Candidates make last-minute push as election day looms

LACONIA — Tuesday is Election Day and candidates are in the final push to get their message out to the voters and to their supporters to turn out at the polls. Over the next three days voters will see campaign ads, sign-waving at busy intersections, and maybe even the candidates themselves.

Some candidates are going door-to-door to drum up support, while others are sending out postcards or making posts on social media platforms to highlight the issues they are stressing in their campaigns.

With seven contested races on the ballot, City Clerk Cheryl Hebert said Friday that she expects the polls will be “a little busier” than in previous municipal elections. She said that as of Friday morning, 131 voters had requested absentee ballots, compared to 100 absentee ballot requests for the municipal election two years ago when the mayoral race was the only contest.

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in each of the city’s six wards.

The race between Mayor Andrew Hosmer and Dawn Johnson, who serves on the school board and state House of Representatives, tops the ticket.

Hosmer, who is running for a second term, said he and his supporters are continuing to canvass neighborhoods, drop off leaflets and making phone calls in an effort to get out the vote.

“The feedback has been positive,” he said of what he is hearing from constituents.

He said he intends to campaign hard right up through election day.

“I’m taking nothing for granted,” Hosmer said. “Every vote is critical."

Hosmer, like the other candidates facing an opponent, has also been using newspaper advertisements to help get his message out to the voters.

Johnson has made open government a key theme of her campaign. In a departure from other candidates, she is also drawing attention to her partisan political ideology. A full-page ad appearing in today’s Daily Sun proclaims she is “a Conservative Republican who believes it’s time to stand up for our rights and freedoms.”

The city’s municipal elections are non-partisan.

Johnson, like many of the other candidates, has also been speaking out about the drug and homelessness problem in the city.

Efforts to speak to Johnson for this article were unsuccessful.

There are contests for city council in four of the city’s six wards, as well as for two of three open seats on the school board.

The city council contests include a three-way race in Ward 3 where incumbent Henry Lipman and challenger Erica Hebert, who are on the ballot, are joined by write-in candidate Jane Wood.

During the campaign Lipman said he has been using newspaper advertisements, postings on social media and phone calls to key supporters, to stress his record of striving to find workable compromise solutions that benefit the city and taxpayers.

Wood said she had recently sent out postcards to 190 Ward 3 households as well as talking to customers and owners of businesses in downtown which is part of the ward.

Like others, Ward 2 Councilor Bob Soucy is also using political ads, signs, and phone calls as he seeks voter support. In addition, he said he welcomes phone calls from constituents who have questions about issues and his position, and offered to drive voters in his ward to the polls if they don’t have other transportation.

His challenger Laura Dunn said she is continuing to meet with voters who have reached out to her. But she is not going door-to-door because many people find that kind of campaigning an intrusion, she said.

She pointed out that she was one of only two candidates to be endorsed by the city's union firefighters. The other was Hosmer.

Two candidates have included personal appearances during the final days of the campaign. Ward 1 councilor candidate Sean Fountain held a meet-and-greet Thursday for voters at the Lakeport Landing Marina showroom, while Ward 4 Councilor Mark Haynes will be meeting today with constituents at Briarcrest Estates.

Haynes said he has been trying to focus on issues during the campaign and lamented that his opponent has been dwelling almost exclusively on the city’s drug problem and homelessness.

He said city leaders are aware of these issues and are taking steps to address them.

“But improvement doesn’t happen all at once,” he said. He said that constituents he has talked to more often bring up concerns about the condition of city streets.

But Haynes’ opponent, Marc Forgione, said the voters he has met see drugs and homelessness as major issues which concern them, along with taxes.

He said that he will be spending the time between now and the election canvassing neighborhoods and standing, along with supporters, at intersections holding up his campaign signs. He said due to the forecast for rain the sign-waving that had been planned for today will now take place Sunday.

City Councilor Bruce Cheney said he has been walking areas of Ward 1. He said most of the constituents he has spoken to have been “supportive” of his record on the council, and in particular for the interest and support he has shown for plans to develop the Laconia State School property.

Cheney said this election has been noticeably more contentious than the two previous elections and for that reason he expected that the turnout will be higher than normal.

In the two contested school board races, Jennifer Anderson, Liana Crowell, and Jay Tomlinson are vying for the at-large seat, while Candace Knowlton and Jennifer Ulrich are running for the Ward 1 seat on the board.