Why voters need to pay close attention to who’s running in all of the races

The interesting thing about politics is that it is always fresh and new. In New Hampshire, we have just survived town election season, with the very democratic traditions of town meetings and local votes on issues demonstrating how much citizens care about what happens in their local communities. Zoning amendments, local budgets, school board issues all get decided town by town or district by district.

Notably, the score or so of towns that had questions on their local ballots about the elimination of ballot-counting devices, all defeated the questions, mostly by overwhelming margins. Shortly after those results were known, the House Election Law Committee, under the guidance of Chair Barbara Griffin of Goffstown, a Republican rumored to be thinking about a run for the state Senate, unanimously voted that a bill requiring the return to paper ballots and hand counts statewide as “inexpedient to legislate.”

While towns and cities have the option to have hand counts or machine counts, and at least one town voted to return to hand counting for reasons having nothing to do with the campaign to ban machines, the fact is that ballot-counting devices are more reliable in first counts than are hand counts, according to results reported by the Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, the most interesting races in this election year are those for U.S. Senate and governor.

Right now, and there is a lot of time left for changes, the Senate race looks like one between incumbent Maggie Hassan and either State Senate President Chuck Morse or Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith. Morse is a traditional conservative Republican, and Smith is a very conservative candidate, having headed the Curbstone organization in the past. Also in the running is Don Bolduc, a retired general, who lost in the 2020 Republican primary for Jeanne Shaheen’s U.S. Senate seat.

In the race for governor, three-term incumbent Chris Sununu, who gave up a race for the Senate for all the right reasons, is running for a fourth term, trying to match former Gov. John Lynch’s accomplishments. He recently has been joined in the race by Democrat Tom Sherman of Rye, a physician who has served two terms in the Senate after three in the House. As Sherman noted in his announcement, if they are the candidates, it will be two “nice guys” with different philosophies about the issues, running against each other.

There certainly is a lot of time for other candidates to emerge before the September primary, but if the races are between Sununu and Sherman, and Hassan and either Morse or Smith, the races could be — if the temptation to be bitter and mean are avoided — contests between quality candidates, who the voters could feel happy to support as the better between good choices, rather than the “lesser of two evils.” Wouldn’t that be nice?

Meanwhile, back at the Legislature, voters should observe some important warnings.

First, figure out what the candidates for these positions think about issues. Too often, knowing who they are or just voting for candidates running in one party or the other, results in the election of extreme candidates who wreak havoc. Don’t vote for someone you do not know or know what he or she supports, as they may be members of some extreme groups who want to disrupt our state.

In the newly fashioned congressional districts, it would be refreshing if there were a solid and well-funded GOP candidate in the 2nd District, no matter how it is configured, so Congressperson Kuster has a race that tests her mettle, even if she is destined to achieve a fifth term. In the 1st District, if it stays as configured and is weighed heavily toward a GOP victory, voters need to be sure they select a legitimate and realistic candidate in the Republican primary, since that person may in fact go to Congress.

A Trump-supporting transplant from out of state, or a bunch of twenty-somethings do not seem to me to be worthy candidates, and a congressional seat is important, so a legitimate candidate should emerge who actually can do the job. On the other hand, Congressman Pappas has a chance to show his new constituents why they should return him to Washington.

It is early in the election year, but voters need to pay attention. Anything less would be voter malpractice.

Brad Cook is a Manchester attorney. The views expressed in this column are his own. He can be reached at bradfordcook01@gmail.com.