Debates at New England College 2024 | Democratic Primary Debate Candidates for Governor

good evening everyone happy Friday to you by show of hands who's been to every debate so far nice thank you very much for being here thank you on behalf of uh New England College the president's office Dr Wayne lbr the Board of Trustees the administration student body volunteers thank you very much for attending obviously we the clock is ticking as far as election day is concerned so this is an important debate for all the candidates but before we start this is the final debate of the primary cycle before we start I want to thank some people the two holes the event planners here at NEC let's give them a round of applause for putting it together John Corbett who's been the technical adviser outstanding job John thank you Craig pepper campus safety making sure we get two and from our cars and our panelists we have Jeff CH I gotta say it right Jeff chister from WFA morning update Melanie penda from uh Granite State News collabortive News collaborative and certainly not last or least Kevin landrier from the union leader I'm Josh mckelvin I'll be your moderator this evening uh no flash photography please silence your cell phones you know the drill uh it's about a 50-minute debate we're going to get started in just about two minutes two-minute warning to the [Music] candidates any questions also thank you to the student reporters by the way from the New Englander they've asked a question in every debate and our timekeeper volunteers because that's a that's that's tough job isn't it you know counting it down getting a sign up I'm over there telling you put it higher candidates are giving you dirty looks thank you very much for everybody and if I missed anyone I apologize but a lot of people did a lot of work to put this together and we're looking forward to the general election debates as well so we're all voting on Election Day right yeah let's get out to vote New Hampshire it's our civic duty all right everyone welcome to New England college and the putham theater for the Live Free or Die primary debates tonight we're going to hear from the Democratic candidates for Governor so let's get right to it by introducing them we're going to start with John Kyper he's a restaurant tour and author auth musician and uh served in Town Council in New Market as well as zoning board and energy and environment committee John still resides in New Market with his eight-year-old son olly let's hear for John thank you Joyce Craig Joyce Craig up next she's the first woman to be elected to mayor of Manchester an office that she's held since 2017 prior to that she served on the Manchester school board and served six years as a Manchester Alderman Craig is married and has three children mayor thank you and last but not least Cindy warmington was elected the executive Council in 2020 and is the only Democrat on that Council as a matter of fact she is a healthcare attorney by trade has served on several boards related to mental and Behavioral Health Cindy lives in conquer with her husband and has two children and four grandchildren welcome Cindy prior to the debate we drew cards to determine the order of speakers and we're going to begin with the opening statement with Mr Kyper take it away thank you so much for having me here you know I've lived in New Hampshire my whole life and I have seen over the last eight years the Republicans win the gubernatorial uh race you know four times and frankly I got into this race because I'm tired of losing and I I know what it's going to take to win and it's pretty simp simple we've got to win over independent voters okay we don't have enough Democrats to win and if you look at the last time Donald Trump was on the ballot in 2020 the Republicans got 65% of the vote so we are going to have to win over some people who voted for sonunu okay this is a fact we don't have the numbers to do this alone we're going to have to win those folks over and coincidentally enough last uh yesterday morning after our other debate uh governor sonunu endorsed me believe it or not he did he called into a uh conservative radio show and said uh I'm excited for John Kyper and he said I'm not even joking he Chris anudu said that uh if he was a Democrat he would vote for me so I can win Republicans I can win Independents and I can be Kad thank you thank you Mr Kyper appreciate that I should have said this earlier let's hold our Applause until the end of the opening statements and then at the end of the debate so we can have more time uh mayor Craig few seconds for your opening statement please thank you Josh and thank you New England college for hosting us this evening you know we live in a state that is brimming with potential and I'm running for governor to strengthen our local communities and ensure that residents throughout our state have the opportunity to succeed earlier this week you heard Kelly aot's vision for our state a vision where the most wealthy like herself get ahead and everyone else is Left Behind tonight you'll hear a different Vision my vision one where we support our local communities where we decrease costs for housing and energy we strengthen our public schools and we protect reproductive freedom I have the executive experience I understand the challenges that our local communities are facing and how our state should be better supporting us and I have a track record for getting things done and that's what I'll bring to the governor's office thank you for having us and I look forward to the convers this evening thank you ma'am appreciate that up next take 60 seconds Cindy warmington sure uh we are also fortunate to live in such an amazing state but we have real problems in this state a housing crisis that has left us 60,000 units behind an attack on reproductive freedom and an assault on our Public Schools we need a governor that will see things through the lens of the Working Families of our state a lot of families are having difficulty making ends meet I know what that's like when I was young my family went bankrupt I had to go to work at 15 and at 17 was financially on my own I know how difficult it is for for Working Families in our state that's why as executive counselor I've always fought to lower the cost of child care of Housing and energy and as Governor I will make sure that we live in a state where we protect reproductive Freedom protect our Public School schools and make sure that we are building an affordable Future For the Working Families of our state thank you candidates appreciate your opening statements get it out of your system okay now we got a we're going to go to the Q&A we're going to start with our questions from panelists and then start with Jeff chister and this first question is for mayor Craig every year you were a mayor you were listed were an owner partner employee or investor in your husband Tom's Law Firm that was over the years defending those accused of crimes involving opiates having have have you drawn an income from The Firm since you left office last December and what of Mrs warmington's claims that you yourself somehow profited from this epidemic so I'd like to clarify one thing or a few things one my husband is Mike not Tom um and two my husband usband was a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney uh providing constitutionally protected work uh and I think what you're referencing is councelor warmington's claim uh that uh you know she's deferring from her record of being a Purdue Pharma lobbyist she chose to be a lobbyist she chose to be a business agent for a pill Mill that is very different than providing a constitutionally protected uh service to individuals throughout our state Mrs warmington Miss warmington the other half of Joyce Craigs ad is about your 20-year representation of Pain Care a network of clinics in which an employee went to federal prison for over prescribing and the late owner surrendered his medical license after there were sexual harassment allegations against him please tell us how those legal experiences make you more qualified than Joyce Craig to deal with what remains a very serious problem in our state you know like most people in New Hampshire I know the pain of having a family member struggling with opioids and I am disgusted by Joy Craig attacking me for legal work I did more than 20 years ago before Purdue pharma's lies were known I have spent literally decades fighting to help families devast stated by opioids and Joyce Craig is smearing me because she can't defend her own record in Manchester of RA raging uh opioid overdoses and homelessness now Joyce Craig says she wants to run New Hampshire like she ran Manchester if that's the case Democrats will lose this election just like the they lost in Manchester in the Mayoral race last November and we not only lost the Mayoral race but we lost all the way down the ballot and lost the board of alderman for the first time in more than two decades if I'm the nominee this race will be about Kelly aots failures not Joyce Craigs Miss Craig take 30 seconds thank you uh I would like to say that we lost a family member to this opioid crisis I know what it feels and I have spent my entire career addressing this opioid crisis implementing evidence-based programs to help people get the services they need and save lives and during my term as mayor we have seen a 20% decrease in opioid overdoses my opponent is bringing my husband into this election because she can't stand by her full record I stand by my record and I know the challenges that our local communities are facing when it comes to opioids and we need a governor who is 100% committed to tackling this Challenge and saving lives thank you ma'am Mr Kyper you're in a excuse me I think I have a rebuttal take 30 seconds and then we have to move on sure um Joyce Craig is attacking me first of all I just want to say that every year Joyce Craig was in office she signed a sworn statement saying that she personally not her husband had a financial interest in the law firm that was defending drug traffickers and putting opioids and cocaine and Fentanyl on the streets of Manchester secondly I just want to say that my legal work is legal work and to I've had literally hundreds of healthc care clients in my career and to cherry-pick my work is completely misleading that's what she's doing here our our full records are on the ballot our full records are on the ballot and she chose to be a lobbyist we have to move on Mr Kyper obviously you're in a race with two candidates who have more Name ID and uh presumably a bigger campaign War chest I guess that's a good thing because you don't have some of these ads that are going back and forth but how do you intend to break through all this noise and how do you convince a voter that their vote is more than a protest vote you know I've got a lot of good ideas for the State of New Hampshire uh and after the last debate on W I had a lot of people contact me and they said you know while we watched them fight we saw you present actual ideas for housing and for how we can move our state forward and I'm focused on Solutions and I'm focused on uh bipartisan Solutions and you know the fact that I don't have a lot of endorsements uh is actually a good thing because you know who did have a lot of endorsements Tom Sherman Dan felce Molly Kelly and Colin van austron and they all lost and it is my opinion that the Democratic establishment is not good at picking candidates for the general election in New Hampshire thank you thank you very much let's go back to our panel next question is coming from Kevin landrian thanks Josh seeing that all three of you support legalizing recreational marijuana is there anything that would make the issue a deal breaker for you such as legalizing homegrown State Monopoly control or deregulating so much so that anybody could sell retail Mr Kyper you can begin you know the only thing that I really think we need to have in there is hom grow um you know the rest of it there's a lot of details in terms of what the Republicans will actually allow through the Senate and that's we'll have to figure out depending on who wins this coming election but uh homegrowns are just a big deal for me I feel that it's a natural occurring plant and to have it legal and not allowed for people to grow in their backyards is wrong thank you Council warmington uh yes I completely support the legalization of cannabis I think the people of our state have spoken on this issue they are currently being forced to travel over the borders to our neighboring states in order to purchase a product that uh for adult use that they would like to use and we are losing that tax revenue and The Economic Opportunity for jobs um from our state and to our neighboring states so I completely support the legalization the one thing that would be a deal breaker for me is if in any way this plan inhibits the ability of people to access uh Medical marij Marana and we need to protect that market uh we also need to make sure that we are protecting the safety and of the product to make sure young people aren't inappropriately accessing uh the uh cannabis products but otherwise I'm going to work with the legislature to work out the best plan for uh implementation of the sale of cannabis in our state thank you ma'am mayor Craig thank you yes it is far past time to legalize cannabis in our state as all of the neighboring neighboring states have legalized cannabis and I do look forward to working with our legislature to make this happen the model that I've been talking about in terms of supporting is more of a small business entrepreneurial model where our New Hampshire small businesses will benefit where our New Hampshire farmers will benefit and making sure that the model that we put forward is beneficial to New Hampshire and so that's one of the things that I will stand behind I am supportive of medicinal I am supportive of homegrown to a certain extent uh and it has to be properly regulated and properly taxed and I will look to have those taxes that Revenue go toward our public schools and toward affordable housing what about property tax relief could be property tax relief part of the plan with the revenue from recreational marijuana it would not be enough money Council warmington you know we're going to work with the legislature on what how this money is going to be spent but housing and education are top priorities okay F thank you very much let's go back to the panel Melanie plender from the granite state news collaborative let's start with uh Council warmington okay thank you very much um both uh mayor Craig and councelor warmington you both oppose legislation Governor sununu signed Le uh that nullifies someone's vote if they show up without identification to register and then fail within a week after the election to offer their proof of domicile the law took effect in 2020 in the 2022 election and there seem to be very few examples of problems with that law if elected would you like to see legislation to get rid of it still or and why or why not uh yes well we start with the fact that the right to vote is the right upon which all of our rights are predicated and we must absolutely not only protect the right to vote in our state but expand voting rights we need to make it easier for people to vote not harder this piece of legislation in particular is offensive because it requires people to file provisional ballots and their actual identification can be revealed as a part of the uh the process of reviewing and how they voted can be revealed and this law is under Challenge and it should be we need to make sure we are expanding access to vote and I would be in favor of anything that helps expand the right to vote for people who are eligible to vote and uh in that is a priority in my Administration not restricting access to The Ballot Box mayor cig uh yes I would work to repeal that we have to be doing everything we can to encourage eligible voters to vote in the state of New Hampshire and as mayor that's exactly what I did we updated old infrastructure when it came to our voting infrastructure we translated voting information into multiple different languages uh we provided free Transportation public transportation on election days and we do need to work to expand opportunities for people to vote I am supportive of automatic registration I am supportive of no excuse absentee ballot and as Governor I would put forward an independent redistricting committee so that we can make sure that our voters are electing our elected officials in this state and not the other way around and Mr Kyper same question you know I think we need to get as many people uh registered to vote as possible and as many people voting and participating in democracy as is possible and any way that we can expand that uh and take down these barriers that the Republicans are trying to put up I think we need to do that I support uh online registering to to vote and uh you know registering to vote when you get your license I think it's something that they've done in other states that's worked really well and I think it's just really important that young people particularly know their rights and exercise those rights accordingly thank you is there any mechanism that you would support in which you would make sure that someone casting a ballot is qualified to do so starting with you I mean certainly we need to do that but I think when we look at the path generally there's very few instances of voter fraud in this state and in this country and frankly when it has happened recently it's been the Republicans that are doing it opportunity M Craig what we have right now is working in our state what we need to do is focus on making it easier for eligible voters to vote any other thoughts absolutely eligible eligible voters need to vote and we need to make it easier and The Ballot Box more accessible at every election and this particular law that the governor signed needs to be repealed thank you ma'am all right let's go down to our next question and that's coming from our student reporter from the New Englander New England College Newspaper nctv panelist Lauren Hall take it away the Israel Hamas conflict has sparked protests at college campuses across the country some of those demonstrations led to violence and arrests one is it appropriate for the government to intervene with demonstrators and as Governor how would you ensure campus safety while protecting the right to free speech start with you mayor Craig so that is a very good question and I think how you ended it is what we need to focus on protecting safety while making sure that students have the right to speak uh and in Manchester it is something that I did work with with our Manchester Police Department uh when we had protests in the city of Manchester and what we did was we got together beforehand and communicated what the expectations were and worked together on these situations so they didn't end up as a conflict at the end of the day and that's the same approach that I would take as Governor making sure we have open lines of communication we understand where everyone stands and we're doing everything we can to provide the protection and safety that we need to while allowing our students to have their right to voice their opinions Mr Kyper so uh during the U protest at UNH I actually went down there to sort of check it out you know there was a lot of conversation about anti-Semitism so I went to see for myself I didn't see for myself any anti-semitism and frankly it was a bunch of people standing in a field and not even really that many people and anyone that felt threatened could easily just walk away uh but it turned out later that the governor had actually uh deployed the uh State Police before the protest had even begun and he used the state police as a a political tool and I think that's wrong I think that the UNH police are and most college campus police police are well uh very good at dealing with drunken crowds of college kids and these were not drunken people these were sober people so I uh I think colleges can deal with protests and they've done it before and you know they've if you've ever won a hockey tournament in uh in Durham you know the police can handle a crowd we're going to be winning a lot of football games soon I know that let's go Council warmington same question sure freedom of speech of course is a basic tenant of our democracy and we may need to make sure that we are always protecting the right for people to express themselves and that includes in public protest and we need to protect the rights of those students to to have their voices heard but also we need to protect the right the safety of our communities at the same time so it is a balance that we have to work towards and we have to achieve but we need to work with our students and our colleges and universities with open lines of communication to make sure that we don't end up in the kind of situations that we saw uh you know earlier this year on college campuses uh that is unfortunate um but we we just need to make sure we are opening those lines of communication to protect free speech and Public Safety thank you very much Lauren for the question nice job thank you candidates aerp is the sponsor of to Live Free or Die debase we want to thank them but they've also conveyed a question that they'd like to ask the candidates so I will be taking care of that we're going to start with you Mr Kyper there's been some some progress made when it comes to the reducing of drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries but big drug companies are fighting those Pro provisions and thousands of people under the age of 65 are still in need of help how will you reduce the cost or help reduce the cost of prescription drugs for granted Staters as Governor that's a really good question uh you know I'm going to be honest I don't know that the governor can do that uh we have in the state of New Hampshire a weak Governor they don't have a lot of power uh people frequently forget this they think that the governor can go out there and just legalize abortion legalize cannabis and do all these things but without the legisl and without majorities in the legislature that is impossible which is why I'm running as a young person who I believe can turn out young people and workingclass people to get the majorities in the legislature to do things like lower prescription drug cost for uh seniors councilor warmington does the governor have any power in this area absolutely the governor should be working hand inhand with the Congressional Delegation as I have done as executive counselor to make sure that the needs of our people are being conveyed to the Congressional Delegation and that people on the ground are bringing forward their ideas of how this can be done and working with our Congressional Delegation to make it happen on a Statewide level we can address the Medicaid issue directly in dealing with our our Pharmacy Benefit Management Services through our Medicaid Program we can address those issues here on a local level and work with our Congressional Delegation I have to say though that everyone needs to be aware that Kelly aot on this issue would be a a would would not do anything to reduce costs she voted against the Affordable Care Act multiple times she voted against legislation that would reduce the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors we cannot have Kelly aot in the corner office and mayor Craig same question thank you yes uh I am grateful for the work that our federal delegation has done in decreasing prescription drug costs but I know more work needs to happen and I am committed to working with them as I have with as mayor on many different levels I will say that I know about this firsthand uh because I am a caregiver for my mother who's here this evening and uh she has very expensive prescription drugs and so we are experiencing this as a family and not only addressing uh prescription drug cost for seniors uh is important but we also need to support our caregivers in this state they are working very very hard uh having another job on top of the job that they have and I understand that and I'm committed to supporting our caregivers in our state in addition to addressing the increase on uh the prescription drugs and I'm committed to helping our seniors live better lives in the state of New Hampshire thank you very much for the answers candidates let's go back to the panel Melanie plender thank you given the ongoing challenges New Hampshire faces with mental health and addiction particularly the overcrowding at the state hospital the crisis of emergency room boarding and the shortage of impatient Rehabilitation resources what specific Investments and policy changes would you pursue to ensure that individuals in need of mental health and Addiction Services receive timely and appropriate care we'll start with councelor warmington uh sure um many of you may know that my own dad struggled with alcoholism his entire life and we have a family member who has struggled with opioids uh this is very personal to me as when my dad passed I channeled all of my grief and energy into working to make sure we get mental health care and substance use disorder treatment to everyone in our state I've served on the boards of many Mental Health Centers I have represented them as legal councel and I have been uh committed to making sure that we get access to uh to expanded care in our state the the specific thing we need to do is build out the Continuum of Care we've never done that we've never integrated mental health into our schools or into Primary Care we've never built out the partial hospitalization programs we need or the Intensive outpatient programs or the transitional housing to either uh help people before they get into the hospital or when they're coming out this is what we need to do we need to focus on this like a laser beam it is not only the be the most Humane thing to do for everyone involved but it is also the right thing to do from an economic standpoint thank you ma'am Mr Kyper so there's a couple uh sort of easier things at least that we could tackle at the beginning one is that um Medicaid has not been reimbursing a lot of therapists uh for their services and um we need to figure out what's going on with that because there are there are now therapists that are not taking medicaid because they're not getting reimbursed by the state and that's putting some very low-income people uh out of uh putting therapy Out Of Reach for a lot of low-income people and that that is a huge problem uh another thing that we really need to look at is uh group therapy uh I don't know if anyone knows this but when Freud was working on psychoanalysis he realized at some point that there would never be enough therapists for all of us so then he came up with this idea of group therapy and I think it's a really good model uh to get a lot of people in a room and just talk about their mental illness and their problems and you know anxiety depression all these things I think we could start in the school system and really getting our young people uh um acquainted with their emotions and how they're feeling and being okay with talking about them because really that's the root of the problem is us being unable to communicate how we're feeling with each other thanks interesting mayor Craig thank you um this is a crisis in our state right now and I will say that in the Manchester School District we have integrated Mental Health Services into our school district for our students and it is something that we should push out through the entire State and I agree with John when I met with mental health service providers in our state they literally said they are providing services for free because Medicaid is not reimbursing them appropriately and they're at the point where they can't do it anymore so we need to increase Medicaid reimbursement to our Mental Health Service Providers uh we also need to cut the red tape uh for our mental health uh Community Serv Health Providers uh it is standing in the way and we also need to help them with their Workforce shortage thinking through um the salaries are very low College tuition reimbursement we need to do everything we can to bring people or keep young people in the state of New Hampshire and make sure they are taking these jobs because they are critically necessary for residents in our state lastly I would take a look at the doorway program that is in the the state uh we have significant millions of dollars coming from the state into the doorway program and it is not working effectively this is the program where anyone suffering from mental illness or substance use disorder is supposed to walk into a door and be connected to Services it's not working thank you let's go back to the panel Kevin Lander Union Leader energy affordability is a key concern to all Granite Staters we often hear the phrase all of the above as candidates talk about their approach but what grade would you give New Hampshire's current energy policy and what specific policies would you pursue to change it as Governor mayor Craig I would give our energy policy maybe a two uh I think We are failing on energy and I what's the scale what what's the scale if it's a two two uh one out of 10 I assumed two um sorry about that uh but I have put forward a comprehensive policy plan to address energy in our state and it focuses on decreasing costs for our residents in our businesses increasing energy Supply diversifying our energy Supply and making sure we are preserving this beautiful state that we live in we have some of the high highest energy costs and some of the worst uh Energy Efficiency uh programs and we need to take that in into consideration and promote those and boost those up uh and make sure that we are doing everything we can to save our residents money we need to expand opportunities for residents when it comes to community power looking at more solar uh offshore wind as mayor I took this very seriously and we built the largest Municipal solar array in the state and we saved carbon emissions we conserved carbon emissions by 60% I know how to get this done and I really look forward to doing this throughout the state thank you mayor council warmington same question how do you grade it out I've graded as an F uh our energy policy has been kept us completely dependent on fossil fuels and has ignored the imminent and real threat that climate change presents to our state we see it every day flooding all over our state the erosion of the seaw wall on the Sea Coast the crop losses that we experienced because of fluctuating temperatures uh lack of snow on on our ski slopes we need to tackle climate change once and for all I often say that I'm the only one on the executive Council who can actually say the words climate and change in the same sentence and I have put forth a a comprehensive plan that focuses on Energy Efficiency and investments in renewable energy I also want to talk about the environmental issues that I have spoken up on I am the person that has been leading the way on stopping the outof state trash coming into our landfills and the toxins ending up in our drinking water with past being spread all over the state and into our drinking water we've had enough of this garbage let's stop the out ofate trash thank you counselor Mr Kyper same question I'm going to give it a c minus mainly because my dad's here and he spent 30 years working at the nucular power plant in CRA uh but that said you know we've got about 500 megawatt of clean energy that's waiting to get hooked up to the grid and the holdup is that there's no Financial incentive for eversource to actually do the paperwork to connect these solar arrays to the grid so we need to change that relationship between uh eversource and the state of New Hampshire to incentivize this clean energy hookups and uh we need to really change who's on the uh Public Utility Commission to get people on there who understand why we need this clean energy also there's you know some wind uh projects that are are uh being proposed off in the Gulf of main I think that's really important to pursue those and there's a lot of great technology that's uh coming online with batteries where we can sort of decentralize the electrical grid so you would have a battery in your house that could be powered with solar and then charged up and then uh charged back onto the grid uh when demands were higher so there's actually a lot of very good things happening in clean energy right now and the state of New Hampshire just really needs to get on board with the rest of New England embracing those Technologies thank you thank you sir thank you candidates let's go back to the panel Jeff chister if elected you will be replacing a four-term republican governor who enjoys some of the highest job approval ratings in the country despite having to navigate the covid-19 pandemic and the volatile National economy are there any policies by sununu's Administration that you would continue or enhance to help insulate New Hampshire from a potential recession and to help with inflation concerns Mr Kyper wow that's uh that's a tough question I mean one of the things people have got to realize about the economy the last four years is that every governor of every state has been getting hundreds of millions of dollars of covid money so much of sununu's success rides on all of this money that frankly was put on the government credit card so some of these programs may have been very good programs but there is not funding that's going to continue to come from the federal government to continue these programs for the next 10 years or anything like that uh so I think it's just really important that realistic about our budgets going forward I mean we were making $80 million a year in interest payments just off covid money that we had sitting in the bank in for the State of New Hampshire and that money is going to be gone so I see the federal uh purses getting tighter as we progress with the $34 trillion budget and I think it's just really going to be hard to replicate a lot of the things that sununu did because that money is just not going to be there thank you thank you Mr Kyper mayor Craig is there anything within the senuna administration economic policy that you would enhance or keep yeah so as mayor of Manchester I develop the annual budget of $400 million every year so I understand the process that goes into developing a budget and making sure we're doing everything we can to provide the services that our residents need while also keeping taxes low uh I also have the experience of applying for federal grants and I have received over uh a hundred million uh from the federal government that have gone to bringing in 7,000 family sustaining jobs infrastructure and Transportation Hub in the city of Manchester and I would continue to do that as Governor it's also important to note that the chips and science act for example has funding for child care and the infrastructure uh plan has money to address P so I would actively apply for those funds to bring into our state to address the serious challenges that we have and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to stop stop the downshifting to our local communities because that is what's increasing taxes local property taxes anything within this New Economic Policy you think is worth keeping not that I can think of fair enough Council warmington you know for the past four years I have been the highest ranking Democrat in state government and the only Democrat on the executive Council uh so it's me going toe-to-toe with Governor sununu week after week and honestly we disagree on essentially everything from a policy perspective but I want to give him credit that we have he has been able to put aside our policy differences roll up our sleeves and get to work for the people of our state an example of that is the firefighters cancer screening program that the governor and I worked together on and got funded uh earlier this uh this year that being said we have real problems in our state and a real crisis in our state that we need to address that have been gone neglected under this Administration for much too long I will say that approach of being able to reach across that table I mean remember I'm a minority of one so if I'm going to get anything done at all it's going to be by Reaching Across that table knowing when to stand by ground and also knowing how to find the common ground and that's how you really get things done in conquer thank you ma'am Kevin landrian next question I wonder if you folks would um say is there any scenario in which you would support a sales or income tax in New Hampshire and also Kelly aot this campaign has said I vow to oppose any increase in taxes would you make the same promise tonight or is it irresponsible to say that right now Council warmington uh sure I have uh pledged and I will veto any sales or income tax that would come to my desk uh Kelly aot talks a lot about uh reducing taxes but what she really means is reducing taxes for people like her the wealthy uh she voted multiple times as a United States senator for budgets that gave tax cuts to the rich and and tax breaks to big big companies big oil companies she absolutely will not U be looking out for the working people of our state and as I said I am going to be building I'm going to be working keep making decisions through the lens of the working families and we will be building a budget from the ground up that reflects our priorities and we need we just cannot get to work on that too soon thank you councelor mayor Craig thank you I do not support a sales or an income tax and will veto anything that comes to my desk I will say that I do not support tax breaks for the ultra wealthy like Kelly aot we are losing $160 million in our state right now because of that change uh so I will work with the legislature to bring that back because we need to do everything that we are we can to make sure we are cutting costs for Working Families in our state that's how we do that and that's what I will do as governor Mr Kyper same question I have not taken the pledge because number one as a restaurant owner I collect and pay sales tax called rooms and meals I also pay an income tax called business Enterprise tax and frankly is a slap in the face to every restaurant owner in this state when people say there is no sales or income tax tax those things exist they provide income for the state the state could not function without them furthermore there is no way to get property taxes down without another way of paying for the schools aside from property taxes okay and because of our heavy Reliance on property taxes towns and cities in the New Hampshire have not wanted to build houses for families so if we build a bunch of houses for families the 60,000 units that they're going to mention very shortly that is going to increase State Property Tax or local property taxes by over a billion dollar there are only three ways to fund the schools income tax sales tax property tax we tried property tax the towns and cities had to pay it rejected that that leaves only two ways to do it income tax or sales tax there is no other way to fund the schools okay I have researched this extensively so if we are going to solve the Constitutional crisis with funding our schools all three of these need to be on the table now I'm not suggesting income tax or sales tax but I'll tell you I think the people who rejected the Statewide property tax might be more amendable to it if an income tax was on the table and that's my plan thank you you're brought up the housing issue obviously many people think there's a housing crisis as Governor what would you do to address that well like I said it's going to be very difficult to solve the housing crisis without solving school funding and property taxes everyone's got to understand that those are all tied up so I and this is what we're going to have to do for housing what we do in this town is going to be different than what we do in Manchester to solve this problem what we do in New Market is going to be different than Rochester we need to try a bunch of different ideas my simple ideas are uh they built a 40 or 50 tiny home uh subdivision in Dover really great idea we need more of those you know set up sort of like mobile home parks but smaller little Cottages small units uh another thing that we need to do is legalize cannabis sell it the same way that we sell liquor and invest that money into housing uh that would give us the funding that we need to build the type of housing that we need uh where we need it and you know another thing that we're going to need is wastewater treatment plants this is crucial particularly in The Lakes Region and the North country and where are we going to get that money we're going to tax uh second homes which are many of which are owned by people from out of state and I think there's a pretty uh good chance that there's a way to put a tax on those second homes that only affect people that don't live in New Hampshire because the best type of tax is the one that you don't have to pay well said Thank You mayor Craig same question sure you know Statewide projections that we need 60,000 housing units by 2030 and I would tell you as mayor this is something that I took on and we have now 2,000 housing units in development allocated over $30 million toward affordable housing and this past December we broke ground on one of the largest affordable housing developments in the entire state so I know what it takes to get this done I'm also the only candidate who has put forward a plan to address the housing crisis which you can find on my website at Joyce cra.org it includes things like providing density bonus bonuses for affordable housing uh providing technical assistance to our local communi so they can address their uh aged zoning ordinances uh make providing uh tax incentives uh making sure the New Hampshire Finance Authority is properly funded and understanding that many of our smaller communities who want to build more housing don't have the infrastructure to support it the water and sewer so we need to work at the state level uh with the housing Champions and at the federal level to make sure we get that funding so we can build the housing that's needed for our seniors for our young people and for our hardworking families in this State thank you ma'am same question for you counselor yeah we are 60,000 units behind and there is only one way out of that build build build you know when uh the governor had a hundred million to spend on housing he came to the executive Council didn't have a word of affordable in there and I actually reached across the table worked with my fellow counselors to say this isn't going to work in my district it's not going to work in your District either they agreed with me I led the fight at the council table we sent it back to the governor it came back to us with guard rails around affordable housing we are building thousands of those units all across our state right now but we are the state government is not going to build our way out of this crisis we need private developers to be building in our state and when I talk to them and ask them why are you not they tell me zoning we need to put the right appropriate incentives in place so that communities can make the changes to their zoning ordinances Economic Development money should should be invested in communities that are are willing to make the the changes we need to accommodate the growth of our families and we need to understand this is not a non in my backyard situation this is the kids the kids our own kids are who we're keeping on of the backyard and our grandkids and our teachers and our firefighters and our police officers thank you ma'am uh another question from our friends at AARP New Hampshire across New Hampshire 168,000 Granite sters help their loved ones remain in their homes and communities these family caregivers sacrifice time money and $2.8 billion annually according to AARP and unpaid support in the state mayor Craig how will you help these Family Care caregivers yeah so I talked about this earlier I actually am a caregiver and so I understand what the caregivers are doing it is uh a time commitment uh it is a love a lot of work uh but we do it for the loving family members that we have and we're very grateful for it but we need a governor who understands what these individuals are going through and will provide the supports necessary uh that they need in order to do both their job and provide the care to their family members that needs to happen and so I will work directly with AARP like I have done before as mayor of Manchester to ensure that our state is most responsive to these individuals who are providing absolute necessary care to their families uh and I am committed to doing that Council War sure I've been working with nonprofits my entire career to help deliver services to people that want to stay in their homes there's so much that we do need to do in our society to help with this we need to invest in the provision of of services we have a program that compensates family members uh who can provide services we need to look at that and expand on that where we can we need to make sure that there are places that they can take their loved ones maybe during the day senior centers and whatnot so that they can get a break we need to make sure that we are recognizing how really difficult it is you know my um my brother suffered with uh early onset dementia and uh his wife was his caregiver it was I was a very I was a supportive hand to her and then when she suddenly passed and I took over his care I understood the challenges that she faced and we need to make sure that we are supporting our caregivers thank you ma'am Mr Kyer same question you know this is really important because uh the 65 and up demographic is the fastest demographic growing in New Hampshire right now I grew 50% from 2011 to uh 2021 and you know one story that I heard a lot when I've gone out and talked to homeless people in New Hampshire is this story has come up multiple times and I and I was frankly really surprised but basically people said I was taken care of my mom we were living in you know whatever house you know for a long time and I was we were living off of I was getting paid to you know take care of her she died the house went into probate I'm now homeless because I've been out of the workforce for 10 years and I've spent you know the last 10 years taking care of my mother so I think it's really important that we look at you know these root causes of homelessness and say how can we help this person transition after the loved one is gone either back into the work uh working uh field or you know continuing to do that type of work for somebody else but uh fundamentally you know if it's rental assistance or whatever it is uh this is a big cause of homelessness and we could really uh prevent that by addressing it earlier on thank you sir appreciate it we're just about out of time but we have one more question coming from Melanie penda and let's start uh with councelor warmington okay according to gord's Law Center the rate of gun deaths in New Hampshire has increased by 57% in the last 10 years compared to 36% nationally currently there are no State licensing requirements for the possession of rifles shotguns or handguns do you think that needs to change and What policies would you support uh one of the most difficult things to hear on the campaign Trail is from families uh couples that are sending their children off to school for the first time and they are afraid this isn't a partisan issue it's not just Democrats it's everyone across the board they recognize now that there is a real risk when they send their kids to school our kids are being subjected to active shooter drills our teachers are being subjected to that we need comprehensive change and gun violence prevention I've put forward a comprehensive plan to have common sense gun violence prevention measures like Universal background checks and uh three-day waiting periods red flag rules and the ban on the sale of military style weapons Kelly aot was the only senator in New England who voted against against Universal background checks after 20 children were gunned down at Sandy Hook Kelly aot is wrong for New Hampshire Mr Kyper same question you know I think it's really important that we remember that uh that's uh that we live in one of the safest states in the country and we have a very low uh rate of of gun violence and uh when it does happen we need to look at the causes of that you know for instance we had this uh this murder in the conquered the state hospital and it's really important that we look at that and see what we can learn such as integrating uh into the background check system people that are suffering from severe mental illness and people that are um you know potentially going to be harmful to their Partners you know statistically these are the types of people that are most likely to be harmed by gun violence and let's see what we can do to prevent that thank you thank you very much and mayor Craig thank you uh this is extremely concerning concerning especially uh with the uh events tragic events that just happened in Georgia with school just starting I will tell you my kids grew up doing active shooter drills my daughter is now a teacher in a public school and she's teaching kids how to do active shooter drills we have to do better in our state we have to I have put forward a comprehensive plan to address gy violence in New Hampshire it includes Universal background checks red flag laws preventing guns from being brought into schools but I think it's important to note as mayor I took action even when we didn't have laws to do so so we implemented the first gun violence prevention strategy in the city of Manchester we invested in technology you know our teachers today in Manchester have an app on their phone and if there's an emergency they hit that and someone is there immediately we have to be thinking about both fronts moving forward with legislation and what can we do to prevent this and protect families in our state there is nothing more important I have to say in terms of clock management just collectively you're the best candidates we've seen this week y they've gotten better so that's for you I do I'm going to squeeze one more in there Easy Choice only two choices tomorrow the New England College pilgrims will play its first football game in 50 years against Plymouth State mayor Craig who's going to win well know your audience yeah I wish New England College the best tomorrow well said Council warmington go pilgrims there you go Mr Kyper go get him all right we've reached time for uh final closing statements and uh as I said earlier we drew to see the the order of things and we're going to begin with councelor warmington sure take 90 seconds you know we uh again and we are so all so fortunate to live in this incredible state but as you've heard discussed here tonight we have real problems with a housing shortage with uh assaults on our public schools on reproductive Freedom um we we need to make sure that we are making decisions through the lens of our Working Families and so many families are struggling right now to make ends meet I know what that's like uh when I was young my family went bankrupt by 15 I needed to go to work to help out by 17 I was completely financially independent uh that's where I got my grit and that's why I fight on the executive counsel for Working Families every day to lower the cost of housing of child care of energy and we can do this in this election we can choose to live in a state that everyone can love who they love and be who they are and make their own reproductive Healthcare decisions and we can live in a state where teachers are allowed to teach the truth and students can learn we can live in a state where we invest in a clean energy economy where we drink clean water and breathe clean air and we can live in a state where every single working family can put a roof over their kids' heads and feed them and clothe them and give them a great education and still retire with dignity we've built a campaign to that will win uh this week in on September 10th and through to November endorsed by the most elected officials by Mayors doctors firefighters and by the state employees union and I ask for your vote on September the 10th mayor Craig take 90 seconds well thank you Josh and thank you New England college for hosting us this evening you know there is a lot on the line this election there are too many families and communities that are being left behind I am running for governor to strengthen our local communities and ensure that residents throughout our state have the opportunity to succeed I have the executive experience I understand the challenges that our local cities and towns are facing and again how our state should be partnering with us to address these challenges I have a record of getting things done and taking on the tough fights and I have have built a campaign to take on and beat Kelly aot we have raised the most money set every fundraising record for any Democratic candidate who has run for governor in New Hampshire over 500 local leaders and elected officials have endorsed my campaign Senator Maggie Hassen former Governor Lynch the Keen Sentinel editorial board has indorsed me and 20 major unions Teamsters as me aflc nashwa teamers Union Manchester fire because they know I will always have the backs of our hard working families so together we can make sure that we are supporting our hardworking families we are strengthening our Public Schools we are protecting reproductive freedom and we are building a state where everyone has the opportunity to succeed I ask for your vote on September 10th thank you Mr kyber bring it home so the hardest thing for me to realize in this election and it's going to be really hard for you guys to realize it too but it's we don't pick the governor and the Republicans will not pick the governor the governor will be chosen by the independent voters and of those 40% that are independent 15% vote Democratic almost every time and the other 15% vote Republican almost every time so there's a slim little 10% in the middle that we have to win over and those people aren't paying attention to this they don't care about this PO discuss policy discussion that we have they don't really care about the details they're voting on very basic ideas and basic concepts such as build a wall and if we want to win in November we need to give them a candidate that they are going to trust and if you look at what the independent voters and who they are they are generally younger and generally workingclass people uh very similar to myself I can win these people because they will trust me because their problems are my problems and the reality is is that it's going to be very hard for Cindy and Joyce to beat Kelly aot for reasons that really are not their fault but the people that are going to decide this election are going to hear lobbyist for puru Pharma and they're going to vote for kellot they're going to see videos of homeless people in Manchester and they're going to vote for Kelly yot what I can offer you is that I do not have Decades of political baggage okay and I've got good ideas that the young people of this state are going to show up and vote for and if you look at the last eight years that is what the Democrats have failed to do and I worry that we have not learned our lesson yet please show up and vote for me September 10 thank you guys let's hear for our candidates I want to thank I want to thank all three of you for being here it's certainly not easy I want to thank you for running and for what all that you're doing there I know that's not easy best of luck to all of you on September 10th thank you very much to our panelists our volunteers our students and we'll see you back here for the general election have a great evening and thank you to ARP of course