As she attempts to unseat a 38-year incumbent in Republican John Hunt, Democratic Cheshire County District 14 candidate Deni Dickler said the people she talks to love Rindge, but are concerned about issues that include property taxes, lack of school funding and high child care costs.

Hunt, she said, has seen all those issue during his time representing Rindge, but they haven’t been addressed.

“They agree with me,” she said. “It’s time for a change.”

In his opening statement, Hunt said he enjoys serving the community, and that he is proud of how in the last session, he was on a committee that was split 10-10 between Democrats and Republicans, so he asked to keep partisan bills in committee so members could find solutions.

“And that’s what we did,” he said,

Dickler and Hunt were two of the candidates taking part in a candidate forum Tuesday at Franklin Pierce University sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire PeterboroPlus unit and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. Also attending were Democrats Hannah Bissex and Tom Hsu and Republicans Rita Mattson and Jim Qualey, the four candidates for two seats in Cheshire County District 18 representing Dublin, Jaffrey and Rindge.

Bissex, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022, said people are “tired of the division, the name-calling, the finger-pointing,” and said she was running again because “I know you have to work for what you care about.”

Hsu said the state has to fix school funding and find a way to keep people in the area.

“I want to work together to fix what’s broken and plan for the future,” he said.

Mattson said that if something is broken and needs to be fixed, “I’ll do the right thing. Whether it’s the popular thing is someone else’s opinion.”

Qualey, the incumbent, said his goals are to protect people’s rights, keep the state affordable and keep state government within its constitutional limits. He said he has found a home on the Election Law Committee, working to uphold confidence in New Hampshire’s elections.

“We need to have that confidence,” he said.

Questions include housing, abortion rights, marijuana

The state representative candidates answered a series of questions, and regarding housing, Dickler said at least 75% of the people she talked to are worried about losing their home because of property taxes and not being able to find a new one. She said the state needs to find solutions that maintain local control.

“Someone in Concord cannot tell Rindge what is best. We have septic tanks and wells,” as opposed to sewer systems, she said. 

Hunt said taxes and housing have been issues for decades, that it’s not easy to get things built and costs are high because of market value.

“The last thing we want is subsidizing housing that’s only going to help a handful of people, and where’s the money going to come from?” he said.

Answering right after Hunt, Bissex said the state should be providing incentives for low-income housing, while Hsu said affordable housing should be multifamily housing where it makes sense for towns.

“In Jaffrey, we’ve been doing that sort of thing, working on putting multifamily housing where there are sewers,” he said.

Mattson said “regulations that don’t have a place need to be gotten rid of,” and Qualey said that while the state can find solutions around the edges, the crisis is a national one.

“I don’t see how we can hope to build our way out of it with 1.4 million people,” he said.

Regarding public education and the role of property taxes, Hunt said the state property tax is a way to equalize revenue, but Bissex said it can’t be an equalizer if the money stays in towns. She also said the state has been cutting education spending the past two years, and that the interest and dividend tax should be reinstated.

Hsu said New Hampshire is 50th in per-student spending, and that funding schools through local property taxes is regressive.

“Those who can least afford to pay are charged the most property taxes,” he said.

Mattson said her property taxes have risen from $2,000 to $10,000 during her time living in Dublin, and that education isn’t getting better because the money is being spent on administrators and buildings, and not students.

“That’s where the money needs to go,” she said.

Qualey said the property tax gets a bad rap, because raising the money locally allows towns to maintain control. He said he also supports innovative mechanisms like the state’s Education Freedom Accounts program.

Dickler said the state has lost multiple court cases regarding education funding, and that the state needs to take control of the EFA, or voucher, system.

“These are the public schools that built our nation to what it is,” she said,

Regarding abortion, Bissex said New Hampshire is the only state in New England that doesn’t have the right codified in its constitution, and that “We are going backwards on our rights.” Hsu said politicians should stay out of decisions made by a woman and her doctor, and that there is a separation between church and state.

“There’s a good reason for doing it, and a good reason for keeping it that way,” he said.

Mattson said she believes life begins at conception, but that she doesn’t think state law – which allows abortion up to 24 weeks and then afterward if the mother’s health is in danger or there is a fatal fetal anomaly – will change in the near future. Qualey also said state law is not going to change, and that New Hampshire’s laws are similar to New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Dickler said she believes in the rights of women to control their own bodies and health, and that if there are people at the table talking about cutting regulations, “why are they regulating women’s decisions about their bodies?”

Hunt said he has always voted pro-choice, and that he voted to codify Roe v. Wade in case the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down, which it did.

Asked about LGBTQ+ rights, Hsu said it makes no sense to him that someone cannot be who they are, while Mattson said whatever people do behind closed doors is their business.

“But that’s where it should stay,” she said.

Qualey said assigning rights to groups of people causes division, and “We need to focus on the rights we all have and what we have in common.”

Dickler said a role of government is to protect people who can’t protect themselves, while Hunt said parents should make decisions regarding their children. Bissex cited the “extraordinary” amount of bills targeting LGBTQ+ residents.

“This is a population that deserves our respect and our support,” she said.

Asked about recreational cannabis, Mattson said she had several relatives who started using marijuana and then “graduated” to other drugs.

“They say, ‘No, it’s not a gateway drug.’ It’s a gateway drug,” she said. Qualey said he is not against people using marijuana, but votes against bills to make recreational use legal because he’s worried about people driving under the influence and its affect on the safety of the roads.

Dickler said she had to think long and hard about the issue, as she has a stepson who was addicted to drugs, but that people are already acquiring marijuana in other states.

“People are adults. They make choices, just like buying alcohol,” she said.

Hunt is for legalization, and said he lost the last vote on the topic by four votes.

“I guarantee if I’m re-elected, I will get it passed this time,” he said.

Since other states have approved recreational marijuana, Bissex said New Hampshire can learn from their example, and Hsu said he supports legalization with heavy taxation that can be applied toward rehabilitation programs.

“Marijuana is no different than alcohol, no different from cigarettes,” he said.

The final question was on protecting the state’s natural resources, and Qualey said the emphasis should be on prosecuting polluters, not on severe restrictions that damage the state’s economy.

Dickler noted the economic impact,as people coming to New Hampshire to enjoy its natural resources bring millions of dollars to the state.

“Our economy suffers when we don’t protect our natural resources,” she said.

Hunt noted that his committee passed regarding the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances because of their impact on drinking water, and Bissex noted that for-profit companies have been allowed to build landfills so out-of-state businesses can dump their trash in New Hampshire.

Hsu, chairman of the Jaffrey Conservation Commission, said it is important to care for the environment, but to do so wisely.

“We can’t stop all development. We’ll cut our own throats,” he said.

Mattson said no one wants dirty water or air or trash on the roads, but “You can’t regulate us out of our businesses.”

Republican incumbent Dave Wheeler could not attend, but Melanie Levesque, his Democratic opponent in Executive Council District 5 – representing towns including Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Mason, New Ipswich, Rindge, Temple and Wilton – gave a statement and answered questions at the start of the event.

She said she is running because the council needs to make “judgments that help New Hampshire thrive. Her answers included saying the state needs to get more housing built so young people and seniors have options, that the state needs a new education commission and Education Freedom Accounts need to be “throttled back” if they are retained

Democrat Richard Van Wickler and Republican Claudia Stewart, who are running for the Cheshire County Commissioner District 3 seat that includes Dublin, Jaffrey and Rindge, gave statements at the end of the forum.

Van Wickler cited his 33 years of experience in Cheshire County government, including 27 as superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections. He said he believes in the credo of justice, wisdom, courage and temperance, and that it is important to build broad consensus among commissioners.

“I know what their authority of the job is and what its limitations are, and I’ll honor those,” he said.

Stewart said the county commissioners are like the select board for the county, and that her 30-plus years in design, management and administration of large nonprofits have made her used to handling large budgets and given her a belief that she can work with commissioners.

“Determining needs versus  wants should be the first priority in every decision,” she said.

Democrat Ben Ming and Republican incumbent Kevin Avard, running for state Senate District 12, which represents Greenville, Mason, New Ipswich and Rindge, could not attend.