Democratic gubernatorial contenders Dan Feltes and Andru Volinsky took jabs at Republican Gov. Chris Sununu while offering different blueprints for tackling some of New Hampshire’s biggest issues at an online forum this week.
Feltes – the state Senate majority leader from Concord who has taken the decades-old pledge to veto a state sales or income tax – said during the Thursday night forum that “I don’t support a broad-based income tax. I know that some folks do.”
That was an indirect jab at Volinsky, a fellow Concord Democrat who represents District 2 on the state’s five-member Executive Council. Volinsky has refused to take the pledge, arguing that no options should be taken off the table.
Feltes pointed to the “concrete results” of last year’s budget, which he said was the “most progressive budget in state history with the greatest public school education funding in state history.”
Feltes shouldn’t feel too proud, Volinsky noted.
New Hampshire remains “50th in the nation for state support of public education even under this progressive budget. Three great governors, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, John Lynch, tried to close loopholes in order to solve school funding crises and all three failed,” Volinsky said.
The two candidates also once again disagreed over Granite Bridge – a fracked gas pipeline project from the Seacoast to Manchester along the Route 101 corridor – with Volinsky opposing the project and Feltes saying he won’t stand in the way if the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission greenlights the pipeline.
Feltes and Volinsky also highlighted different proposals when asked what they would have done differently than Sununu in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Volinsky emphasized masks.
“I confronted him (Sununu) at the beginning of April that we should issue an order that requires people to wear masks indoors in public spaces. Sununu said the public health data doesn’t support that. That is not true. We need to issue that kind of mask order just like Vermont and just like Massachusetts,” Volinsky said.
Feltes, who has not called for a statewide mask ban, answered second. He said if he were governor, “we would have dealt with the nursing homes, with the CDC (Centers for Disease Controls) guidance, both testing and PPE (personal protective equipment). We would have entered the northeast regional PPE purchasing partnership, which he failed to enter.”
Feltes stressed that “other states are leveraging buying power and getting PPE for their businesses right now, and their nursing homes and their health care providers. We’re not. We’re not stockpiling it. We’re not preparing under Sununu for the second wave.”
The candidates were on the same page in criticizing the state guidance on how the schools should reopen amid the pandemic. The plan – which gives the school districts the power to decide how they’ll reopen – was criticized by Democrats for not mandating that masks be worn in schools.
Feltes insisted that “we need a concrete school plan,” noting that Walmart just instituted a mandatory mask-wearing in its stores.
“It’s a sad state of affairs if you’re safer in Walmart than you are in New Hampshire schools,” Feltes said.
Volinsky highlighted that “we should agree on a consensus approach that protects our children. It should be based on wearing masks, reducing density, keeping children outside as much as possible, and planning for the resurgence of the virus so that we’re all ready to go to remote learning when it happens in the late fall.”
While some challengers outraised incumbents the past three months in key U.S. Senate and House races across the country, that wasn’t the case in New Hampshire.
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas once again far outpaced their Republican challengers as the candidates released their April-June second quarter of fundraising reports.
Shaheen, a former three-term governor who’s running for a third six-year term representing New Hampshire in the Senate, hauled in nearly $2.5 million – and now has $8.6 million in her campaign coffers.
Retired Gen. Don Bolduc – one of the two Republicans hoping to challenge Shaheen – raised $220,000 and had $178,000 cash on hand. His rival for the GOP nomination, Corky Messner – raised $115,000 but also poured in $600,000 of his own money, bringing to nearly $4 million the amou nt he’s loaned his campaign. Messner had $3.2 million in the bank as of the end of June.
Kuster – who’s running for a fifth two-year term representing the state’s 2nd Congressional District (which includes Concord and most of its surrounding communities) – raised $331,000 in the second quarter, with $2.4 million in her campaign coffers.
Steve Negron – the 2018 GOP nominee in the 2nd CD – raised $37,875 and loaned his campaign $50,000. He had $66,000 cash on hand. Lynne Blankenbeker – who lost to Negron in the GOP primary two years ago – raised $21,275 and had just under $24,000 in her campaign coffers.
Pappas – who’s running for a second term in the state’s 1st CD – hauled in $401,000 and had $1.5 million cash on hand.
Republican candidate Matt Mowers raised $217,000, with $440,000 in the bank. His rival for the GOP nomination, Matt Mayberry, brought in $46,000 and had $73,000 cash on hand.
Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is up for re-election in 2022.