Three Way Fight Over District 12 in Nashua

Ambience, fade under

Nashua resident Lisa Donnelly is having lunch at one of the city’s more popular cafés.

The registered independent has made up her mind about the major races for president, senator, and governor.

But when it comes to the state senator race, she hesitates.

Like many voters, she doesn’t know who her current state senator is -- or who’s running.

Sheryl: When you go in to the voting booth, are you going to make a decision about the state senator?

Donnelly: Well, now that you bring it up, I’ll probably go online and get their platform, and figure out who has a platform more in line with what I’m looking for.

Michael Dupre is a senior research fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College.

He says Donnelly is not alone.

Many voters walk into the booth, close the curtain, and look down the ballot…

Ordinarily, there’s an eight to ten percent drop-off from the top of the ticket. It drops more as you go down into the lower races. People don’t know them.

And that’s the challenge for the Democratic, Republican and independent candidates in District 12.

They need to make their names known in a part of the state that, Dupre says, doesn’t have an allegiance to a particular party.

You will find that traditionally in New Hampshire, or historically I should say, if you were in the cities, you would find Nashua, Manchester, tended to be more Democratic. As you move out of the cities, you find it became more Republican. Now you’re finding it becoming more independent.

Democrat David Gottesman currently holds the seat.

Before him, the GOP had it.

And Republican Paul Laflamme wants it back.

I think it’s anybody’s game. This is the first election we do without straight ticket voting. And I think the only thing we know for certain is all the political junkies in the state of New Hampshire on the morning of November fifth are going to wake up and study these numbers and try to figure out what the heck happened.

LaFlamme is a real estate broker, and former state representative.

For him, this election is all about the budget, especially now that the State faces a deficit estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s time government learns to spend within its means. We need to restrain in that growth of spending. And we need to focus on letting people keep more of what they earn and not raising taxes and fees.

LaFlamme is also promoting a telecommuter tax credit for companies that allow employees to work from home.

It’s going to conserve energy. It’s also going to allow companies to conserve their resources, and give them more capital to expand their businesses and move the economy forward.

LaFlamme’s Democratic opponent is Peggy Gilmour, a political newcomer.

She’s the former CEO of Home Health and Hospice in Nashua.

And with that experience, it’s no surprise that health insurance and healthcare access top her list of issues.

Again, this is linked to our economy, to our health as a state. This is an important healthcare issue: people losing their coverage when they change jobs, or lose their jobs. This is something we really have to tackle.

Gilmore has raised 50 thousand dollars – more than twice her Republican opponent.
In contrast to both of them, independent Betty Hall has secured less than three thousand dollars for her campaign.

Hall: And I have been going around, door to door, mainly at the dumps.

Independent candidate Betty Hall has spent 24 years in the legislature.

She was a Republican and then a Democrat, but has decided to run as an independent this year.

And I’m very encouraged that many more people are undeclared and consider themselves independent. In my town of Brookline, the number of independents is more than the Democrats and Republicans combined.

Hall may be best remembered for her recent efforts to pass a resolution calling for New Hampshire to demand President Bush’s impeachment.

Hall has also made an issue of healthcare financing. She supports a single payer system, which, she says, would cut down on administrative costs.

Some Democrats worry that Hall may take away votes from Gilmour, and are calling her a spoiler.

But Hall is proud of her independent voice.

I don’t consider that being a spoiler because I think it’s up to the people. It’s not something that the party should be able to decide whether their chances are being spoiled or not, and somehow suppress that vote.

With only a few days to go, LaFlamme, Gilmour, and Hall, will have to use all the foot power they can muster to get their message out to the voters.

Café ambience, fade under

Joelle Henry. I’m from Nashua. You know, the more minor ones, I don’t know who they are mostly, and I need to look them up.

Fade out ambience

For NHPR News in Nashua, I’m Sheryl Rich-Kern.