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In final days of N.H. governor’s race, GOP’s Ayotte leans into anti-Massachusetts pitch. Is it working? – The Boston Globe

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In final days of N.H. governor’s race, GOP’s Ayotte leans into anti-Massachusetts pitch. Is it working? – The Boston Globe


The former US senator has built her campaign on a pitch of “Don’t Mass. Up New Hampshire,” a derogatory nod to Massachusetts’ reputation as a tax-and-spend state, implying it’s a “model” Craig wants to emulate. Craig disputes that, saying she opposes an income or sales tax for New Hampshire, though does support keeping a tax on interest and dividends that’s scheduled to phase out in January.

But Craig has offered Ayotte’s campaign regular fodder in her public embrace of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. Healey has repeatedly appeared alongside, fund-raised with, and stumped for Craig, even following her across the country last month to raise money in Berkeley, Calif.

Just this week, Healey campaigned twice with Craig in the span of three days, with plans to return Saturday to Hanover and Dover.

The criticism of the Commonwealth — and Healey’s repeated visits north in spite of it — has at times created an uncomfortable narrative for Craig and Healey, who’ve appeared to try to justify Healey’s presence on the campaign trail.

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“At the end of the day, we are all New Englanders, and we’re all Americans, we’re all playing for the same team,” Healey said Tuesday while she rallied volunteers at a canvassing kickoff for Craig in Manchester, N.H.

Healey touted Craig as a protector of abortion rights who would stand up to former president Donald Trump, should he be elected. She also pointedly noted she is a New Hampshire native — growing up in Hampton Falls and graduating from Winnacunnet High School — and that her mother, Tracy Healey-Beattie, still lives in the state.

“I get to see my mom a lot more,” she joked of campaigning there.

Standing side-by-side with Healey and other elected officials in Manchester, Craig said Ayotte’s messaging about Massachusetts’ influence on New Hampshire “is wrong,” and characterized it as a divisive tactic “pitting one community against another.” Craig recalled a recent campaign stop in Conway, N.H., where she claimed business owners told her Massachusetts residents would sometimes come in wondering if they were still welcome to visit.

“New Hampshire is a small part of New England,” Craig said. “We shouldn’t be making enemies.”

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Her regular appearances with Healey have nonetheless put Craig on the defensive. During a debate hosted by New Hampshire Public Radio last week, moderator Josh Rogers pressed Craig on her repeated appearances with Healey, asking what voters should take from her choosing to “spend day upon day after day” with the Massachusetts governor.

Nothing, Craig replied.

Healey “is a friend of mine, you know, just like other people have friends from out of state,” said Craig, who called herself a fourth-generation New Hampshire resident. “I haven’t spent an excessive amount of time with her. It has nothing to do with who I am, or what I’m running for.”

Ayotte seized on the appearance, writing in a Wednesday post on X that Craig and Healey campaigning together was “otherwise known as a day that ends in ‘y’.” Her campaign then included a slideshow of photos of the two campaigning together set to the tune of the Randy Newman song, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”

Massachusetts is not a novel foil for New Hampshire. About one-third of New Hampshire GOP primary voters said last year they believed too many Massachusetts residents were moving to their side of the border, with some bristling at the idea of them importing more progressive viewpoints. “Don’t . . . bring your liberal [expletive] to my state,” one told the Globe at the time.

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To be sure, the states share some economic similarities — and frankly people, too. Roughly 82,000 New Hampshire residents make the commute to Massachusetts for work, according to state records. New Hampshire has a lower unemployment rate than Massachusetts and both states have a median household income above the national average, though the Bay State skews higher.

For some New Hampshire voters, Ayotte’s message has resonated. Angela Johnson, a 50-year-old independent backing Ayotte, said the anti-Massachusetts pitch is rooted in taxes. Unlike Massachusetts, New Hampshire has no tax on income, sales, or estates. However, New Hampshire has the second-highest property tax rate in the country, according to the right-leaning think tank the Pioneer Institute.

“We want ‘Live free or die,’” she told the Globe at a fair in Fryeburg, Maine, on the New Hampshire border, referring to the New Hampshire state motto. A resident of Milan in Coös County, Johnson said those living in the state’s north country would feel the pain of any tax increase. Craig “has got some big city ideas that won’t fit in the North Country.”

Bill Desmarias and Angela Johnson, of Milan, N.H., posed for a portrait at the Fryeburg Fair in early October. Johnson said Joyce Craig “has got some big city ideas that won’t fit in the North Country.”Michael G. Seamans

Still, Ayotte is running to govern a state where more than half of the residents were born elsewhere. Fergus Cullen, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire and an Ayotte supporter, said given that, he’s surprised she continues to use Massachusetts as a proxy.

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“I don’t know who it appeals to, I really don’t,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to me to be her strongest argument.” Emphasizing as she has in some ads that she’s a natural successor to Chris Sununu, the state’s popular outgoing four-term Republican governor, is more powerful, he said.

(To be fair, Sununu rarely passed up a chance to jab at Massachusetts, too.)

Others are also mystified at Ayotte casting Massachusetts as the villain. At a visit to a Caribbean restaurant in Manchester Tuesday, Pat Long, a Democrat and 18-year veteran of the New Hampshire House, stood in the back of the restaurant as he watched Craig and Healey address a small crowd and hand out “Latinos con Joyce” campaign signs.

Long, who is currently running for state Senate, said Ayotte’s jabs at Massachusetts don’t make sense for people, like himself, who envy Massachusetts’ strong education system, among other strengths.

“I’d be proud to be walking around with Maura Healey. She’s done some great things in Mass.,” Long said. “New Hampshire needs a little taste of that.”

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K.J. Ames, a 73-year-old Republican from Claremont, said the migration of people into New Hampshire, particularly during the pandemic, means the state is “already Massachusetts. And New Jersey. And Philadelphia.”

KJ Ames, of Claremont, N.H., at the Fryeburg Fair. Joyce Craig, he said, “may be a little too liberal for my blood, but I’ll give her a chance,Michael G. Seamans

“A lot of people moved in,” he told the Globe in Fryeburg. But Ames said he couldn’t vote for Ayotte for another reason: “She stood for Trump. And if there’s a baby in the bathwater, I’m sorry, it’s gone.”

That leaves Craig, who “may be a little too liberal for my blood, but I’ll give her a chance,” Ames said.

Plus, he added: “She’s only governor for two years.”


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Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.





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Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit

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Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit


Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.

Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.

Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”

Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.

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“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”

Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.

“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”

The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.

It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.

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Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.

Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.

The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”

“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.

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He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”

It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.

Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”



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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston

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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston


BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.

LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.

The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.

LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.

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The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.

Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer


A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.

The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.

Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.

“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”

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“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.

Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”

“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”

Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.

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The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”

“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”

They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.

“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”

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