Manchester residents, FYI: Manchester mayoral candidate Joyce Craig has picked up the support of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s Action Fund, along with a snappy hashtag (#proJoyce). This is on top of her endorsement by EMILY’s List, a national group that has turned its sights on the Queen City.
Ms. Craig is challenging incumbent Mayor Ted Gatsas in the November 7 election.
For what it’s worth, I offer a few notes on votes cast by the people running for New Hampshire Governor in the Republican primary.
I’m not ignoring the Democrats. It’s just that I refuse to pretend that there are any distinctions among them on the right to life and the desirability of forcing you and me to hand money to abortion providers. PPNNE’s Action Fund has endorsed Colin Van Ostern, if that tells you anything.
I’ve interviewed Frank Edelblut. He’s got a decent voting record in his one and only House term. (I tracked some 2015 and 2016 votes.) He’s been endorsed by New Hampshire Right to Life PAC (and the name is spelled “Edelblut,” folks).
Jeanie Forrester has been a state senator for three terms. Her record can’t be compared directly with Rep. Edelblut’s, since most life issue bills originate and are killed in the House.
Ted Gatsas was a five-term state senator before being elected mayor of Manchester. In the Senate in 2003, he supported a parental notification bill that became law only to be repealed a few years later. (A second bill passed after Gatsas left office and remains in effect.) In 2007, when the Senate considered a bill to ban the Department of Health and Human Services from entering into contracts with abortion providers (SB 77), he voted against killing the bill. In 2008, pro-abortion senators tried to pass an “adult involvement” bill (SB 527) as an alternative to parental notification for minors seeking abortion. Gatsas voted against the bill, before it was sent to interim study on a voice vote.
And then there’s Chris Sununu. He has thrice voted as an Executive Councilor to give contracts – that’s your money – to abortion providers (2011, 2014, 2016). He managed to vote against one Planned Parenthood contract in August of 2015, but his recent vote flipped that and sent him back to what is apparently his comfort zone. He has no legislative record to confirm where he stands on other life-issue policies.
I strongly advise concerned voters to contact candidates directly for more information.
Gubernatorial candidate Frank Edelblut, one of several Republican primary contenders, took fellow candidate Chris Sununu to task after Sununu flip-flopped on Planned Parenthood funding at today’s Executive Council meeting. I spoke with Edelblut briefly after the Council’s vote.
“We need a Governor who knows what he believes in,” he said. “Chris Sununu has been playing politics with this thing for the last week, maybe ten days, playing us, because he doesn’t know what he believes in. He just appropriated money to an agency that’s already overspent their budget by 16 million dollars, and just gave them another $600,000. That’s just wrong.”
Two other Republican gubernatorial candidates critical of Sununu’s vote weighed in via social media.
Ted Gatsas on Twitter:
Jeanie Forrester took Sununu to task via Facebook:
On the Democratic side, gubernatorial candidate Colin Van Ostern was one of the Councilors joining Sununu in supporting the PP contract.
Leaven for the Loaf 