Democrats meet in Plymouth for moderated gubernatorial debate

PLYMOUTH — Three candidates vying for the Democratic Party's nomination for governor met with supporters at The Common Man Inn & Spa Monday evening to engage in a wide-ranging discussion touching on housing, climate, public education, reproductive rights and gerrymandering.

Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester; Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, who at one point worked as a health care attorney and lobbied for Purdue Pharma; and Jon Kiper, 41, the owner of Jonny Boston’s International restaurant in Newmarket, offered their visions for issues facing the Granite State. 

Around 130 voters packed a banquet hall at the inn, mingling with candidates and each other over garlic knots before the debate. The crowd, members of which tended to be of retirement age, enthusiastically participated in the discussion, cheering and laughing at times. Val Scarborough, Plymouth Area Democrats vice president, served as moderator.

A lack of affordable housing, particularly for those included in the lower and middle income brackets, was a topic of concern for all three candidates. Kiper described an innovative approach that would use revenues from legalized recreational cannabis sales to fund the housing authority. Most audience members laughed, but some clapped and most appeared receptive to the suggestion.

Kiper, 41, said he has an advantage in connecting with younger, unaffiliated voters. Warmington, 66, and Craig, 57, who both have considerable political experience, said they have the infrastructure in place and understanding of the process necessary to beat likely GOP candidate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte. A potential contest with Ayotte was a point of discussion throughout the evening.

The Primary Election will be held Sept. 10. The General Election is Nov. 5.

“I am running for governor to strengthen our local communities and ensure that residents from our state have the opportunity to succeed,” Craig said in an opening statement. “For the last six years, I served as the chief executive for the City of Manchester ... In Manchester, we don’t have a city manager. It was my job to develop an annual budget of just shy of $400 million every year. I negotiated contracts, nominated city department heads and city commissioners, managed every single city department, and I was chairman of both the school board and the board of mayor and alderman. Being chief executive is about setting priorities, building trust and getting things done."

Kiper said he’s a lifelong New Hampshire resident and business owner, and said a lack of parking in Newmarket prompted him to enter the realm of local politics, serving on the zoning board, energy and environment committee and town council at first.

“I also noticed there was not a lot of housing being built, and basically I’ve been looking for a house for the last five or six years and it did not seem like there was a plan for housing in New Hampshire,” Kiper said. “I got into this race to make sure that people realize that young people are struggling to stay in this state, and that we’re losing the backbone of the Democratic Party, which is young people.”

All of the candidates spent a significant portion of time discussing Ayotte, the Republican candidate they feel represents the threat of a hardline, rightwing faction of the GOP.

“If we want to beat Kelly Ayotte in November, we have to win unaffiliated voters. There are not enough Democrats in this room or in this state to win the corner office without unaffiliated voters,” he said. “If you look at those folks, they are generally younger, and generally working class — I am one of them. They will trust me and they will show up to support me in November.”

Warmington told voters she’s been involved in battles at the state level to help local communities for years and will continue if elected to Concord.

“I am your executive councilor. Some of you know me as the person who has been fighting for emergency medical services up here in Grafton County, who has been fighting to keep Mascoma [Community] Health Center open and fund their dental program, who’s been working on the flooding issues even this past weekend, who’s been working to get broadband all across Grafton County and who has been fighting this landfill every single day,” Warmington said to brief applause. “I am running for [governor] because I believe that we live in the greatest state in this country but that we have real challenges.”

While discussing the possibility of an income tax in New Hampshire, Kiper said he’s the only candidate not firmly against it.

“I am the only one who has not taken the pledge. The reason I have not taken the pledge is that I think it’s stupid,” Kiper said. “The reason I think it’s stupid is because I own a restaurant, I collect sales tax; it’s called room and meals, I collect it every month. I pay an income tax, it’s called business enterprise tax ... to say there’s no income tax in New Hampshire is a slap in the face to every small business owner in the state.

“Some people like to say that taxation is theft. I would say taxation is simply the cost of having a civilized society,” he said.

Warmington said gerrymandering can be overcome by forming a broadly popular coalition.

“The way you overcome [gerrymandering] is to win decisively,” she said. “What that means for Democrats ... is something at 52% or 53%. You get to those kinds of numbers by putting the strongest person you have in the governor’s slot.”

Craig said part of building a large coalition to win the election decisively is enabling every person to vote, which she said she did successfully in Manchester during her tenure as mayor.

“As mayor, it’s exactly what I did. We translated voting information into various different languages, so communities throughout our city knew who was on the ballot and when the election day was and had the appropriate information to vote,” Craig said. “We provided free public transportation on primary day and then on Election Day.”

And Craig said her success as mayor of Manchester proves she would make an effective governor.

“We built the largest municipal solar array in the state. It created good-paying jobs and saved our residents money. Because of that solar array and other initiatives we put in place, we were able to cut carbon emissions in the city by 60%,” she said. “Energy efficiency programs in our state need to be better-funded. We need to get the money out on EV stations, we have the money here, we just need to get it out throughout the entire state. ... We should be implementing these programs right now. These opportunities will provide us an opportunity to decrease costs, increase opportunities for clean, renewable energy and really transition away from fossil fuel.”

Near the end of the forum, Warmington said catering to the desires of young people would go a long way in helping the Democratic Party win important elections up and down the ballot.

“Let’s do the things that matter — let’s build the communities where we have health care, where we have good schools, so they can raise their children. Where we invest in" preschool, Warmington said.

“This is what we need to do to invest in our young people, and keep listening to what they have to say. They have told us, loud and clear, that they want the legalization of cannabis and I am committed to that. They want child care, they want education, they want health care and they want to be able to make their own reproductive health care decisions without Kelly Ayotte or Gov. Sununu in the room.”