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GOP Candidates Strive to Highlight Differences in Hooksett Forum

Sam Evans-Brown

GOP Candidates for Governor Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith met in Hooksett last night to make their cases before republican voters. But despite their efforts the two continue to have a hard time drawing a sharp contrast between each other.

Lamontagne and Smith answered questions on everything from budgeting to education, gambling, the liquor commission, energy and the developmentally disabled.

The two biggest applause lines were for Smith pumping the recently passed voter ID bill –

Smith: Again, this is something that should be a non-partisan issue!

… and Lamontage talking right to work.

Lamontagne: and I’m gonna be criticized because I support right to work. It will put us on the map!

But for republican voter Ed Sterling, there wasn’t a whole lot to distinguish the two.

Sterling: I found one maybe slightly more passionate and aggressive on trying to attract business to New Hampshire.

For Sterling anyway, the night went to Kevin Smith... if only by a matter of degree.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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