Bean seeks Statehouse seat held by late husband

GILFORD — Local rental property owner Priscilla Bean may not have political experience, but she knows the Statehouse like the back of her hand, as she was often there with her late husband, Harry Bean.

Bean is making a push for a seat serving Gilford, Gilmanton and Laconia Ward 2. But first, she needs to get through the Republican primary, with six candidates seeking four seats.

Who she is

Bean has lived all her life in the Lakes Region, graduating from Laconia High School in 1972. She and Harry were married young, when she was 17 and he was 16, in 1971.

The Beans started H & P Apartments in 1974, which went from a duplex to 18 buildings with 38 rentals. The majority are in Laconia, but they also rent a couple single-family homes in Gilford, the town she has lived in the past 52 years. Bean was a bookkeeper for Vernitron Corp. for 17 years, as well.

A “moderate Republican,” Bean said the best government practice is listening and hard work. She's focused on limited government, responsible spending, strengthening the local community, and protecting freedom.

Why she's running

Despite six candidates competing for four seats in the Republican Primary Election, Bean said the Belknap County Republican Committee wasn't sure if they were going to have enough people to run in District 6. She was asked to step up to the plate, and decided to give it a go.

“Yes, I’m a newbie, but working alongside Harry for eight years, I know the ins and outs of what a state rep. needs, and what they want to do.”

Bean said Harry was never a computer person, but with her background as a bookkeeper, she was able to pull a lot of the information he needed. She also knows how to write a bill, and research information properly, to make sure the bill goes forward.

“I just know a lot of little things that a lot of people don’t know about being a state representative right now,” Bean said. “I know the House. I could easily walk the halls and know my way around.”

Bean said she thought about running in the past, but the job can be quite time-consuming, especially while serving on committees. She said not only can the work in the Statehouse be extensive, but the work with the county delegation also makes things extremely busy at times.

“I didn’t feel the two of us could handle it at the same time,” Bean said. “We still had to run our business, and depending on the committee, it could be three or four times a week.”

Platform

“I am definitely for the Second Amendment, and definitely for keeping biological men out of women’s sports,” Bean said. “All spaces to be honest. I don’t want them to be in the restrooms. And I am for term limits.”

Bean said she never wants to see the Second Amendment taken away, and believes strongly in the right to bear arms. She said every individual should have the right to own a gun to defend themselves. She also isn’t sure about having an age limit, especially if someone was born into a family of hunters.

“They teach you relatively young,” Bean said. “My husband always told me he was 8 years old hunting. He was extremely confident, and so were his parents.”

Bean has strong feelings about LGBTQ+ rights, and has friends and relatives who are bisexual. If they are born a female, she expects them to be in a female bathroom, and vice versa.

Bean said she isn’t against what people do with their bodies, but thinks it is important to protect the privacy of women from biological men. Instead, she suggested having transgender specific bathrooms to alleviate concern.

“I don’t feel that women should be forced to have a biological male next to them in a restroom.”

Bean signed a pledge through U.S. Term Limits, which is a national, non-partisan movement about limiting terms for elected leaders. She and Rep. Glen Aldrich (R-Gilford), running for reelection, both signed the pledge in August.

According to U.S. Term Limits, the organization’s mission is for 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention for term limits in Congress.

“I believe if the president of the United States has a term limit, then every other position should have a term limit,” Bean said. “I feel that the country isn’t fully being represented if we are forced, because the people vote who they want in place, but sometimes feel someone is voted in only because they know someone’s name.”

Bean suggests four-year terms for every position, saying two years is just not long enough. She said the first year requires learning the job, and in a two-year term, the second year is focused on reelection. Four years would give time for leaders to get things done without reelection on the mind.

Bean thinks some people in the federal government should have been out a long time ago, both Democrats and Republicans.

“State and local, as well.”

Campaigning

When talking to constituents, Bean said she constantly hears concerns with taxes and the lack of affordable living.

She also hears a lot about homelessness, but being a landlord, she sees things from a different lens.

“I personally have talked with a number of homeless people, and I know it’s not everybody, and a lot of them don’t necessarily enjoy being homeless, but they don’t want to live by any rules,” Bean said.

Bean said she has friends experiencing homelessness, and many say they don’t like being told what to do. She said part of the homeless problem is too much is handed out. She said this doesn’t give them incentive to turn their lives around.

“I only say that because I have friends trying to give them a job, a place to live, and have tried to work with them,” she said.

Bean knows there are plenty of reasons people are unhoused, so it isn’t just painting with a broad brush to fix the problem. Substance abuse can be a root cause, and she recognizes that can happen to anyone.

“I have family members in the substance abuse situation,” Bean said. “Never thought our families would have issues, and we have.”

There are organizations in the Lakes Region working to help unsheltered people, as well as those battling substance abuse and addiction. Bean wonders if they aren’t working together to come up with a proper, permanent solution. Oftentimes, she sees people being helped for the short term.

“I feel we are giving way too much for the homeless, or not what they really need,” she said. “I’m not quite sure what is right.”

Bean doesn’t think there is an easy fix on high taxes and excessive cost of living.

“Property taxes are high, but we don’t have an income or sales tax,” Bean said. “If you added those two, I don’t think people realize it won’t help property tax as much as what they’re hoping.”

County delegation

Bean’s husband was chair of the county delegation before his death Feb. 14. During his time in the delegation, there were some hot-button issues regarding the county nursing home and the jail, which continue.

“In the nursing home, I know they need to get workers in there, in order for them to fill the beds,” she said. “It is hard, because funds are limited, and you’ve got to get the right person. This day and age, there just aren’t enough out there who want to work, especially that type of job.”

This also goes for the county jail, she said. The jail has been the subject of controversy for years, and she doesn’t think the new section built in 2018 corrected the issues they hoped to fix.

The jail was a focal point of the county budget discussion in December, as the facility is aging and needs repairs. The Belknap County Jail was built in 1890, and has been expanded and renovated multiple times, as recently as 2014.

A brand new jail would have a price tag of about $50 million, according to consultants, and that number could rise. A feasibility study will take place on a new building. Even patchwork fixes cost millions of dollars.

“You either need to spend a lot of money to do upkeep, or build a new jail,” Bean said. “Flip a coin as to what is going to happen, because either way, it will cost the county a bunch of money.”

Life experience

While the Beans created a successful rental business, which has been going for more than five decades, life wasn’t always easy.

Through life experience and being a landlord, Bean knows what it means to have financial woes, and can relate to those going through tough times.

“We had children early in life, and had to struggle,” Bean said. “Luckily, we did have family that helped out, but I was on the welfare system. I know how it works.”

As a landlord, she said she continually sees how the welfare system works. She often helps her tenants, and by helping them, there's a cycle.

“I help my tenants, and in helping them, it helps me. Because they pay the rent, so I could pay the bills.”

Party politics

Bean said while this might be an unpopular opinion among Republicans, she thinks when the opposite party has a really important bill which should be passed, they should vote on it.

“My husband and I have talked about this a lot,” she said.

Bean said she would have no problem crossing party lines if it is what the people of District 6 want and need. She doesn’t believe in voting against something she and her constituents believe in, just because she was told not to, because it leaned Democrat.

She says she is a Republican through and through, but a moderate one. She has an open mind to vote however the situation calls for.

“I would definitely vote the other way, but I am a Republican, and always have been a Republican.”