With New Hampshire’s primary election just a week off, candidates in competitive races are doing all they can to get voters’ attention. That includes ratcheting up negative campaigning — in person, via surrogates, and in campaign ads.
This year’s sharp-edged finish to the primary season is most pronounced in two high-profile Democratic races.
Drugs increasingly at center of Democratic gubernatorial primary
In the primary for governor, former Manchester mayor Joyce Craig and Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington are trading accusations over who has personally profited more from New Hampshire’s drug crisis.
Craig is criticizing Warmington for her work on behalf of oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma as a lobbyist two decades ago and for serving more recently as a lawyer to a notorious New Hampshire-based pain clinic.
A recent Craig campaign ad accuses Warmington of “profiting off the opioid crisis” for more than 20 years.
Warmington, meanwhile, is criticizing Craig for having a financial stake in her husband’s law firm, which has advertised its work representing drug traffickers.
“It’s Joyce Craig, who is personally profiting from the defense of drug dealers trafficking oxycontin and cocaine,” a new Warmington ad alleges.
The ad also accuses Craig of “failed leadership” that made Manchester “the epicenter of the opioid crisis.”
Dueling endorsements in 2nd Congressional District primary
In the 2nd Congressional District primary, which pits former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern against former Biden Administration lawyer Maggie Goodlander, the fighting is over the candidates’ connection to New Hampshire and abortion policy.
Van Ostern’s campaign is questioning Goodlander’s past political donations to Republicans who oppose abortion rights. Goodlander is criticizing Van Ostern for doing so.
“Colin Van Ostern is being dishonest with you about my commitment to reproductive freedom,” Goodlander says in a recent ad. “It’s disgraceful.”
That line of attack was echoed recently in an unusual revoked endorsement by former Gov. John Lynch, who announced last week that he was pulling his support for Van Ostern to back Goodlander over what he called Van Ostern’s “nasty” campaigning.
“I’m appalled by it, and my family is very upset about it as well,” Lynch told WMUR Saturday.
Van Ostern, meanwhile, has deployed Congresswoman Annie Kuster, who has held the 2nd District seat for six terms, to go after Goodlander.
In a recent Van Ostern ad, Kuster accuses Goodlander — who was born in Nashua but spent her adult life mostly working in Washington DC — of political opportunism.
“Maggie Goodlander hasn’t lived in our district for decades,” Kuster says.
A frenzied final primary week
The efficacy of these sorts of arguments — and ads — is uncertain at this point. Polling in the races show Craig leading Warmington in the gubernatorial primary and Goodlander edging Van Ostern. But with many undecided voters, the back and forth over personal accusations could be pivotal.
In the governor’s race, the claims and counterclaims from Craig and Warmington are likely to be a factor for voters straight through the general election. That’s because Republicans are already making similar attacks.
Leading GOP candidate Kelly Ayotte has already run TV spots describing Manchester under Joyce Craig’s watch as a lawless and drug-plagued city. If Warmington wins next week, her work in the opioid industry is sure to get similar treatment.
The dynamic in the 2nd Congressional District race is different. Unlike in the governor’s race, the candidate who wins the Democratic primary in the 2nd District will be a clear general election favorite given the demographics of the district.
But that hasn’t stopped the fighting from prompting real divisions among prominent Democrats like Kuster and Lynch.
An unusually uncivil tone
Moments of hard feelings, even among allies, may be common in politics these days. But in most recent years, Democratic primaries in New Hampshire have tended to be civil, animated by questions of electability or sometimes by policy divides. Neither consideration is sparking much debate this year. According to some observers, that’s what's driving these races towards personality and resume.
“They are identical on virtually all the issues, whether it’s Maggie and Colin, or Joyce and Cinde,” said Arnie Arnesen, a Concord radio host and 1992 Democratic nominee for governor. “So why really go to those edgy emotional or personal issues? It’s because that’s what people understand. But it doesn’t necessarily tell you about the kind of leader they’ll be, the kind of congresswoman they’ll be.”
Given the apparent closeness of these Democratic primaries, the political imperatives seem likely to produce more rancor in the final days before the primary election.
