Education, housing, business growth key to Rockafellow's campaign

MEREDITH — Republican Caroline Rockafellow never thought she’d be in politics, but after years of serving her community and hearing about issues Meredith residents face, she decided to run for state representative.

Rockafellow is running for a seat in Belknap House District 2, facing three other Republicans in the upcoming Sept. 8 Primary Election. After nearly three decades of practicing law, she now has time to commit to representing her hometown, with housing, education and business growth as key platform pionts.

Who is Caroline Rockafellow?

Rockafellow and her husband started their careers in New Hampshire, with their first apartment in Wilton, and first home in Salem, then moved to North Carolina, to chase their careers. She worked with startup and venture-backed companies in the IT and biotech sector, from the 1990s through 2020. She understands the challenges and what drives small businesses, and has a passion for what it takes to grow a company.

“I spent a good part of my career representing small business owners,” Rockafellow said.

In 2009, she moved inhouse, and worked with a large multinational company, and gained a different perspective. There, she managed a team of attorneys and licensing managers from around the globe. After the company was sold, she moved on to corporate venture capital, which she loved, but there was a point where she wanted to do something new. Rockafellow took a “professional gap year," reevaluated, and started teaching aspiring attorneys.

Rockafellow is currently an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, her alma mater.

Rockafellow’s love of Meredith goes back about 30 years, when she first visited her husband Scott’s grandparent’s cabin in Meredith Bay.

They bought a home, in Meredith, 13 years ago, and moved to town full time in 2020. Since then, Rockafellow said she had the desire to get involved, and joined the board of the Greater Meredith Program, where she co-chairs the Economic Development Committee and Volunteer Task Force.

Why she's running

“I never thought I would run for state office,” Rockafellow said. “That was not on my bucket list. So, two years ago I went to a candidates forum, and it was the first time it occurred to me that these are just regular people. These are not politicians. These are regular people, who care a lot about their state, who care a lot about their community, who are willing to put in the time and effort.”

Rockafellow said other states have a very professional Legislature, and a lot of money needs to be raised. In New Hampshire, a lawmaker could be anyone in the community looking to make a difference.

“That was the first time I sat at that forum and I thought, ‘I could do this.’”

Rockafellow made an intentional effort to learn more about the issues, becoming more active in the Republican Women’s Club and taking a course called Ready to Lead New Hampshire, organized by current and former legislators. The six-month program touched on all kinds of issues, in-person in Manchester, and ended with a trip to Washington, D.C.

“That group of women has been a great resource to me,” Rockafellow said. “They’ve been great mentors. It gave me the confidence to feel like I could do this.”

Rockafellow said she made her final decision in May, and since then she’s been all in, and said she's passionate about the issues and serving constituents.

Education

“I think the No. 1 thing for me is education,” Rockafellow said. “We have some real challenges in the state, and with education, we also talk taxes. I think we’re a small state. We’re an innovative state. We have to be looking at education in a different way.”

Rockafellow knows spending on education is high, and in Meredith, the budget is roughly $37 million a year, translating to about $43,000 per student.

“With class sizes of 12:1 on average, that’s over half a million dollars per classroom,” Rockafellow said. “Our teachers aren’t making anywhere near that, so where’s the rest of the money going?”

She said she thinks the most impactful aspect of education is teachers in the classroom, and thinking about how to focus on value for students.

“How do we focus on making sure that the thing that impacts them most, with our teachers, that they are getting the resources they need?”

Rockafellow said she talks to teachers often and usually has three questions: what they are doing they think makes a difference? what they are doing they wish others were? and how they would save money if they were in charge?

“I’ve yet to speak to a teacher that doesn’t have a good answer for all of those,” Rockafellow said. “They’re on the ground. They know, but it will require some real changes in structure, in resourcing. I get really frustrated when people talk about education, and it’s always about who should be paying.”

Rockafellow said there are always arguments about money, but rarely about how to make things better. She said the cost per pupil in Meredith is higher than tuition and board at UNH, showing something needs to change.

“I think we have to be innovative, and Republicans and Democrats need to stop fighting with each other and really look at solutions.”

Housing

Rockafellow has two grown sons, and seeing them enter the housing market has been insightful, and a major part of her campaign.

“Watching my older son purchasing his first home really opened my eyes to the challenges that are there in the housing market,” Rockafellow said. “We know what happened, right? In 2020, the housing prices, they doubled.”

Rockafellow pointed to “way too much” money pumped into the economy, and people receiving extremely low interest rates. She said the housing supply changed, and the cost of building increased.

“We have lots and lots of issues,” Rockafellow said. “I think we have to do some things that are really creative and innovative.”

She pointed to local zoning regulations passed to allow for higher density homes, with a focus on workforce housing. Rockafellow isn’t convinced higher density homes won’t just be worth $700,000 in the end.

“There’s nothing that requires that they really address the workforce housing market,” Rockafellow said. “There are some things that need to be done, and I think that takes an innovative approach.”

Rockafellow said Meredith has much different needs than areas like Manchester, and one of the drivers is the rental market. She suggested restrictions to prevent rentals, to drive down pricing.

Rockafellow championed community revitalization tax relief, saying it is a wonderful state provision. She likes how the state set up the structure but didn’t mandate it, leaving it up to local control.

“If you adopt it, you can put your own guardrails on it,” Rockafellow said. “You can make certain decisions that are appropriate.”

She said focus should be on building and developing, and what holds up entry-level housing.

“The way it is right now, if you have an acre of land, it’s way more profitable to build a multi-million dollar home on that acre of land than four, 1,500-square-foot homes.”

Business growth

“I think I have to be really cognizant of things that encourage, rather than discourage, business growth,” Rockafellow said. “At the end of the day, we are all better off if we have a vibrant economy, if we have more companies coming to New Hampshire, and the companies that are here making investments and building.”

Rockafellow said the southern half of the state has a solid manufacturing economy, as companies are leaving Massachusetts for tax purposes. She knows New Hampshire has captured some of these, and she wants to catch more.

“Particularly as the biotech industry tends to be moving from Massachusetts, south,” Rockafellow said. “I’d love to see more of those companies move north. But it’s all related, right? Companies come here, and they can attract employees if they’re able to buy homes, if they’re able to put their kids into schools. So, to me, all three of those things are related."

How she stands apart

“I think the fact that I have a long history of being at the negotiation table, dealing with very difficult, heated issues, I think that’s a skillset that would work well in the Legislature.”

Rockafellow feels many of the issues facing her district, and the state, intertwine. Rockafellow said it takes looking at the big picture.

“You can’t fix one problem without looking at a number of other things,” Rockafellow said. “But for me, it’s really listening to folks. One of the things I love about campaigning is I get to talk to so many people, and really listen.”

A staunch conservative, Rockafellow said she sticks by those values, as evidenced in her role of vice president of the Lakes Region Federated Republican Women. That doesn’t mean she’s going to sign off just anything. Rockafellow said she has her finger well on the pulse of Meredith’s needs, and plans to take those concerns with her to Concord.

Rockafellow said she’ll do the work, and the research, and look at all sides of issues at hand.

“I have great passion for our state and our town,” Rockafellow said. “I love the State of New Hampshire. I love Meredith, and I’m very committed to Meredith, and I’d like to be the rep. that the folks in Meredith send to Concord.”