And his to town challenger also on cspan, this free video app, and cspan. Org. New hampshire governor and his challenger took part in a debate hosted by wmu are in manchester. A nonpartisan or reporter rates this as solid republican. And housing, education and abortion. Bail reform and gun laws. Issues on the table for the next governor who will also grapple with the effects of National Inflation and worker shortages. Incumbent republican running for ace a fourth term. His leadership has given the Granite State a Firm Foundation to navigate these concerns. We have the strongest economy in the country. Number one in public safety. Were not just write good, were ranked the best. Tom sherman disagrees. The long time physician says the new law restricts freedom, and the cost that have arisen are more than they can afford. My focus is on them. It is not politics. It is people. It is the people of New Hampshire. Which candidate has the right approach for New Hampshire . Voters will give the answer in one week. Tonight, the candidates for governor. Good evening and thank you for joining us from the debate. I am the political director. This is the first of four debates leading to tuesdays election. We are joined by the candidates for governor. They will be answering questions from me and the panelist. The panelists are the anchors and steve. Heres a look at our format. Each candidate will get 60 seconds to answer a question. They will get a rebuttal, and that will be at my discretion. Candidates will get 60 seconds for closing statements. They are feeling the pressure of Economic Issues right now, from skyrocketing grocery bills to filling up with gas to keeping the lights on. We want to address these concerns, and lets start with heating costs. Thank you. The price of a gallon of heating oil is five dollars. That is 80 more than it was this time last year. Gas prices are also up. As we enter what will be the coldest month of the year, what needs to change with the power over it to make sure Granite State citizens dont have to pay for this. Thank you for the question. It is clear that we could have been in a much better place than we are, had the governor actually encouraged what we need in terms of renewables and efficiencies and in terms of weatherization. Unfortunately, he did not. Not only are we facing issues of doubling our energy prices, but the ceo of ever source has come out in the last week. He said we did not have enough supplies regionally to heat our homes, to provide energy we need. Had we done this, four years ago, we could have been ahead of the game. He is calling for us to have more renewables. We could have had those much further down the road than right now. That delay is costing us paying the price for the vetoes and for blocking that intervention. What power do you need to have to make sure that we dont have to worry about that . This hurts. Everyone is feeling it. Gas prices and flew few oil prices and groceries, these are bad policies out of washington with consequences on individuals, and it is hurting everyone, and as tom said it is a national issue. We are seeing price spikes everywhere. You have to make a transition to renewables. We promote solar on low income families and apartment buildings and fixed income so they get the benefit of the economic benefit while we all get an economic benefit. I am a big believer in hydro. It was the democrats that killed the cheapest renewable hydropower in the country, but you need a transition. You need fossil fuels while we make that transition read all or nothing doesnt work. Unfortunately, the whole country is feeling the pain. Lets talk more about the cost of electricity. It spiked in New Hampshire between ever source, the coop, and liberty utilities. This rate has gone up between 77 and 112 . It kicks in in december. What will you do right now to help granite stators deal with the highest rates in history. Lets begin with you. We brought the legislature back and we put forward a plan for 100 million of additional assistance. Why did we do that . We are smart financially. We have good management, and we had a state surplus. We are finding ways to get back to taxpayers, and with the Legislature Passed that, with additional assistance for electricity, expanding it for heating oil and expanding it for those who need the most. Some families traditionally wouldnt qualify for those programs but they now do. I encourage everyone to go and see if they qualify. There is a lot of money to be had. By having good Financial Management and prioritizing your spending and building up spending, we can reinvest those dollars. What would you do to help handle these rates . I voted for that bill that came before us. I also proposed an amendment that would have allowed that before the weather, that was blocked in the senate. We would not have had to be here if the governor have been more proactive years ago. We talked about hydro. We talked about hydro and solar and wind. It could have been much more strongly supported, and these increases would not have been as high as they are now. We also would have had allowed those rate increases to go slowly. It would not have clobbered New Hampshire residents. I know people across the state. Ive met them, and they cannot afford to keep heat their homes even after we passed that. It could have been prevented. 30 seconds. We nominate them, they go forward as judges, and you cannot interfere with that. It is illegal. We have a process that lives independently. It means they do not have the money to buy the power. You are looking at brownouts. We think it is bad now, but it is going to get worse. Its going to get worse this winter and the summer. Not just for new englanders but all across the nation because when the demand goes up, there is no incentive to produce that in other parts of the country. That is a reflection of dad policies that has to be changed. Your nominees to the Public Utility Commission caused an uproar. Some critics have accused you of being more concerned with the Power Company than the people struggling to put in their bills. Today had to find a way to reverse it, but i think the legislature came back. They fixed that. I cannot control the process, but when they do something that has a negative impact, it is too much too fast, we take action. We dont avoid the issue. We dont talk about where it was. I love the challenges of redesigning a system and finding a better way to do it, but the only way to do that is to acknowledge it didnt work. Pretty much everybody did. It has to be fixed. It is too much too fast and we made a correction. There is a better way to do it. Theres a better way to respond. It is a legislative process, and the opportunity to redesign the systems and think outside the box and do something different, that is what we are known for and do really well. Doesnt need to change . Absolutely. The governors rewriting history. It was his pressure and chairman poses that prompted him to pull back on efficiency. He put in place that. These are his appointees. These are his people. Not only did they take away so much of the Energy Efficiency and elated by a year, they are also the ones who are hitting the residents of New Hampshire with these abrupt doubling of prices right now. Both of those could have been avoided. Next question. The department describes a modular reactor. I will closely here. As a key part of safe, clean and power options, would you support the development and construction of one of these reactors in New Hampshire . I work closely with seabrook to make sure it is operating safely. I work with the Monitoring Group around it. All of these things are things that protect the people of New Hampshire. It has to be part of our renewable portfolio. The concern i have is expense fuel. That is not something fully addressed, but i would be open to exploring the possibility of micro reactors coming to New Hampshire. Those reactors are the way of the future. It is not five or 10 years away. It is 50 years away, but those technologies are saved, they have different containment systems and they are built into microgrid so it is not just one giant system. You see the mess going on in georgia with the newest mega reactor, but the smaller reactors are safed or safer and more modular. That is probably 50 or 60 years away down the road. Nothing can really impact what we do over the next couple of days. It is a Great Nuclear power plant. It has a great safety rating. We got right on it and we worked with them. Hats off to the folks at the department of safety when there was a false start. I got on it. During the covid pandemic, the state took more than 1 billion from the federal government inappropriate appropriated. You spoke out against the rescue plan and then accepted the money. How do you believe you are not responsible for some measure of inflation as economists blame some of it on federal spending. When the government puts 5 trillion into the economy, that will drive inflation. I had firm words for secretary ellen. She said it was temporary. It wasnt. She said the recession is going to happen. It is going to happen, because there has to be a followup. At the end of the day, those are dollars. Those are the taxpayer dollars of New Hampshire, and if they are going to hand it out, they dont put it the savings account. They send it to new york or california. Given the team we put together, we spent the money smarter than anybody else in the country. One time money for one time spent to reduce our overall debt load and take care of infrastructure that hasnt been done, but the transportation bill, the additional money will offset the cost of inflation. They created an inflation problem, and we are building the same problems we had before. It is a selffulfilling prophecy of inflation. They didnt think it over, but we spent those dollars smart. The question goes to you. The state has not spent all of the covid funding allocated by the government. Knowing what we know about inflation, should the state appropriate that, or should it be left unspent. The governor is stretching the truth on his ability to manage the funds. We had a return of 19 million of unspent money on rental assistance in the middle of the housing crisis. We have 700 families sitting in motels around the state. Waiting for that, and now having failed to spend 19 million, the remainder is also at risk. We have no plan for it. Perhaps we will have to use that extra funding to take care of those people in dire needs because of the governor not spending the money. It is like biting the hand that feeds you when he actually says that is your tax dollars. But we are not going to accept them because it is going to drive up inflation. That is not realistic. We need to have assistance to help people, whether they are in need from rental assistance, addiction, Mental Health, all of these are issues failing under the current governor, and we need to have that allocation available. 230 million in rental assistance. We got a letter last weekend. It said, by the way, we know you asked for more money, but we are cutting the program over christmas. We are going to stop the program. I was appalled. We responded to the department of treasury and the democrat delegation joined me the next day and a similar letter saying you cant do that. You cant cut our program off. The result was not much. They gave us rental assistance, but they asked for more money and they said yes, and its been a disaster. Weve been able to provide opportunity to be sure, but at the end of the day, it is one time money. It is not there for the longterm. Any response . The governors rewriting history. He did not spend 19 million, and i had to be returned. It was 800,000 in assistance for hungry children. There was a free and reduced lunch that would provide assistance to 7000 children. It is all on the back of New Hampshire residents. The governor was not able to manage his own program, and assistance. I dont need that. Thank you. The Census Bureau considers this a vacancy rate to be balance. The vacancy rate is zero. 0. 5 . It says finding an apartment in their words is persistent with networking, never mind the burden of rising rental costs. What ideas do you have to help granite stators who want to find a rental home or want to take a job . We actually have a plan on our website, building New Hampshire values. It is a 35 million a year plan. It builds on the 100 million plan which felt incredibly short, only providing services for about 2000 out of 20,000 needed units. We look at i look at things as we have to think about moving forward. Strategic plans. We need to fully address the problem. We dont put a bandaid on it. When you look at the governors plan right now, it is 100 50 million worth of applications. He is only able to find 50 million of it, and the rest, what happens . There is no ongoing strategy. This is classic because he keeps putting out bandaids on the issues that really need a thorough full accounting to be addressed. You address this with the way to make more multifamily housing, but they will not be ready for a year and a half, almost of your firm, so what will you do to help people find a way to afford that tom . 100 Million Dollar plan, and no governor in history has made a plan like that. I guess tom has a plan, with the Council Moving up, with the first 50 million, than there is another 50 million that goes to cities and towns to incentivize a second round of projects, plus we have a surplus fund, and they will come back and do that, so this is something we have never done before, and it is going amazingly well. Checks are going out. Its going to be incredibly successful. And these dollars offset the inflation rate that otherwise would have stalled. These projects because the costs are too high. So what were doing is is absolutely transformational in terms obviously. Right. We need we have 20,000 units. We need to put on the market. Why . Because were the envy of the nation. Everybody is moving here. Business is expanding here. Were the fastest state in population growth. Those are actually really good things. It creates competitive market. I totally get it. But those are really good things for the state. When everyones moving in, driving the the opposite, the Economic Opportunity on wages. And so thats all a very positive thing. And response time. Oh, sure. And the state just has to create the program and move forward. Dr. Sherman, you were invoked 30 seconds. Yeah, i would point out the governor has had six years to put in this plan to come up with some solution. This isnt something that happens overnight. This is something that builds. We knew there was a housing crunch. Weve had this on the table for legislation for a while. The governor has not addressed it. And the housing crunch has become a housing crisis. He actually had this funding for almost two years and only towards the end of it did he actually put in a plan. The plan was two pages long with no Affordable Housing mentioned in it. That finally now we have at five years the Affordable Housing becomes commercial housing. Seems to forget there was a pandemic, a two years ago there was a pandemic. And a lot of our our opportunity is borne out of the pandemic. We managed so well. We became the state number one in personal freedom, strongest economy. Everybody wants to move in and we move we move forward with this idea. You got to go through a legislative process. You cant just maybe wave a magic wand and make it happen. But we did we did actually move forward on it. And those checks are going out. Those are a reality that no governor in history has ever even tried before. And were make it a success. Moving on to the next question from jean mackin. Wed like to talk about abortion now, but first, lets review who the law in New Hampshire as part of a budget bill in 2021, abortion was banned after 24 weeks with no exceptions for fatal fetal diagnoses or for the life of the mother. Also as part of that bill, New Hampshire required ultrasounds for every abortion, whether medically necessary or not. In may of this year, the ultrasound provision was lifted and exceptions are now allowed for fatal fetal diagnose cases and the life of the mother. 20 04 governor sununu, you signed this ban as part of the budget, saying that you didnt think the issue warranted holding up an entire budget. You signed changes into law about adding exceptions and removing ultrasounds. Youve said youre a prochoice, but on a National Conservative podcast called three martini lunch, you said, quote, im the first governor in 40 years to sign an abortion ban. Republican governors before me never signed that. Ive done more on the prolife issue, if you will, than anyone. So if youre a prochoice governor, why make those comments . Look at the end of the day, i know all the attack ads out there. This is the one issue that dr. Shipman always wants to talk about every out of his talks about the the the restrictions that were put place, as you noted, as part of the budget. We werent going to veto the entire budget. There was no contingency contingency. You veto a budget without that the government shuts down in the middle of a pandemic that we obviously werent going to do that. We said we wanted to provide more flexibility than we did. We provide more flexibility on the ultrasound, providing a flexibility for life for the mother. Tom and i actually agree on exceptions for rape and incest. Tom and i actually agree on making sure we dont deal. We dont criminalize doctors in this process. Were much more aligned on this issue than anyone would have you believe. I think our law is pretty much in line with massachusetts and with with new york. So theres no extremism here by any means. I get that this is the one issue that all the democrats want to talk about. But think about that. Dogs case said overturn roe v wade. I supported roe v wade. But when jobs happened, nothing changed here. Other states it did. Other states, you saw that extremism, but nothing changed from the day before to the day after. And again. So to paint this out as some type of extremism just isnt just isnt fair. Dr. Sherman, youve said that its disingenuous to talk the need to pass laws in New Hampshire guaranteeing the right to an abortion up until birth. Because you say late abortions simply dont happen. So if a bill allowing the right to an elected abortion until birth came to your desk, would you sign it . You know, i just have to address some of what the governor just said a week ago during our debate, a woman named lisa ake was in the audience. He had an opportunity to apologize her because his abortion ban that he signed into law put her child at risk, at risk of not being able to live because it was legally it was against the law for her to deliver that, to get the appropriate care that child might need. He said its not about an individual i never would have signed an abortion ban like that. I never would have signed an abortion. And this is a an intensely discussion between a mother and her child and her doctor right now in the state of New Hampshire. We are so unlike any other state in new york or massachusetts. Were more like texas because in the third trimester there is no exception for the health of the mother, no exception for rape or incest. And a woman in the third trimester having awful moment, she has to sit down with her doctor and her lawyer to find out the timing so she can save the life. Her baby. Thats not New Hampshire time. So, dr. Sherman, how would you go . How far would you allow an elective abortion to go in terms of pregnancy . We dont have elective abortions in the state of New Hampshire. We know that all the testimony that we heard period. So what i would do is i would make sure that a woman has an affirmative right to an abortion in New Hampshire. Were the only state in new england that doesnt have that. Governor. 30 seconds to respond. No, i we do. We do have a choice in New Hampshire now. We dont. So, again, i think the question was how far would dr. Sherman go . He thinks that, folks, that its okay to go to the inth degree, right . So you know, ill highlight something that dr. Avoided. We dont keep track of data. You know, were like one of the only states in the country that doesnt track of the data of the abortions performed. So you dont know, i mean, im a data guy. I like to look at the analysis and the trends and whats happening in the give and take. But tom sherman, in 2014 voted against the idea of collecting that information. Why . Let me just collect the information. Right. So its those types of of political barriers that tend to come up that tend to confuse the whole issue. Its not about politics unless youre governor sununu. He puts politics before people. Bottom line is that the women of New Hampshire right now are put at risk by the bill he signed into law. He had three weeks before signing that bill to have made sure that nothing was in there or to ask for a continuing resolution, which we did for him in 2019. He failed to do that or he refused to do that. He announced he was going to sign abortion ban as part of the budget three weeks before he signed it. Either he lacked the courage to stand up to his own party or the conviction to stand up for the women of New Hampshire. Governor, we want to move on, but 15 seconds to respond there. Look. Oh, theres no continuing resolution. Thats the legislature. Last time i checked, tom sherman was in the legislature. So theres no continuing resolution, which means if you veto the budget, the government shuts down, were handing out therapeutics and vaccines and all that. The legislature provides. Thats we did in 2019. You gave the warning that you were going to veto the budget and we gave it to you within 24 hours. Look, if legislature isnt going to provide it, we risk shutting down government. Shermans been very clear. He would have shut down the government in july of 21. The middle. The pandemic over this one issue. I we could go down and fix it. I knew we could go make it better, which we did by providing those flexibilities. Again, which we made sure those flexibilities we want more flexibility in there. So again, you dont shut down government. And how you say its just going to be an end all, be all. You can always work to make things better, which is exactly what we did. Thats the New Hampshire way. Governor, you had the majority in 2021. I couldnt have stopped that. It was your legislature. That could have stopped again. Look, i pushed back on my party all the time. They didnt push back in those three weeks you had the stories out. The party doesnt always listen. Im veto republican bills. I veto democrat. Lets move on to the opioid crisis. Dr. Sherman, in the New Hampshire legislature talked about the need for more resources to help deal with the opioid crisis. But after billions of dollars in local, state and federal spending, were still seeing some of the highest fatality numbers on record. What specific will you take to reduce opioid overdoses and deaths . There are basically four components to this. Theres prevention. Intervene in or intake treatment and recovery. We lack in all of those but the most important is that you have to recognize that the people who are suffering from addiction, have mental illness, they have other issues and this and chris sununu put in place the doorways, which is a silo that puts them in one pocket and has never provided care the moment somebody needs it. If you dont provide care, somebody needs it. They start going into withdrawal and then they leave and youve lost them in the state of New Hampshire, in my district, in seabrook people who wanted treatment, they actually went to manchester not to dover, where Chris Sununus doorways were, because they knew they could get immediate treatment. Those those same stations, ambrose place by the way, todays amherst birthday, she was someone who died of an overdose. Those have closed because of the doorways, so they dont have any now for immediate treatment. And thats why were seeing addiction rates go up and overdose rates go up. Governor, to you, you restructure the opioid Response Services into whats called the hub and spoke model, calling it, quote, phenomenal. But american medical response, which provides services in New Hampshire, says nashua, is track this year to see its highest number of deadly overdoses since the crisis began. Manchester could see its highest number since, 2017. This has been attributed to more fentanyl being incorporated into numerous different illegal drugs. You said its time to change the messaging this, but given how fentanyl is changing so much of this crisis, is it time to change something more fundamental about the state or . The door works . Its awesome. It is a fundamental change. It provides that rural access to care. So i have to correct your numbers. When i became governor, remember the numbers were skyrocketed and the governor has said the numbers were skyrocketing on Overdose Deaths. There up to 490. We rebuilt the whole system, the doorways. What happened went to 415, 417. I think about for 25. About a year ago. So we have gone down in Overdose Deaths by 15 at the exact same time, those same four years, the National Average has gone up 40 . Not only are we going down, but were massively bucking National Trend that is out of control. Are our model again, is the envy of the country. Theyre asking how we provide those full wraparound services. We created recovery friendly workplaces. We made sure that it wasnt just 28 days of treatment and out. We created different pathways for folks and treatment, different opportunities, recovery. We brought in other outside providers. And it wasnt just in manchester, it was all across the state. So id ask you to go look at those numbers. Were down 15 over the past four years. The of the country is up 40 on Overdose Deaths. And thats a reality. Now, we are youre right. Were seeing a bump. Right. Going to go up just a little bit here because its a cartel driven market. Theyre putting it in adderall, theyre putting it in marijuana. Theyre putting it in cocaine. Theyre putting it in meth. Folks are dying because they dont even know theyre taking it, which is a whole new approach in terms of enforcement that youre right we have to go after. All right. Moving to a lightning round. Almost at the Halfway Point here. So were going to speed things up a little bit. Answers, 15 seconds each on these ones. Okay. Dr. Sherman, in your family budget, have you cut back on to deal with inflation . Weve cut back, actually, on driving as much. Thats been one, because the price of gasoline was so high. Weve also cut back on keeping lights on, making sure all the lights are off and cutting back on our heating night. You know, probably mostly junk food. I got kids and lord knows i like ice cream. Yeah, probably. Its those extras, right . Its that kind of discretionary spend at the Grocery Store that a lot of folks are pulling back on. And the real fear is that other families will pull back on traveling, tourism or, you know, you know, those extra spends. They will. Yeah, its tough. Governor sununu, when youre spending the day in cheshire county, where do you like to grab lunch . Boy, downtown in cheshire county, probably in downtown keene. Give me a second. I dont know. I feel i feel bad picking one. You know, i dont know. I mean, probably like because theres a Chinese Restaurant in downtown keene thats actually pretty good. I know owner. Hes a super nice guy. So i feel like if i dont say its going to be his place, ill get in trouble. I love the farmers coop. Its got an incredible selection. Its locally sourced and its actually a model for the future, for hampshire as a way of keeping down inflation. New hampshire by locally sourcing local growing, bringing things back to New Hampshire just like i did with the buy america bill. Dr. Sherman in some cases, its taking up to two years to resolve cases before the commission for human rights. Will you commit to the funding and manpower necessary to resolve the case backlog in the next yes or no . Yes. So its taking up to two years to resolve cases. The commission for human rights, will you commit in the next term if you reelected, to providing either the funding or the manpower necessary to respond . Absolutely. Weve already increased i mean, the backlog was skyrocketing. I want to say its about 200 to 250 cases right now that are backlog. There. We provided funding and increased more staff. Problem is, its hard to find staff. So, yeah, we want to make sure the funding we put in place is actually being used for the additional staff. If we can find people. Governor sununu should state allow a landfill to be developed. The North Country in dalton next to forest lake state park. Well, look, youve got to it. Youve got to do it smart. Youve got to do it safe. I know its a very controversial issue. There was a bill put forth before the senate that effectively would have shut down expansion of any landfill in New Hampshire. So what happens . Weve got to transport all our trash to new york. That costs your property taxes. We got to pay for the extra transportation. Yes. The answer is yes. Theres a smart and safe way as an amazon environmental, i used to design these systems there are safe ways to do it. The groundwater there flows too quickly. We know from hydro geology studies there is a risk and ive been dealing with the Coakley Landfill now since 2014. I know the risks, the dangers and cleanup is so much more expensive. Theres a state right there we cant endanger our state parks, we cant endanger the pristine. Dr. Sherman. You win the billion dollar powerball drawing. What will you buy for the state of New Hampshire . Thats a great one. You know what i would buy . I would buy. I would in our Mental Health and Substance Use disorder, treatment programing, we really thats where we need the help the most. Dont give it to the government. Right. Government has enough. Enough for your money. Its about the nonprofits. I think we have some nonprofits across the state that do a great job already. But to invest in those that really kind of have that connection with the different programs that affect peoples lives, thats where the opportunity is. Okay, back to the bigger questions now. Moving on to steve bottari. Right now, more than 3000 students are enrolled in the education account program, which allows families below a certain financial threshold to get public dollars to pay for private. Now, opponents of the program argue, the public money shouldnt be going to fund grants for home schooling or private religious schools. Dr. Sherman, you were among the earliest critics of this program, but theres based on the numbers clear demand for it. Why take that choice away . Well, there are several reasons. Number one, the oversight is very poor. But the fundamental reason, if you go up to berlin, for example, a woman was paying 11,000 for her property tax for her home, and berlin couldnt afford a High School Chemistry teacher. My goal is that every child in the state of New Hampshire has access to a Great Public School education. We have a blueprint of how to do it and education freedom accounts, our vouchers are not the way to do it. The way to it is to actually put in place what the Commission Two years ago create it. We have that blueprint. Its actually being filed as an are this the session and we can do that. The education freedom accounts just so everybody clear that is taken out of the Education Trust fund and its going to schools that have religious private schools. Its now Million Dollars over budget and theres virtually no oversight. Theres no annual means test. Theres no ongoing testing to make sure that people are qualifying. And the governor already said he wants to expand it to all children. Its a subsidy for private school. Well, so, governor sununu, you have said you would support eliminating the income, but are you concerned that this program then balloon beyond that and the state would be on the hook during leaner times . Education freedom accounts are awesome. They are providing opportunity for families that have never been given an option before. Im going to take a quick second. Property tax rate in berlin, by the way, has gone down 6 since ive been governor. People dont pay rates. They pay bills, governor, because the home valuations are through the roof because everybody wants to be here. Look on the education, freedom accounts. You have low and middle income families that have never been given any option in terms of of where or how they want to educate their children. We have some of the best Public Schools in the country. I know. Went to Public Schools here, tom. I through the public. Phenomenal. The teachers phenomenal. But at the end of the day, because one or 2 of kids where the four traditional walls dont work. So were sending that money back to you because its your money as a parent. These parents have thousands of them we thought was going to be hundreds. Toms right. Its overprescribed by ten or 15 million. Luckily, we. 50 million in the Education Trust fund. So its not taking money away from anything. Its providing an opportunity for families that have never been given an option before. Lower income, inner city families. Thats who is taking advantage of this. Its awesome. And theres an opportunity to expand that, to allow more families. Same choice, right . Why should only affluent families have opportunity to send their kids to private schools . Right. Its about have giving that equity equal opportunity to every family. We started it. Its been phenomenally successful beyond our wildest dreams. I just want to point out that 85 of the children taking advantage that never were in Public Schools. I went Public Schools my whole life. I believe in them. 100 . I even went to public medical school. But dont take public funding money, which is our money. Not their money. Its our money. And we dont give it away to people who are already in private schools. Thats not the way we use public money. Its your money. It is your money. It is not our. It is absolutely your money. You were the tax. I get it. Thats the way democrats. Want to justify a bigger government . Look, if you were for the Teachers Union, if for the system that im telling. You should vote for tom sherman, right . Hes got the backing of the Teachers Union. And i couldnt be more excited that theyre not supporting me when i said were putting back into schools. 36 57 tom sherman the next day it was right here on wmur saying that that was a mistake. Can you imagine if tom sherman were governor during the pandemic at that time. Right. Its all about creating opportunity in the most important fundamental where we disagree. Kids first, parents first, families first. Every single, no exceptions. Thats absolutely false. I, i care deeply about the children. I care deeply making sure that our Public Schools provide education anywhere in the state. And the governors plan does not do that. In fact, he has no plan. Now, why do you want to send kids back to school when they were when there was a huge learning gap there . I know the Teachers Union said theres no excuse. They asked you for a week or two because there is already a transition plan and for political reasons, you moved it up. You moved it up. And that was what you did. And so they to. No, its not funny. It actually put a lot of people on. Parents didnt have time to prepare and teachers have time to prepare. So, yes, was appropriate to get them back to school. Ive always felt that but the way you it you went early. That was what we opposed god we went thank god. We were one of the first states to make sure that personal freedoms and opportunities for children was b understand. At the end of the day, it was dr. Chang and commissioner charbonnet and as a team said, yes, this can happen, this should happen, they can do it safely. These kids have to be back into schools and we werent going to accept political reasons for not doing it. We went forward and parents around the state cheered us for doing it. Teachers around the state cheered us doing it. Were going to stay with the topic of education next question from jean mackin. Well, there continue to be a National Debate about student loan forgiveness, but tonight we have a question about the cost of college this year, the cost of instate tuition and fees for the states Flagship University under age is nine. 18,024. Thats about 5,000 more than cal berkeley considered the best Public School in and 13,000 more than the university of florida. So, governor sununu, why does the u. N. Age cost so much more than other prominent state schools . And if reelected, would you push to lower instate tuition . Look look across new england, our state schools, vermont i think, is even higher than us across the in the state schools traditionally are a little higher in cost. We have a lot more options in terms of the mid and the mid levels. So weve increased amount of money that we put in. I believe you when each announced today or yesterday that theyre freezing the actual tuition rate for the fourth year in a row and which is which is a good sign. We have a phenomenal opportunity in terms of our Community Colleges. And again, we manage those numbers. But overall, new england as a whole always has a pretty high cost in terms of the actual Public Schools because theres so much opportunity with the private schools. Well. And again, college isnt for everyone. Its not right. Were trying to make sure that kids at 18 years old have all these different options. It isnt just you go to college, you dont. Right. You can go to the Community College, which, by the way is one of the best Community College systems in the country. Phenomenal opportunity. You can go to trade schools can get a job. Some of the highest paying jobs right out of out of school right now. You can get certificates early on. We have dual and concurrent enrollment. We have our career academies. We have all these new opportunities, all this new choice in education, which my opponent does not like. I very much like to allow folks lots of different pathways to their success. And dr. Would you commit to lowering instate tuition at unh. Absolutely not just you and age, but keene state and plymouth state. These are schools that are doing really work alongside their Community College partners to build our workforce. We know that where a ends up or when a young, very young adult ends up at the end of their educational career, is typically where they are going to set up shop, where theyre going to build their home, build their house. Thats where we want them to do it. In New Hampshire, we have to make sure that were not. But the governor brings up other states in new england, other states in new england provide significantly more than we by a long shot, because if you take ours last in the country, were the last in the country. And if you double it, were still last in the country. The governor has had six years. This is a critical part of our Workforce Development program thats what we need to be doing. We need to be working with our Community Colleges, our university system, making sure that children who are young people who actually commit to New Hampshire may even have tuition. Thats the way we move forward with attracting people to New Hampshire. Sure, they stay in New Hampshire for, their jobs and set up their homes here. Tom sherman seems to forget that he was in the legislature a, democrat controlled legislature in 2019, and they gave me a budget. You guys didnt double the amounf money going to the university system. Democrats had the opportunity. When you had a shot, you did not do it. How are you going to reduce tuition . Where is the money going to come from . In 2019 if we passed that, you probably would have vetoed it like you did so many other bills back then. What we need to be doing is bringing down tuition. We have the surplus. We can reinvest and if we reinvest in our university program, we get our children to stay here for their careers. The surplus is onetime money. Actually, we have had a surplus running now three budgets in a row. You are welcome. I do think Maggie Hassan and democrats and a between 19 because you vetoed it. 8 governor, members of your party brought forward a bill earlier this year that would have given parents more oversight of their children in school. Critics say it could have potentially outed students to members of the Lgbtq Community and compromised student safety. The socalled parental bill of rights was dead on arrival a few promise to veto it when the Attorney Generals Office raise concerns it could have violated the state nondiscrimination law. Is there a different version of the bill you would sign . What the attorney general said we believe in parental rights. We believe parents have transparency of information. It is that communication. It is one of the beauties of that system. Working with the Community One on one. The attorney general stood up and said this bill will not work for legal reasons. The legislature refused to do that. There are opportunities to bring the bill forward and fix it. I went against my party. I took a lot of heat for it. If there is a way to go back and do that bill again, you have to preserve the concept. I love the concept of one trusted adult. A friend who is champion of this across the country, the one trusted adult could be a coach or teacher. You have to allow those discussions to happen and make sure the safety of the child is preserved. In extreme instances where the sake of the child may be at risk come of course you have bring the child in at point. And i agree it has to be done on an individual and local basis. Now that vermont has legalized marijuana and the first doors are opening, New Hampshire is the only only doing when state where Recreational Marijuana is not either legal to purchase or use. Lets start with dr. Sherman. You are in favor of some type of legalization but can you assure granite stators this will not result in more traffic deaths and marijuana billy to poisonings among children . I believe it is time to move forward with adult use cannabis. The reasons are multiple. One is as the governor pointed out our street supply of marijuana is often tainted with fentanyl. Regulating that is a really important way of decreasing that. When someone goes out on the street and buys marijuana from somebody, they are having an interaction with a dealer. They are still using it. We know the use is still here in New Hampshire. We also know from taping and alcohol how to block marketing for children. There are all sorts of Safety Measures that can be in place. We have great models. Massachusetts, illinois and vermont is doing a good job. That is the state we use for therapeutic cannabis many years ago when i was a part of bringing that to New Hampshire. We also know in terms of the Substance Use crisis, we can see a reduction in the use of opioids in states that broaden this. I am in favor of moving ahead. You think New Hampshire is doing more harm than good by not legalizing cannabis so it can be more closely regulated at text regulated and taxed . Ive always said now is not the time. I went to look at what works and what does not. Vermont has home grow. Folks can grow whatever they want. No one is knocking on their door. Kids marketing involved in it. You brought up impaired deaths on roads. I have talked to Law Enforcement in other states. They say you can pull some over someone over. There is no way to test. It creates a lot of problems in that area. Edibles. When colorado legalized marijuana, look at the number of calls to poison control for children in the next three or four years. Kids are getting into the edibles. You guys have done stories. They look like candy. Finally, the black market. Other states have created this system to there is always a black market that can undercut what the state was doing. You sell that in california and colorado where the black market skyrocketed. Given we are still facing an opioid crisis, given we dont know what works and what does not, it could be inevitable but you have to be patient about how you do it and the steps that are best for New Hampshire. Two days after it 18 euros shot and killed 19 students in two teachers in texas, the topic of gun control came briefly to th store the floor of the New Hampshire state house. It does not require any type of registration or licensing. Young grants to schools to implement physical security measures, what problems what promise will you make the state is doing everything it can to protect them from a School Shooting in New Hampshire . I have kids in school. It is scary would you see what is happening nationally. We are not immune from a School Shooting. No one is. That is very scary as parents. Our fire arm law is where they should be. We have a nice balance. It is where the general population, the folks of New Hampshire want those firearms laws to be. The democrats want to take guns and shut everything down and they think that is going to solve the problems. In chicago this week 14 people shot. Three kids. No one is talking about that because it did not happen in a. They have some of the toughest firearms laws in the country. Massachusetts, boston. Some of the cities that passed laws for political reasons to make folks think everything is going to be ok. So it is about the responsibility of the individual. The responsibility of communities to take this as a whole. There is nothing that makes any guarantees. Where our firearms laws are where they should be. Gabby giffords Gun Safety Organization endorsed you saying you would fight for Common Solutions to gun violence. What changes would you make the walls in the Granite State . We had four bills we put on the governors desk in 2019. He has recently signed into law a bill that prevents our municipal and state police from working with federal Law Enforcement. The things we need to do and number one, we are not taking peoples guns. What we are doing is trying to make sure the wrong people dont have. When you look at every medical society this is considered a crisis. Because of the Mass Shootings but because of Domestic Violence and suicide. We know that is a major way people are ending their own lives. That is where the largest numbers of gun related deaths are. The way we do this is make sure our schools are safe. We make sure there are background checks. We make sure across state trafficking, illegal guns blocked. That is how we move forward as a state to make sure our children are safe and schools are safe. I would note the organization you referenced does want to take peoples guns peered there looking for firearms bands across the country and they are getting Great Success with it. That would be one of my great fears with tom sherman as governor. No one is coming to take away the guns people use for work, selfdefense, recreation. That is not going to happen. This is New Hampshire. The governor has moved us backward. That is where we have to stop. I family has been exposed to four Mass Shootings. We need to stop it. I know how it feels. I know how close it can be. I know how personal it is. We need to make sure we take those commonsense measures to protect the people of New Hampshire. Out to a question about commitment. Under sununu, can you commit to the people of New Hampshire will serve a full two year term without running for office. I get it people wanted me to run for u. S. Senate. I love New Hampshire. This is where you get stuff done. And it comes to campaigns, the previous governors would get elected and start raising money right away. As soon as you start campaigning, you are putting politics as a variable into your decisionmaking. I wait as long as i possibly can. I dont think i read my first fundraiser until april of this year. When you take that variable out you get so much more done and then you run on those results. That is why we in New Hampshire get so much more done. Washington is an absolute mess. Here in New Hampshire as the governor, the ceo, you can engage with constituents, design new systems. That is the most exciting part of the job. I dont want to go anywhere but be governor of New Hampshire. I think that is interesting because the governor has been almost anywhere but New Hampshire over the last several months. When we look at i am not running for any higher office. I have no political aspiration other than serving the people of New Hampshire. When we look at when he says stuff like that, we think does this say about his character . It is the same character that has endorsed don bulldog who he actually said was a conspiracy theorist. It is the same character that now don bulldog is saying the next election is going to be rigged. This 1, 2022. Now he is cutting ads for people including a state senator who has been charged with child sexual assault. These are things the governor is doing and we have to make sure that character whether he answers this one honestly or not, we will only know in two years. He is now pledging he is not going to run for president , vice president. I would hold him to that. I dont know about this ad thing. I dont know what you are referencing. I think you do. I absolutely dont actually peered folks across the country asked me to come and i travel to their state. They want to know how we are doing it. They say you have no sales tax, income tax. Tom sherman voted for income tax. You put parental rights 200 years before folks were talking about it. We are the envy of the rest of the country and i am proud to travel the country and explain what recovery friendly workplaces are. Explain the investments in Mental Health we have been able to make. We want to get one final question here to both of you. You both have children. What is the one thing you worry about that could make the experience of living in New Hampshire worse than it is for you. 30 seconds, dr. Sherman. The way it could be worse is if we continue to follow the pathway we are on Mental Health and Substance Use. I have children. I care deeply about children with Mental Health. We still have five to 10 children every night sitting in our Emergency Rooms because the governor has not been able to fully address the Mental Health crisis in children. He talks about how well we are doing on opioids. The doorways has been a complete disaster. We have higher overdose rights now that we have ever had in New Hampshire. Tom is absolutely right. The issue of Mental Health around children as fundamental. I am the governor that put social Emotional Learning into 400 schools across the state. I am the governor that did the mobile response teams. I bought an entire hospital for the Mental Health of children. Now we are staffing it. We are bringing in outside groups that never had an opportunity to participate. We became when i became governor young had 100 people waiting for emergency beds in a given day. We have shortened that time. Our focus has always been on kids. We have closing statements now. First the governor. This has been great. Thank you guys very much. I love you and governor. Especially for a place like New Hampshire where we have all these successes. Number one in personal freedoms. The lowest poverty rate in the country. Rights number one for public safety. Number one in our covid time for personal freedom. The success we had with covid. Very the envy of the nation. Of course have challenges. We take those headon. I am an engineer. I like to design new systems. Until health, we are making all these new investments, opportunities for kids. Some of the best Public Schools in the country. We always been a challenge ourselves to provide more opportunities for families. I could not be more proud to be in the state. When you walk out the door, look at what is happening across new england. You see energy rates and inflation. It is crushing families. We provide more Economic Opportunity here. Why is it we are the Fastest Growing in population . Why is it we have the strongest economy . I want to earn votes not on political rhetoric put on my record and i hope to do so. I would ask why is it the governor is taking a victory lap while so many people are still struggling in the state of New Hampshire . I am running for the factory in kane that can open a third shift , but cannot find workforce. When they cant find a workforce, they cant find housing. Im running for the senior who because of Chris Sununus policies is facing unprecedented skyrocketing cost whether it is property taxes, heating, energy or rent. We are number one in the country for rent increases. I am running for we say key and women like her who chris sununu continues to put at risk because of his abortion ban. Because he could not stand up to his own party. New hampshire deserves better. The people of New Hampshire deserve better. They deserve someone whos word counts. They deserve someone who actually knows how to solve problems in New Hampshire. I will be that person. Dr. Sherman, thank you. Thank you to governor sununu. Thank you for running us for the first night of debates. Thank you and good night. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Funded by these Television Companies and more including wow. The world has changed. Today the fast reliable Internet Connection is something no one can live without. Wow is there for our customers. Now more than ever it all starts with great internet. Wow support cspan as a Public Service along with these other Television Providers given you a front row seat to democracy. Wit the Midterm Election six days away, we have more live debate coverage for you. Coming u tomorrow, democratic governor daniel mckee and his republican challenger debate in Rhode Islands governor race. Live coverage starts at 7 00 on friday debate for south daks u. S. Senate seat with republican senator john soon and his tw challengers brian banks and tamara lesnar. So on cspan on our free mobile video app cspan now or cspan. Org. This election day november 8, the control of power in congress is at stake. Can democrats regain control of the senate . From now until election night, follow cspans coverage with our coverage of debate, rallies and candidate events. Events as they happen on tv and the cspan now maybe on demand on osite find our election page at cspan. Org campaign 2022. Up next, colorado democratic governor jared polis debates his republican challenger heidi ganahl in the 2022 gubernatorial race. Issues include inflation and the opioid crisis. Nonpartisan political
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