Joshua Elliott, deputy chief of staff for the New Hampshire Senate, is up for confirmation as the new head of the division of policy and programs at the Department of Energy on Wednesday.
This article was originally published in New Hampshire Bulletin.
Sununu’s other appointments to the new department have all been approved by the majority Republican Executive Council. The only opposition to recent appointees has been mounted by the lone Democratic councilor, Cinde Warmington.
Elliott, of Goffstown, has worked with the Republican Party in the New Hampshire Senate since 2015, serving as policy director and then deputy chief of staff starting in December 2020. Before that, he was a policy analyst for the conservative-leaning Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy in Concord.
Elliott has a history degree from Saint Anselm College and a master’s in social science from the University of Chicago.
His nomination continues a pattern of Sununu selecting people who are connected to the administration and the Republican Party as opposed to hiring someone whose primary professional experience is in the energy sector. The position will pay an annual salary of $109,000, and the appointment lasts for one year.
The Department of Energy staff is starting to take shape, but the new department still doesn’t have a permanent head, with Interim Commissioner Jared Chicoine’s tenure set to expire at the end of August.
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