Sullivan County, city voters to decide special elections

Nov. 06--Sullivan County, city voters to decide special elections

By KEVIN LANDRIGAN

New Hampshire Union Leader

November 05. 2017 11:39PM

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Voters on Tuesday will decide the final two special elections for the New Hampshire Legislature -- the ninth and 10th contests in 2017 -- and to improve their performance, Republicans will have to flip one of them and hold the other.

After the 2016 election, the GOP has held the majority at all levels of power in Concord.

But since last November, Republicans have lost six of eight special elections, five of seven for the New Hampshire House of Representatives and one in the State Senate.

Now, voters in Manchester's Ward 8 and in four towns in Sullivan County get to make this call.

Here's how both races shape up:

Manchester Ward 8 (Hillsborough County Dist. 15)

The winner will replace the late Steve Vaillancourt, the boisterous, articulate, often-controversial, 10-term Republican House member who died suddenly last spring.

The party registration favors Republicans in this district with 2,056 Republicans, 1,730 Democrats and 2,450 independent or undeclared voters.

The candidates are Republican Albert MacArthur Jr., a commercial truck driver, against Democrat Erika Connors who represents the ward on the Manchester Board of School Committee and is owner of the Melody Pines Day Camp.

MacArthur defeated firefighter Andrew Parent in a September GOP primary while Connors was unopposed in her party.

They both have three children; MacArthur lives at 530 Sheffield Road while Connors lives at 510 Corning Road.

According to surveys both have filled out, they part company on providing state grants to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

MacArthur opposes them; Connors is for them.

Likewise, Connors favors "stricter gun control laws" while MacArthur opposes them.

They both would oppose a broadbased sales or income tax, each said were open to "some" casino gambling in New Hampshire and both declined to take a position on the Northern Pass project.

MacArthur also said he was undecided about whether expanding Medicaid was a good idea and whether he'd vote to bring commuter rail to the state.

Connors said she favors both those issues.

Both candidates have not raised much money compared to other special elections this year.

Through late October, Connors received $1,430 and spent $1,358. Her donors included $250 from the New Hampshire Young Democrats and $250 from Executive Councilor and possible congressional candidate Chris Pappas, D-Manchester.

MacArthur raised $1,681 and spent $981. He got $200 from family members and $100 apiece from State Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, and Greg Moore, state director of Americans for Prosperity.

During the primary, the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition weighed in, spending $833 on mailings to support MacArthur.

In the closing days, attack mailings were done by independent groups on both sides.

The Maine-based, New England Opportunity Project sent out one last week critical of Connors for supporting subsidized health insurance for members of the school board back in 2015.

"Erika Connors forced Manchester taxpayers to buy her health insurance instead of funding a new middle school math teacher," the mailer said.

"If we can't trust Erika Connors in Manchester than how can we trust her in Concord?"

State Democratic leaders charged the Maine-based group had not filed with Secretary of State Bill Gardner's office as all groups must do before they engage in independent spending for or against candidates.

Party officials point out this group with the same name and Maine address in 2016 was fined by Maine ethics officials $675 for failing to disclose spending that targeted a Democratic candidate for State Senate in that state.

With the election less than a week away, it's troubling that an outside group would try to illegally weigh into our elections," said Wyatt Ronan, spokesman for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

State Democrats sponsored their own mailing praising Connors and vowing she would provide "common sense" leadership.

It referred to other House members behaving badly with headlines about a Republican lawmaker who let his gun fall onto the floor during a public hearing in the Legislative Office Building.

"We need common sense, not more reckless behavior," the Democratic mailer states.

The legislator whose gun did hit that floor, ex-Rep. Kyle Tasker of Nottingham, resigned his seat and was sentenced last spring to a 3-to-10 year prison term for drug possession and teen solicitation charges.

The conservative GraniteGrok blog criticized the mailing as unfair.

"In other words, carrying guns is reckless behavior. It cannot be the fact that state representatives dropped guns in the past. Otherwise, Al MacArthur would have to be one of the droppers. Al has never held public office. Nor has Al MacArthur ever dropped a gun at the State House," said the conservative blog commentary.

Cornish, Grantham, Plainfield and Springfield (Sullivan County Dist. 1):

The winner replaces Democrat Andrew Smith, who held the seat since 2010 but resigned in June because he moved to New London. The party makeup favors Democrats as there are 2,209 to 1,781 Republicans. There are 2,812 independents.

This contest is between Democrat Brian Sullivan of Grantham and Republican Margaret Drye of Plainfield.

Sullivan is a retired labor negotiator for the National Education Association of New Hampshire and had been a teacher in Berlin for 10 years.

"If you are continually saying 'My way or the highway,' you are never going to get to where you want to be," he said of his skills in the art of compromise and how that's important for lawmakers to possess.

Drye noted she's been a 37-year volunteer emergency medical technician in the area.

"If you live in Plainfield or Cornish, there's a good chance I've been to your house for an emergency or I've been on your road or I've been at your neighbor's house," Drye said at the last of three forums these two candidates had last week.

"Our roots go deep here and we know this community."

The pair split over reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood funding.

Drye said it's "the state's duty to protect innocent human life," including "those whose life is in danger simply because they exist."

Sullivan said he supports abortion rights and doesn't think it's proper for the government to interfere in any fashion.

On fundraising, Sullivan has out-raised Drye, $6,580 to $3,805, with some of his biggest supporters being labor groups such as the Granite State Teamsters ($250) and NEA labor representative Chris Long ($350).

Donors to Drye include the Committee to Elect House Republicans ($500), $100 from State Sen. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, and $150 from Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard.

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Elections State Government

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