Summary
GOP Gov. Chris Sununu won reelection in 2018 by 7 points, but Democrats hope it will be more difficult for him to outrun the top of the ticket in a presidential year.
We think the race for governor in New Hampshire leans toward the Republican candidate.
Politico 4/19/20
OnAir Post: New Hampshire – Governor 2020 Election
Dan Feltes
Current Position: Lt. Governor
Affiliation: Democrat
Candidate: 2020 Governor
Dan Felts worked his way through college and law school, taking out loans that he is still repaying to this day. When Dan graduated law school he turned down offers at large corporate law firms to work at New Hampshire Legal Assistance, doing what Dan does best–fighting for people who have no one in their corner.
Dan represented low-middle income Granite State families, seniors, veterans, and victims of domestic violence, often up against big bureaucracy and big corporations. Taking on fights for working people in the courtrooms, he realized that all too often, the laws weren’t written with working families in mind. Too many of them were written behind closed doors to protect big corporations and the well-connected, not working people.
For more information, go to the Dan Felts post.
Chris Sununu
Current Position: Governor since 2017
Affiliation: Republican
Candidate: 2020 Governor
Among Governor Sununu’s accomplishments during his first term was delivering a balanced state budget with no new taxes or fees and establishing full day kindergarten. Additionally, Governor Sununu provided property tax relief by returning $65 million to cities and towns for roads, bridges, and safer schools, invested $275 million in clean water projects, expanded educational opportunities for students, and signed job creating business tax cuts into law.
An environmental engineer, Chris worked for ten years cleaning up hazardous waste sites across the country.
For more information, go to the Chris Sununu post.
Issues
Civil Rights
Chris Sununu
Chris is a strong supporter of 2nd Amendment rights. As governor, he’ll advocate for and sign Constitutional Carry legislation.
Dan Feltes
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Democracy
Chris Sununu
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Dan Feltes
Dan released his “People’s Plan“; a reform agenda to increase transparency and limit the influence of money in politics. Real change comes from the grassroots, from our communities; and when the voices of those left out and left behind are finally heard. But, right now, our democracy is broken. It’s not just Washington, DC, it’s right here in New Hampshire too. The wealthy and well-connected have the power and everyday people, those without lobbyists or Governor’s cell-phone number, are left behind. It is more critical than ever that we change our system and elect leaders who are dedicated to major reforms. We need to break down the barriers for everyday people to succeed and much of that starts with the influence of lobbyists and corporate donors. This “People’s Plan” is fundamental to ensuring that government and elected officials work for the people, not special interests. The plan is broken into four sections that are fundamental to fixing our democracy. Each section includes specific policy proposals that Senator Feltes would support as Governor and that are fundamental to ensuring that government and elected officials work for the people, not special interests.
The four sections include;
Ethics and Transparency: eliminating areas for potential abuses of power and creating the systems necessary for investigating potential abuses.
Campaign Finance Reform: to put the power back in the hands of the people by limiting the type of contributions allowed, increasing disclosure requirements, and implementing systematic changes.
Protecting & Expanding Voting Rights and Ending Gerrymandering: The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and we must do everything possible to encourage Granite Staters to participate in our process and guarantee that voters pick their elected officials, not the other way around.
Immediate COVID-19 Steps: With these current circumstances in mind, it’s critical we also include a section on immediate steps, such as voting and transparency over stimulus funds, that should be taken.
Campaign Finance Reform and Voting Rights
Elected officials work for the people — not big corporations, not special interests, not in their own self-interest or for their political party. If we cannot trust that our political process is free and fair then we will never make progress on any of the critical issues we all care about.
Over the past few years, Dan and his colleagues in the legislature have fought against efforts to suppress voting rights and allow dark money to influence our elections. Dan has sponsored legislation to close the “LLC loophole”, which allows wealthy individuals to skirt campaign finance limits by contributing personally and through LLCs they operate, and legislation to require dark money groups, like Americans for Prosperity, to disclose their contributors. Dan has also supported legislation to repeal the vote suppressing legislation Governor Sununu signed into law in 2018. In 2019, Dan also sponsored legislation that prohibited corporate contributions in our state elections.
We need to include more Granite Staters in our political process, which is why Dan supports automatic voter registration and other efforts that make our election process more accessible to all voting eligible residents. Dan supported efforts to form an independent, bipartisan redistricting commission to oversee the redistricting process. Voters should choose their politicians, politicians should not choose their voters. This common-sense legislation was unfortunately vetoed by Governor Sununu in 2019.
See post for more info.
Economy
Chris Sununu
Chris believes that a strong New Hampshire economy is built on a pro-growth business environment, free of repressive regulations and onerous taxes. As a business manager with more than 800 employees, he understands first-hand how policy in Concord affects New Hampshire’s businesses and the people who own them. Chris’s plan to restore the Granite State as the job engine of New England includes:
Reducing and simplifying business taxes
Investing in workforce readiness
Developing long-term energy and environmental solutions
Prioritizing infrastructure enhancements
Chris has pledged to keep New Hampshire a low-tax state, opposing a Sales or Income Tax and any expansions on current taxes and fees.
Dan Feltes
We need a COVID-19 relief plan that works for everyone, not just those at the top. The bailouts of the past need to be a thing of the past. The unemployment insurance system must be fixed, working people and working families need jobs, and corporate special interest handouts need to stop.
Dan grew up in a working class family. Dan’s dad worked in a furniture factory for 45 years — the same one, doing roughly the same job, in an unairconditioned furniture factory for 45 years. Dan’s mom worked various part-time jobs, including the night shift, while raising four kids. Dan knows what it’s like to stretch a dollar to make ends meet.
Right out of law school, Dan turned down jobs as a corporate attorney, instead working in legal aid for about a decade with New Hampshire Legal Assistance. Dan helped folks all around New Hampshire, oftentimes folks who never had anyone in their corner — from domestic violence survivors, to seniors, to veterans. During the last crisis, as a legal aid attorney, Dan fought to protect Granite State homeowners from foreclosure by Wall Street banks, helped get access to health care for folks who needed it, and fought for workers and families crushed by job loss to get their unemployment insurance benefits. The same people Dan saw fall through the cracks then are falling through the cracks now. It’s why Dan ran for the State Senate in the first place — our laws, our policies, our investments, don’t look out for ordinary people.
While at New Hampshire Legal Assistance Dan spent four years as the Housing Justice Project Director overseeing the staff, casework, public trainings and outreach, and advocacy for fair housing, civil rights, and workforce and affordable housing. Even before COVID-19, New Hampshire was facing a housing crisis. With vacancy rates well below 2%, some cities having 0% vacancy, and a national average of about 5% vacancy, people could not find places to live, and, if they did, prices were through the roof. It put New Hampshire at an economic and competitive disadvantage in the region, and the housing and homelessness challenges we face have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. With a sharp increase in unemployment in the state, many folks are struggling to pay their rent and make their mortgage payments. On top of this, our homeless population frequently resides in shelters that are not built for the social distancing safety recommendations of today, making it harder for them to stay healthy and virtually impossible to find jobs. In short, housing is key to our economy and key to our recovery. You can read Dan’s full housing and homelessness plan here.
Prior to COVID-19, New Hampshire already had the highest health care costs in the nation, the third highest electric rates, unaffordable child care costs, and skyrocketing housing costs. Now, things are much worse. Tens of thousands of workers have been crushed by job loss and families are finding it harder and harder to juggle their bills, child care, work and so many other pressures working families are facing today.
In the Senate, Dan’s fought for investments in job training and apprenticeship programs, including a bill to enhance job training and trades opportunities for people in recovery and for graduating Granite State high school seniors, which Governor Sununu unfortunately vetoed. Regardless of whether you’re entering the trades or transitioning to a second or third career, you should have the opportunity to learn the skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow. In 2016, Dan passed flexible work arrangements, SB 416, making New Hampshire just the second State to guarantee working families the right to request workplace flexibility. Dan has long championed paid family and medical leave insurance. Dan’s bill in 2019, Senate Bill 1, the top priority of the New Hampshire Senate, was unfortunately vetoed by Governor Sununu, who then auctioned off a copy of his veto at a partisan political fundraiser. Dan supports raising the minimum wage to $15 over time because the more money Granite Staters have in their pockets the more they can invest in our local economy.
We need policies and major infrastructure investments that address the challenges working families face in today’s new world and get people back to work. Dan’s led the effort to get a minimum wage, a prevailing wage, advanced affordable and workforce housing, and is the champion of paid family and medical leave insurance. Getting people to work on housing, on broadband, in healthcare and in child care, and on clean energy projects will be key to Dan’s relief and recovery agenda.
See post for more info.
Education
Chris Sununu
Education
When New Hampshire does it New Hampshire’s way, we do it better than everybody else. Chris believes that to be especially true for education. A father of three young children, Chris has seen up close the erosion of school choice and the adverse effects of Common Core standards. He’ll be a governor that is committed to restoring local control in our schools, providing students a better path to success and empowering teachers to do what they do best. His plan includes:
Pushing back on Washington D.C. bureaucracy
Replacing Common Core with a New Hampshire test built for New Hampshire students
Promoting school choice through increased funding for charter schools
Empowering teachers to better prepare their students.
Dan Feltes
Dan released his “Live Free and Learn Safe” blueprint for back to school plan on July 22 to address the key issues facing our public schools in a substantive, specific manner. The “Live Free and Learn Safe” plan provides specific funding mechanisms and actions that can be taken. This is the type of guidance a Feltes administration would produce. While no plan is perfect, the “Live Free and Learn Safe” plan provides a comprehensive approach to reopening schools that prioritizes safety and support for local school districts, while maintaining the latitude for individual districts to tailor the plan to their specific situation. Specifically, the plan would provide: a census on students, educators, educational support staff, and bus drivers to determine baseline in-person numbers, a state review and enhancement of all buildings for air quality and social distancing capabilities, medical-grade PPE for educators and educational support staff, free on-site COVID-19 testing for educators and educational support staff, five cloth masks for all students, clear guidance on meals and transportation, statewide job protections for teachers that prefer remote learning, mandated masks for middle and high school students and staff, real financial support for schools, clear steps in the event of a COVID case, standing up the children’s mobile crisis unit, and more. You can read the full plan here. You can watch a live stream of the press conference here.
Dan lives in the South End of Concord with his wife Erin and two young daughters, Iris and Josie, who will be attending public schools in Concord. The best investment we can make as a society is in our children. That’s no different today than it was prior to COVID-19. When Dan first ran for the state Senate in 2014, he pledged to do everything he could to make full day kindergarten a reality for all New Hampshire families. In the 2020-2021 budget, New Hampshire finally fully funded kindergarten just like any other grade, despite years of Governor Sununu resisting the effort. As one of the budget writers, Dan helped secure the greatest education funding in state history in the 2020-2021 state budget, the greatest increase in public school education funding since then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, including first-ever “disparity aid” for property poor communities.
Still, more work is needed. New Hampshire is still one of only six states without any state funded pre-k programs. As Governor, Dan will finally invest in pre-k. The data is clear, early childhood education is the foundation for educational success and our children deserve the best right here in New Hampshire, regardless of their zip code.
See post for more info.
Environment
Chris Sununu
Chris is an environmental engineer by trade and spent years cleaning up hazardous waste sites and working to implement renewable energy programs. For too long now, New Hampshire has been led by governors who lack this first-hand perspective. As governor, Chris will shake up the status quo.
Dan Feltes
Dan released his “Green Jobs, Green Future” plan to create a new clean energy economy, generate thousands of living-wage jobs, and lead the economic recovery after COVID-19. This clean energy economy will follow the leading science on climate and embrace proven technologies to help keep our children, forests, farms, seacoast, and businesses safe from the climate crisis. During his time in office, Chris Sununu has steadfastly resisted the unequivocal science of climate change, as reflected in his statements and more than a dozen vetoes of bipartisan climate and clean energy legislation.
Dan’s plan for New Hampshire’s clean energy future has three core building blocks: (1) clean, local power; (2) safe and healthy buildings; and (3) clean, reliable transportation.
1. Clean, Local Power: Every year, Granite Staters export over $4 billion for non-renewable energy to power our way of life, even though clean, local energy sources are now available at a lower cost. As governor, Dan will act swiftly to declare New Hampshire’s clean-tech economy open for business by implementing five common-sense measures, including committing to 100% clean energy by 2050, empowering local distributed generation, investing in offshore wind, removing red tape, and modernizing the grid.
2. Safe and Healthy Buildings: Safe and healthy buildings are essential to New Hampshire’s families and workers. Our homes and businesses also have the power to help clean the environment by producing and using energy smartly. In the U.S., buildings account for 40% of primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, New Hampshire ranks dead last in the northeast on building efficiency, and energy efficiency jobs are going to other states. Dan will prioritize securing critical funding, maximizing building efficiency, phasing out fossil fuels, and making the state part of the solution.
3. Clean and Reliable Transportation: Air pollution is a silent killer that affects New Hampshire disproportionately. The state Department of Health and Human Services consistently finds rates of asthma among the highest in the nation, accounting for thousands of hospital visits and more than $177 million in annual medical costs to Granite Staters. As Governor, Dan will invest in a modern and healthy New Hampshire with electric transit corridors that serve local residents and tourists alike. From day one, Dan will make electric vehicles and mass transit top priorities with the following initiatives including going electric now, putting passenger rail back on track, and creating transit solutions for all.
In the state Senate, Dan has led the efforts to take immediate action here in New Hampshire to combat the climate crisis, advance and promote the high-quality clean energy jobs of tomorrow, and to reduce energy costs for New Hampshire families and businesses. We have the third highest energy bills in the country right here in New Hampshire, and we are the only state in New England to lose solar jobs last year. It is no coincidence that all of this falls on the heels of veto after veto after veto of bipartisan clean energy legislation by Governor Sununu. The further we fall behind in clean energy investments the higher those energy costs will go and the clean energy jobs opportunities of tomorrow will go elsewhere.
See post for more info.
Health Care
Chris Sununu
New Hampshire is among the healthiest states in the country, but also has some of the highest healthcare costs. That’s unacceptable. Chris will address what governors over the past decade have failed to by:
Promoting broader competition amongst providers to drive down costs
Opposing Obamacare regulations
Dan Feltes
Dan believes health care is a right and not a privilege. It’s critical that we continue to expand access to quality, affordable health care for everyone. Under Governor Sununu, New Hampshire has the highest health care costs in the nation, even prior to COVID-19. COVID-19 has pushed our healthcare system to the edge, with health care workers losing their jobs, some providers going out-of-business, and the remaining providers and workers struggling to provide care, while risking their own health in the process. Dan was the first to propose a Frontline Worker Fund to provide an additional hazard pay to healthcare workers on the frontlines. As Governor, Dan will shore up our healthcare system, undertake real planning with real support for healthcare, and will fight to lower healthcare costs for working families and small businesses.
At the State House, Dan has been a leader on healthcare policy. He served as a lead Democratic negotiator for the reauthorization of Medicaid Expansion in both 2016 and 2018 — protecting access to health care for over 50,000 Granite Staters. In 2016, Dan co-led a bipartisan effort to break down insurance company barriers to emergency in-patient opioid treatment. Also, as a result of legislation Dan filed in 2016, the first-ever commission to deal with mental health parity was established and the first-ever market conduct review of mental health parity was undertaken. In 2018, Dan passed landmark bipartisan legislation to combat childhood lead poisoning from both paint and water. And over several years, Dan has sponsored and gotten passed various measures helping senior citizens get better healthcare, including dementia and memory care standards and training.
In 2019, Dan introduced and passed legislation to protect individuals with pre-existing conditions by codifying provisions of the Affordable Care Act in New Hampshire law. Meanwhile, Governor Sununu supported the Trump-backed federal legislative effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In 2019, Dan was also the prime sponsor and passed the first-ever comprehensive children’s system of mental health care in New Hampshire, including a statewide mobile crisis and intervention team for children so any child in distress can receive treatment within an hour from a highly trained team. As Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and one of the state’s budget writers, Dan fought for increased funding for the public health department, so critical now in light of COVID-19.
One of the reasons New Hampshire has the highest health care costs in the nation is the lack of preventative care. That includes the absence of paid family and medical leave insurance, enabling workers to get the help, the treatment, and the timely medical care they need, without risking their families economic security. Dan has long championed paid family and medical leave insurance. Dan’s bill in 2019, Senate Bill 1, the top priority of the New Hampshire Senate, was unfortunately vetoed by Governor Sununu, who then auctioned off a copy of his veto at a partisan political fundraiser.
In 2020, Dan sponsored legislation to combat skyrocketing prescription drug costs in New Hampshire. Dan has led the charge on a bipartisan bill to allow the importation of safe, low-cost prescription drugs from Canada. Dan is also fighting for children, families and seniors with diabetes, who all-too often ration their life-sustaining Insulin, by proposing to cap the out-of-pocket costs of Insulin at $100 per month.
As Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, recognizing the states are more important now than ever in protecting women’s health care and reproductive freedom, Dan worked to ensure that the state provided resources for women’s health centers that were losing funding because of the Trump administration’s unjust Title X Gag rule. Governor Sununu has voted against Planned Parenthood funding and supported numerous anti-choice justices. Dan has fought for Planned Parenthood every step of the way. As Governor, Dan will always protect a woman’s right to a full range of reproductive services including safe, legal abortion.
See post for more info.
Safety
Chris Sununu
On his first day as governor, Chris will take swift action to address the state’s crippling opioid crisis. He’ll bring sensible solutions and a renewed sense of leadership to the Governor’s Office. Chris’s plan begins with:
- Implementing aggressive prevention education programs for students, parents and business managers
- Removing roadblocks to recovery by expanding available treatment and state funding
- Supporting law enforcement efforts to combat crisis on the front lines
- Increasing efficiency in prescription drug monitoring programs
- Read Chris’s top priorities for New Hampshire’s drug crisis
Dan Feltes
The number one priority for every elected official is public safety. Keeping our families and our communities safe must include protecting friends, neighbors, and children from gun violence. On a personal level, Dan and Erin have two young daughters and when they eventually drop them off at public school — and when any parent drops their child off at school — no one should have to worry whether it will be the last time they see their kids. It’s time to finally move forward with common-sense gun safety measures.
Senator Feltes supports common-sense gun violence prevention bills, including; universal background checks, gun-free school zones, a three day waiting period, and red-flag legislation. Unfortunately, Governor Sununu has vetoed all four of those proposals.
