Coker challenged by Twaddell, Lunney in Meredith

MEREDITH — Three Republicans are competing in the Sept. 10 Primary Election for two seats to serve Meredith at the Statehouse.

Incumbent Matt Coker, an airline pilot, is competing with retired U.S. Army veteran Edward Twaddell III and Matthew Lunney.

Coker, who changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican earlier in the year, said he’s focused on working with representatives of both parties to deliver solutions to problems faced by residents of the Lakes Region. 

“I think I’ve done a good job at focusing on what most of my constituents have told me that they wanted focus on,” he said. “They want lower taxes, they want to kind of chip away at the government red tape that inconveniences them.”

Coker said he’s done much work on vehicle inspection laws and in the next session he’ll be even more effective in representing his district.

“Cyanobacteria has been a big issue and I’ve sponsored a few cyanobacteria bills and I still have some more work to do with that,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been a good coalition builder with that, working with the Republican caucus to bring some of them along to address the issue.”

Coker noted his support for shoreline protection bills which would make it easier for the Department of Environmental Services to take enforcement action against violators, and another which would regulate septic system inspection in the course of lakeside property sales. He said he’d be receptive to any bill that addressed cyanobacteria in Lake Winnipesaukee.

“We also worked on some funding for cyanobacteria mitigation,” he said. “Once there is an issue, it’s state funding that would be available for the town.”

In terms of switching his party affiliation, Coker said he has good relationships with GOP leadership and much of the Democratic party at the Statehouse.

“I think as far as the local Democrats are concerned, a lot of them weren’t very happy with me when I was a Democrat,” he said. “Now they have a chance to put two candidates up that align more fully with the Democratic Party.”

Coker also addressed the acute lack of affordable housing in Meredith and the Lakes Region, noting he believes in local control and supports individual municipalities working out solutions that most benefit them.

“Some of the permitting processes take a really long time, I know there’s ways that we could get in there and expedite that,” he said. “Another thing I’m starting to work on a little bit is professional licensing issues.”

He said New Hampshire losing young workers to other states because of the cost of living is one of the biggest problems facing the Granite State. 

“Working on broadband internet in some more rural areas, we could maybe attract people who will come here and live and raise a family and might commute to Boston one or two times a week,” he said. “But they can come up here and they can work remotely.”

Twaddell, who was born in Harvard, Massachusetts, and raised in New Hampshire, graduated from West Point in 1997 and retired from the U.S. Army in 2022. He said he’s running to represent Meredith because he still has a strong desire to serve his community.

At a recent meet the candidates event at Paugus Bay Pub in Laconia, Twaddell said he was a soldier for 25 years and is ready to put in the work to be a strong representative for the interests of the people of Meredith. 

“My last four or five assignments were all about relationships,” he said in an interview Thursday morning, noting that in a closely divided Statehouse, working with other representatives is key to making progress on the problems affecting voters.

“I think one of the things that gets lost is in folks' loyalty to their party,” he said. “What about your constituents' interests? What about your county’s interests? Let’s make it about those interests as well. I think today’s politics are probably more slanted toward the interests of the parties and less slanted towards the interests of the constituents.”

In discussing problems facing Lakes Region residents, Twaddell said rising costs of goods and services are on the forefront of people’s minds. 

“I think, long-term, we’ve got some development that we have to do in the Lakes Region,” he said, noting New Hampshire is one of the oldest states in the country, demographically. This could prompt opportunists to enter the state and purchase lots of property, which could worsen the problem of a lack of affordable housing.

“There’s going to be a vacuum here in the state and that vacuum is going to be filled by opportunists, which is to say people with money.” 

And Twaddell, who serves as an alternate to the Conservation Commission, said he’s concerned with phosphorus runoff into Lake Winnipesaukee. Noting he’s attempting to get a farm up and running, and animals produce phosphorus through their manure, he’s looking at how to manage his livestock in a way that won’t increase runoff into the lake. 

“Maybe not legislation but regulation of how to stay below that bar,” he said. “You want to put in another boat dock, another boat ramp. Based on the design that you submitted, that will increase the phosphorus runoff into the lake by this many grams, milligrams on average per day based on this amount of rain. Because you’re moving this much vegetation, that much phosphorus is not being consumed by plants.”

Twaddell said the discussion of cyanobacteria mitigation may benefit from a similar thought process as reaching net-zero carbon emissions. 

“Maybe it's at the local level or maybe it’s at the county level,” he said. “You’re not going to be cleared for this building permit for a boat ramp until you also present a mitigation plan that will remove X-number of grams, micrograms, milligrams, whatever of phosphorus.”

Matthew Lunney could not be reached for comment but did provide basic information to Candidate Connection from the website Ballotpedia.

Lunney said he grew up in Moultonborough and now lives in Meredith, where he operates a staffing agency. He said he considers himself a “real Republican,” is against “big government,” will work to protect New Hampshire’s natural resources and considers himself pro-business. 

“A vote for me is a vote to respect the past while moving responsibly into the future,” part of one of his response reads. 

The top two in the primary race will face Democrats Ben Brookmyer, Lynn Thomas this November.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Edward Twaddell III's birthplace. He was born in Harvard, Massachusetts.