Why I Support Dan Feltes for N.H. Governor
Over the past four years (the first two as an engaged citizen and the second two as an engaged citizen AND as a state legislator), I’ve been privileged to see some truly exceptional public servants in action in Concord. What the best of them have in common is a sense of empathy for others combined with a firm sense of resolve to right wrongs and address problems that keep good people from succeeding. While they understand that creating opportunity for businesses is important, they also know that true success is measured one positively-changed life at a time.
Dan Feltes is one of the best public servants I’ve ever had the privilege to get to know and to see in action. While he’ll never win an Oscar for Best Actor in a Campaign Ad, Dan has been an effective and vocal advocate in the New Hampshire Senate for causes that make a huge difference in people’s lives.
Values Matter
If you don’t know much about Dan, you might be surprised to find out he was the prime sponsor of legislation that will protect New Hampshire residents with preexisting conditions from discriminatory increases in insurance rates—and from the loss of essential coverage—should the Affordable Care Act be tossed out by the courts. While the media chose to focus on the man who signed the legislation, it is important to also take into account the work of the man who helped write the legislation, collaborated with colleagues in the House of Representatives to guide it through public hearings, fought for it passionately and effectively on the floor, and finally mustered enough votes to get it passed. That man was Dan Feltes.
While Dan’s forethought and prescient work are now positioned to help New Hampshire to avoid a potential tragedy, one of the things I appreciate most about Dan when it comes to health care is that he isn’t content to simply react and play defense. Like me, he believes that healthcare is a human right. To that end, he’s put together a comprehensive plan to lower prescription drug costs, improve access to health care, and ensure access to reproductive health services by people at all income levels. You can read it here. His opponent—like the man he praised when they both took office in 2017 advocating the repeal of the ACA—has no health care plan after almost 4 years in office.
Dan is a fighter who has found ways to win many tough battles. But he has also proven himself to be resilient. For the past 3 legislative sessions, he has championed the creation of a state family and medical leave program that would provide income security for all New Hampshire workers in the event of a personal or family medical emergency. Without this program—which Governor Sununu has inaccurately and unfairly mischaracterized as an “income tax” and vetoed on 3 separate occasions—families are too often forced to choose between eating and paying the rent or caring for a loved one in a time of need. While the votes were not there to override the governor’s vetoes, no one fought harder to make a difference for New Hampshire workers than Dan Feltes.
From improving the affordability and accessibility of health care to working to increase the financial security of working people, the dominant theme of Dan Feltes’ legislative record is putting people first. Throughout his service, he has had a hand in many groundbreaking legislative accomplishments that New Hampshire can genuinely be proud of. Some of the other legislation Dan has been responsible for as prime sponsor includes:
An act to remediate lead contamination and reduce lead poisoning in children (SB247)
Reform of unaffordable bail requirements that too often kept indigent people accused of non-violent crimes in jail and out of the workforce until their trials (SB556)
An innovative foster care children’s bill of rights (SB385)
To those of us in the legislature fighting to remedy PFAS contamination on the Seacoast and Merrimack, Dan was a valued ally in the ongoing battle to rid New Hampshire of these cancer-causing forever chemicals and to implement N.H.’s toughest-in-the-nation PFAS contamination state standards. He has also led the way in efforts to enact legislative ethics and campaign finance reform—work that he plans to build on as governor thorough his “People’s Plan” , a comprehensive program that would eliminate areas of abuse (such as no-bid state contracts), create an independent state ethics office, end gerrymandering, and properly fund the Department of Justice’s elections division so it can properly enforce and investigate lobbyist and campaign finance violations.
Unlike our current governor, Dan also supports sensible gun violence risk reduction laws. He also believes that the legalization of cannabis is an economic and a racial justice issue.
You can learn more about Dan’s stands on the issues on his website.
A Few Words About Governor Sununu
While free TV time and a state of emergency that will soon enter its 8th month have made Gov. Sununu the face of New Hampshire’s COVID-19 response, his performance is very much open to question.
His reopening guidance to schools essentially downshifted responsibility and much of the cost for a public health crisis from the state to local school boards, which were forced to scramble to create reopening plans with no firm health guidelines.
He was late to recognize the threat to residents of N.H. long-term care facilities, where 82% of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities have occurred. Almost as bad, he has refused to address staffing issues caused by low state Medicaid reimbursement rates that are draining nursing homes of skilled staff at the precise time they are needed the most. Most recently, he told beleaguered nursing home administrators that the state was transferring responsibility for surveillance testing of residents and staffs From the state to facilities that are cash-strapped, short-staffed, and still finding it difficult to acquire PPE at an affordable price.
He remains the only governor in the northeast to continue to refuse to impose a statewide mask mandate despite overwhelming evidence that in a fall/winter surge, it would reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths while reducing the risk of a catastrophic second shutdown that could slam the state’s economic recovery into full reverse.
COVID aside, Sununu has also been one of the most bitterly partisan governors in New Hampshire history. During the 2019 legislative term he vetoed over 50 bills. It the 2020 term he vetoed over 20.
The previous single-year record for vetoes by a N.H. governor was 15.
Among his 2020 vetoes were the paid family and medical leave program mentioned above, a state minimum wage law, a popular bipartisan independent redistricting bill, COVID-19 worker protections, four separate gun violence prevention bills, and a reproductive health care parity bill that would have required private insurance and plans on the Health Insurance Marketplace to cover abortion care if the plans also cover prenatal care.
While Sununu likes to present himself as “pro-choice” his actions contradict his words. In addition to vetoing the reproductive health care parity bill, he signed a “fetal homicide” bill in 2018 that makes it possible to prosecute a mother or doctor for the death of a fetus after 20 weeks of development. As an Executive Councilor, he voted to oppose renewal of a state reproductive health care contract with Planned Parenthood. In 2019, he also nominated Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to be Chief Justice of the N.H. Supreme Court. MacDonald has no experience as a judge but has long-time connections to right-wing groups and has advocated for anti-abortion groups in court.
The Bottom Line: I Am Proudly and Enthusiastically Supporting Dan Feltes
In 2020, New Hampshire—and America—have a unique opportunity to correct a huge mistake—the election of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United States. But we also have an opportunity to put a very good man at the helm of a state that will be challenged by COVID recovery as well as by long-standing issues ranging from protecting the health of nursing home residents to properly funding public education and making New Hampshire an attractive choice for younger workers and families.
Dan has been preparing for this challenge his entire life and will govern with compassion, empathy, fairness, and transparency.
Please give him your support when you vote.