In the New Hampshire House, a 400-member legislative body, vacancies aren’t all that unusual. Deaths, moves, the occasional resignation out of the blue: stuff happens, and 2017 has been a happenin’ year, with something like eight or nine House vacancies. A Senate seat has opened up as well.
Be aware if your district’s involved in a race. Don’t let someone get elected when you’re not looking. Be sure the candidates in your area know that they can’t escape the life issues.
At this moment, the Secretary of State’s web site lists six special elections coming up. One will be over by the time this is posted (you won’t be shocked to hear from me that a Democrat won a seat for a Concord district), but more will be added as new elections are scheduled.
Do you live in Manchester ward 8? You’ve got a state rep seat to fill. Grafton County’s district 9? Yup, you as well – and the Dem primary there was just won by a write-in candidate who’s not on the Secretary of State’s site yet. (He will be.) Other races scheduled so far include seats for Laconia and Belmont and Auburn/Chester/Sandown.
The open state senate seat was vacated by the untimely death of Senator Scott McGilvray. The election for the District 16 seat is July 25. This is your district if you live in Manchester wards 1, 2, or 12, or in Bow, Candia, Dunbarton, or Hooksett. (I’ll save for another day the tale behind the creation of that curiously-bordered district. Good story.)
To those voting in this race, I offer one observation, even though this is not my district and I have no party affiliation to promote. When you compare candidates, you’ll see that one of them is former senator David Boutin. In his previous service, Boutin was the only Manchester senator to stand up for First Amendment rights by voting against the buffer zone law.
He said at the time that he didn’t see a need for such a law, which seeks to restrict the First Amendment rights of peaceful pro-life witnesses outside abortion facilities. Ironically, the abortion providers who lobbied for the law have underscored Boutin’s point by their failure to use the law. No provider has posted a “buffer” yet.
Whatever your district, whoever’s running, check them out now. Don’t wait until they’re in office to find out where they stand.
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