New Hampshire

NH Executive Council election: Meet candidates for little-known office with major power

Published

1 year ago

October 7, 2024

NH Executive Council election: Meet candidates for little-known office with major power

CONCORD — Two Seacoast districts will see competitive races for New Hampshire Executive Council in November featuring well-known Democrats fighting an uphill battle against Republican incumbents.

In District 1, Republican incumbent Joe Kenney of Wakefield is being challenged by Democrat Emmett Soldati of Somersworth. The district comprises communities in Coos Country to Strafford county, including the greater Seacoast cities and towns of Dover, Durham, Farmington, Madbury, Rochester, Rollinsford, and Somersworth.

In District 3, Republican incumbent Janet Stevens of Rye faces Democrat Jon Morgan of Brentwood. The district includes much of the Seacoast, including Hampton, Rye, Seabrook, Exeter, and Portsmouth.

Currently, the Executive Council has four Republicans and one Democrat.

Soldati, the owner of Teatotaller café, and Morgan, a former state senator, are relatively well-known Democrats taking on established incumbent Republicans. However, both districts lean Republican.

The Executive Council districts have been gerrymandered “pretty good” by Republicans, said UNH Survey Center Director Andrew Smith. But he does believe it’s possible for some seats to be flipped by Democrats.

“I could easily see a 3-2, either way. But you know, the second district is going to go Democrat no matter what, first district is almost certainly to go Republican,” Smith said. “And so there’s potential, but that would have to be kind of in a blowout election.”

He said that it’s not “candidate vs candidate” in the Executive Council races, but “R vs D,” especially because executive councilors in New Hampshire are relatively unknown.

Morgan has won before in a similar situation: in 2018, he bested incumbent Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, in the red-leaning state Senate district. When he announced his 2024 run for Executive Council, he said he “knows how to win in a district where we’re not supposed to win.” (Morgan lost re-election to Gannon in 2020, however.)

Still, “it’s a heavy lift for the Democrats,” said UNH politics professor Dante Scala.

“Any potentially competitive race definitely kind of tilts in a Republican direction because of the way the districts have been drawn,” he added.

What is the NH Executive Council?

New Hampshire’s Executive Council is made up of five members who each represent about one-fifth of the state, or about 263,000 New Hampshire citizens. They are elected every two years. Republicans currently hold a 4-1 majority.

The Executive Council works with the governor to oversee the administration of state affairs. They confirm most state contracts and approve the appointments of department heads and judges.

One type of state contracts the Executive Council approves is with reproductive health care centers. Over the past three years, the Council has faced some controversy for the four Republicans’ repeated votes against funding for three reproductive health care centers that provide low-cost basic reproductive health care, like cancer screenings, STD testing, and contraception because the centers also provide abortions, despite audits showing the state and federal funds aren’t used for abortions.

Executive councilors often have low name recognition, but that hasn’t stopped the seat from being used as a launching pad for higher office. Gov. Chris Sununu was first an executive councilor before becoming governor, as was U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas.

District 1: Kenney vs Soldati

Kenney has served six terms on the Executive Council. Before that, he served three terms in the state Senate and four terms in the New Hampshire House. He was also the 2008 Republican nominee for governor.

Kenney’s top priorities are watching out for wasteful spending in state government, work force development, and pushing for mental health and drug and alcohol services in the state.

Kenney said in his responses to Seacoastonline’s candidate questionnaire that the funding of Planned Parenthood contracts is “always a sensitive topic” and that he has voted against it because “The Council has felt the co-mingling of funds constitute an indirect support for abortion services.”

Candidate questionnaire: Joseph Kenney, District 1

Kenney said that he has worked well with both Republican and Democratic governors during his time in the state house and on the Executive Council. His saying is, “If it’s a problem for you, then it’s a problem for me, then let’s solve it together.”

Soldati is the owner of Teatotaller café in Concord, which is known for being a “queer, hipster oasis.” In January, he won a small claim case against Meta for deleting his café’s Instagram account.

Soldati has run for Executive Council before, losing in the Democratic primary for District 2 to Cinde Warmington in 2020. Soldati is also Board Member of The Charitable Foundation and a Board Member of the Greater Rochester Community Health Foundation.

Soldati’s top priorities are to support nomination of pro-public school education commissioner, to fund Planned Parenthood and other reproductive healthcare centers, and to support nominations of clean energy champions for the Public Utilities Commission and Department of Energy.

Candidate questionnaire: Emmett Soldati, District 1

“I have a lifelong commitment to my community whether through supporting the rights of LGBTQ folks, people in recovery (of which I’m one), helping access to reproductive care through co-founding the Tri-City Reproductive Coalition, to my fight that saved the historic Hilltop School from demolition,” he said in a Seacoastonline questionnaire. “I believe in the power of small communities and will fight for the rights of all Granite Staters.”

District 3: Stevens vs Morgan

Stevens is seeking her third term in the Executive Council. She became the second Republican woman elected to the body in 2020.

Stevens said that her top three priorities are expanding housing, improving healthcare access, and securing infrastructure funding. She said she has “consistently supported contracts for women’s healthcare with New Hampshire’s Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), including expanded access in my district.”

Some of the accomplishments Stevens is particularly proud of include highlighting safety concerns at Hampstead Hospital, helping state retirees receive prescriptions, and securing federal relief funds during the coronavirus pandemic.

Candidate questionnaire: Janet Stevens, District 3

“I take great pride in my record of service to the 266,000+ residents of District Three and all New Hampshire citizens,” she said.

Morgan is a former state senator from Brentwood. He served for one term from 2018-2020.

He is currently a Brentwood selectman and works in cybersecurity.

As an executive councilor, Morgan said his top priorities would be to fund Planned Parenthood and approve other reproductive health center contracts, appoint a commissioner of education “who supports public education,” and prioritize economic development.

Candidate questionnaire: Jon Morgan, District 3

“Every action I take, every decision I make, is grounded in a desire to improve our communities and ensure a better future for the next generation,” Morgan said in response to Seacoastonline’s candidate questionnaire. “I’m here to make a difference. My approach is focused on practical solutions, accessibility, and fairness, and I pride myself on being open and available to my constituents. I believe in listening to all voices, regardless of political affiliation, and working toward common-sense solutions that make life better for everyone in New Hampshire.”

Other Executive Council races

A small portion of the Seacoast is represented by District 4, which dips into Lee and Barrington. There, Democrat Jim O’Connell is facing off against Republican John Stephen. They are running to replace retiring Ted Gatsas.

District 2, the one Democratic-leaning district that covers the western and mid-section of the state including Concord and Hanover, features a race between Democrat Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon and Republican Kim Strathdee of Plymouth. The winner will replace Cinde Warmington, who lost the Democratic primary for governor.

In District 5, Republican incumbent David Wheeler of Milford is challenged by Melanie Levesque of Brookline. The district represents the southwestern corner of the state.

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New Hampshire

Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire

Published

8 hours ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire

NEW YORK (Gray Media) – Thursday night Law enforcement officials confirmed the suspect in last Saturday’s shooting at Brown University was found dead. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man suspected of killing two Brown students and injuring nine, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, NH. Officials believe the 48-year-old former Brown student was also connected to the killing of an MIT professor earlier this week.

Neves Valente was a student in the early 2000s at Brown and a fellow student of Dr. Nuno Loureiro, the MIT professor. His motive was unknown, but university officials said he likely spent a lot of time in the building where he carried out the attack.

A six-day manhunt led law enforcement to a storage unit where they found Neves Valente, who came to the U.S. from Portugal originally on a student visa, eventually receiving a green card to stay in the country. Rhode Island’s Attorney General Peter Neronha said tips from the public were crucial in finally identifying the suspect.

“When you do crack it, you crack it. And that person led us to the car. Which led us to the name. Which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence,” said Neronha.

In response to the tragedy and ensuing investigation, President Donald Trump paused the diversity visa lottery program the suspect used to get a green card. Some 50,000 visas per year are granted to students from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.

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New Hampshire

Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe

Published

20 hours ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has closed a complaint after finding that Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill did not engage in illegal electioneering.

At issue were a series of emails Liot Hill, a Lebanon Democrat, had sent from her official government account to help the partisan Elias Law Group connect with voters impacted by a new state voting law.

Republican lawmakers said that was an inappropriate use of official resources, threatening to impeach Liot Hill over her correspondence. James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, reported his concerns to the Attorney General’s Office in August.

In August, the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats and progressive causes, represented three visually-impaired plaintiffs who sued New Hampshire officials over the constitutionality of a new law that would tighten photo ID requirements for voters seeking an absentee ballot. That case was recently dismissed by a New Hampshire Superior Court judge.

This week, the Attorney General’s Election Law Unit released its determination that Liot Hill’s emails did not constitute illegal electioneering, in a Dec. 18 letter to MacEachern.

The Election Law Unit said it reviewed five emails from Liot Hill’s official government account that MacEachern had provided.

It found the content of the emails did not meet the state’s definition of electioneering, “because it does not relate in any way to ‘the vote of a voter on any question or office,’ i.e., something to be voted on at an election,” Brendan A. O’Donnell, senior assistant attorney general in the Election Law Unit, said in the letter.

“Moreover, it is not uncommon for elected officials to use their official capacity to take a position on the constitutionality of an enacted law that is being challenged in court,” O’Donnell said.

However, the letter noted that Liot Hill’s emails did raise the risk that its recipients — including two executive branch officials — could interpret her requests for help as commands.

“All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety,” said O’Donnell.

But, he continued, his office did not find in this case that there had been a misuse of position or that the emails otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code.

MacEachern said he still has concerns about Liot Hill, when reached for comment on the Election Law Unit’s findings.

“This report, among others, continues to raise serious questions about Councilor Liot-Hill’s judgement and brazen willingness to push ethical boundaries with her conduct,” he said in an email.

But Liot Hill said the findings “underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks” against her, including the impeachment proceedings Republicans have failed against her.

“I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat,” she said in an email.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.

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New Hampshire

NH Republicans push to allow guns on college campuses

Published

1 day ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

NH Republicans push to allow guns on college campuses

Rick Green
| Keene Sentinel

CONCORD — The recent fatal shooting at Brown University shows that banning guns on campus makes students more vulnerable to violence, state Rep. Sam Farrington, a University of New Hampshire senior, told reporters Dec. 17 in promoting legislation to end such bans.

Farrington, R-Rochester, and other House Republicans, also said in the Statehouse news conference that the shooting that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, illustrates that Australia’s restrictive gun laws don’t protect the public.

Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, the deputy House majority leader, said gun control restrictions leave people “unable to defend themselves, their families, their peers.”

Farrington said violence similar to what occurred at Brown University in Rhode Island, which left two dead and nine injured, could occur in New Hampshire, where universities also prohibit guns on campus.

“UNH, Plymouth State, Keene State, the list goes on, they all have one thing in common — these are public universities that are infringing on the Second Amendment rights of college students right here in New Hampshire,” said Farrington.

“They claim to be gun free zones. Well if we know anything about gun-free zones, looking at Australia and Brown, we know that they are not violence free zones. They are only defenseless zones where victims are left hopeless, without any hope of defending themselves.”

He is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1793, which the Legislature will consider next year. It would prohibit public colleges and universities from regulating the possession or carrying of firearms and non-lethal weapons on campus.

Under the bill, if a college or university that received federal funds instituted such a ban, they could be sued.

Democrat speaks against legislation

State Rep. Nicholas Germana, D-Keene, a history professor at Keene State College, said Thursday he wouldn’t feel any safer if people coming on campus were packing firearms.

Any police response to an active shooter on a college campus would be fraught if armed bystanders became involved and crossfire broke out, he said.

“All the sudden police come on that campus and it’s a shootout at the OK Corral,” Germana said. “How do police know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is?”

He said the tragedy in Australia last weekend is an anomaly that doesn’t alter the fact that gun violence rates in that country decreased after strict firearm regulations were passed almost 30 years ago and remain much lower than U.S. rates.

“We can look around the world to see examples of this where the number of guns in the population at large corresponds to gun violence,” Germana said. “It’s clear that when Republicans say in this country that gun control measures do not decrease gun violence, it is demonstrably false.”

The University System of New Hampshire said in the fiscal note of House Bill 1793 that the measure could cost it as much as $500,000 because insurance premiums and liability claims would increase, more security measures would be required, firearm storage systems would be needed, expected lawsuits would create attorney fees and the ability to attract students and faculty would decrease.

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