENilsenKS.

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