New Hampshire, the land of Small Government has maintained a form of checks and balances called the “Executive Council” that’s nearly extinct in America. It works in tandem with the governor to approve or veto the Governor’s decisions. Everything from appointments and nominations, to budget requests and pardons must be approved by the council for passage. Clearly, the council can be quite the impediment to the governor were they in opposition.
The council is split into five equal districts, each with 264,000 citizens and they are elected every two years, along with the governor and legislature. The current party breakdown is three Democrats and two Republicans, which is different from the PVI ratio, where 1 is very Democratic, one is slightly Democratic and the other three are slightly Republican. As with many small states, the choice of who is elected involves far more than just the PVI.
With five different seats, let’s start with one, Executive Council District Four, held by Democrat Chris Pappas. Located in the Southern section of the state, district four is a Republican district at +4 and comprises most of Manchester, a few Satellite cities and some rural towns.
At only 30 years old, Pappas is a young Democrat and an able politician who represents the future of the party in New Hampshire. Since he serves in a district that comprises a large chunk of NH House District 01 he could very well run for higher office sometime in the future.
Pappas comes from a legacy, although not a political one. His Great Grandparents family started the Puritan Backroom in 1917, a Manchester restaurant best known for its ice cream and chicken tenders (although, truth be told, Ballards of Concord has better ice cream). It has a steeped history of fame and politics.
It’s a must stop for most Presidential candidates, a favorite of Sargent Shriver, Joe Lieberman and Bob Kerrey and Palin even showed up unannounced one night while a wedding was happening at the reception. Even Adam Sandler has connections here,
having worked there as a teen.
Pappas has utilized every advantage of the Backroom for his campaigns. It served as a business opportunity that allowed him to run for the State House after graduating Harvard, and work flexible hours. Throughout the presidential campaigns he’s supported various candidates with both the food and space for volunteers available at the Backroom, including a primary day push for Hillary in 2008. Since running for higher office, he’s brought copious amounts of ice cream, chicken tenders and Greek salad to canvass kickoffs and phone banking events, ingratiating himself to Democratic campaign volunteers. Further, since he now runs the Backroom, makes the ice cream himself at 3 in the morning and serves as an Executive Councilor he has the type of business and work with your hands experience that helps win blue collar voters.
Of course he doesn’t win votes from food alone; Pappas has amassed a progressive record in the State House and Executive Council. During his tenure he voted against conservative bills such as voter ID, right to work legislation, parental notification for emergency contraception and a bill that would ban gay marriage. This was in 2006, when the public wasn’t as supportive of gay marriage as it is today meaning Pappas isn’t a Johnny come lately supporter of gay rights.
Further, Pappas helped push through Medicaid expansion on the executive council (something the Council could have stopped single handedly) voted to reinstate federal funding for Planned Parenthood (which is understandable considering his 100% NARAL rating) supported a smoking ban in restaurants and voted to continue debate on eliminating the death penalty.
His opponent is Robert Burns (That’s Mr. Burns!) the former Hillsborough County Treasurer and his 2012 adversary. Burns barely won his nomination in 2012, with only 104 votes more than his opponent and 600 more than the third place finisher. Even in 2014 Burns hadn’t convinced everyone of his worthiness, only winning 58/42%, suggesting Burns’ issues with the electorate aren’t going away.
It didn’t help that Burns only managed an anemic 42% in 2012 against Pappas’ 53%, with 5% going to the Libertarian candidate. Considering District Four's Republican lean Burns should have had strength there, but it may have been counteracted by Pappas'. Pappas’ Manchester connections clearly helped him in 2012 as he lost Bedford 41/55 while CSP lost 37/60.
The other main variable is the same for nearly every race in New Hampshire, how well upballot Democrats perform. In 2012 Democrats won back the State House, failed to win the Senate by a single seat and retook both US House seats in part from the strength of Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign and Maggie Hassan’s gubernatorial campaign. The strength of Hassan and especially Shaheen in 2014 could very well make or break countless Democratic candidacies.
One final note of importance is that most of the District comprises about 1/3 of NH-01, Carol Shea Porter’s District. At the moment there aren’t any clear contenders for her replacement when she decides to retire from politics, and there probably won’t be anyone new when she does retire. The executive offices are unelected and the legislature is mainly for political hobbyists, meaning both party’s benches are usually pretty weak. Between his positions on the issues, how much of NH-01 he already represents and coming from the district’s largest city, Pappas would be the go to candidate next open election.
With three Executive Councilors needed to retain control, Pappas is well positioned to run a strong candidacy in a difficult district, allowing the party to focus on districts that will be harder to keep. Further, Pappas, should he continue to be re-elected would be perfectly placed to run for NH-01 when CSP retires. Finally, Pappas running for higher office would represent a youthful energy the state needs if it wants new ideas, to keep young people from moving away and to move the state forward.
Edit- I added a picture of Pappas.
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Planned Parenthood contract divides Executive Council candidates | Concord Monitor
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Cillizza, C. (2012). The Puritan Backroom. In The gospel according to the Fix (pp. 33-38). New York: Broadway Books.