NH election 2022: Six candidates for 3 NH House seats in Strafford District 21 of Dover

There are six candidates for three seats representing Strafford Country District 21 (Dover wards 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6) in the New Hampshire House in the 2022 election.

Democrats Luz Bay, Susan Treleaven and Geoff Smith will face Republicans John V. Caggiano, Michael Castaldo and Mark Hastings.

Here are responses to questionnaires from Fosters.com:

Mark Hastings

Hometown: Dover

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and placed the power to regulate abortion with the states. What should state lawmakers do regarding abortion laws?

The Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade placed the decision regarding abortion places rulemaking back into the hands of the states. It has no effect on New Hampshire’s current abortion laws.

The state's residents and businesses face many economic challenges, including high prices for electricity and fuel, a labor shortage, a lack of affordable housing and rising prices due to inflation. How would you address these challenges?

A detailed response to this is not possible. Simply put, I as a NH state legislator have little control over the stated economic challenges as most of these are federal issues and have been caused directly by the current presidential administration.

What else do you want voters to know about you or your policy positions before the election on Nov. 8?

I retired from Southern NH Medical Center as director of emergency management. Responsibilities included working with hospital staff, local, state, federal, and military agencies. The complete list can be viewed on my Facebook site @ElectMarkHastings. My interest in being of service to the residents of Dover and NH originates from my past career. I want to be involved in the legislative process to further combat the opioid crisis, support public safety, and public health initiatives. The opioid crisis is affecting many people both as a direct result of using opioids and the collateral damage to the public via car crashes, crime, and dangers from used syringes. Predictive models have declared the opioid crisis will continue to accelerate with explosive exponential growth. Dover and NH needs more resources to fight this war. Public safety wise I would focus on efforts for the collaboration between law enforcement, fire services, and EMS in dealing not only with the opioid crisis but also natural and human-made disasters. On my Facebook site you will find links to past projects and publications I was involved in. Public health wise, we all have seen the struggles as health care services responds to the opioid crisis, emerging diseases, and shortages of access to medical and psychiatric care. There are occasional efforts from the federal government to respond, but local resources and responses need strengthening.

Luz Bay

Hometown: Dover

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and placed the power to regulate abortion with the states. What should state lawmakers do regarding abortion laws?

It is important to recognize that in New Hampshire abortion is accessible with restrictions, but it does not have legal protection. Absence of legal protection means that abortion rights are vulnerable to GOP efforts to implement measures to restrict bodily autonomy. This year alone they introduced two bills (HB 1477 and HB 1181) that would have restricted a woman’s right to make their own decisions. HB 1477 would have banned abortion after fetal heartbeat which means that a woman is prevented from having an abortion as soon as she knows she is pregnant. HB 1181 would have given the biological father of an unborn child to veto the woman’s decision to have an abortion – another infringement of a woman’s right to choose. There must be a state law that protects abortion rights. Per the 2018 amendment to the New Hampshire Constitution, “[a]n individual’s right to live free from governmental intrusion in private or personal information is natural, essential, and inherent.” Because it is unlikely that the state supreme court will determine that this includes rights to abortion, a comprehensive abortion rights legislation should be in order. Such legislation should also include other rights tied to Roe v. Wade such as rights to make personal decisions about family, relationships, and bodily autonomy.

The state's residents and businesses face many economic challenges, including high prices for electricity and fuel, a labor shortage, a lack of affordable housing and rising prices due to inflation. How would you address these challenges?

While oil prices have risen globally in recent months, electricity prices in New Hampshire have risen higher and faster than any other state in New England. This is a direct result of the GOP and Sununu’s repeated refusal to address climate change. New Hampshire can and must invest in supply and transmission infrastructure for clean, domestic energy. These investments should include incentive programs for residential and commercial energy users who themselves invest in improvements which benefit all ratepayers. As these are long term solutions, for the time being the government should offer payment assistance to lower income families and maximize the use of federal funds made available for that purpose. One of several factors behind our labor shortage is a lack of reliable affordable childcare. Legislation that could get free or reduced childcare for working families, or an expansion of early childhood education are possible solutions. Another cause of the labor shortage are the low wages; workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic are not going back to their low-paying jobs but are instead joining other industries where they get paid more. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage will have a desirable impact on the labor shortage. This would need to be done incrementally, but nothing is more common-sense than paying someone enough so that they can afford a place to live and eat; and will, by definition, move towards addressing the affordable housing crisis.

What else do you want voters to know about you or your policy positions before the election on Nov. 8?

It would be an honor to serve my community by representing Dover in Concord. As a state representative I will fight for the right to quality public education, school safety, every woman’s right to choose, affordable healthcare, and voting rights for all eligible citizens. When asked why I’m running for office, it’s because the Supreme Court of the United States is not always there to uphold our constitutional rights; our fundamental rights are and will continue to be often relegated to the states. So, the state legislature is where I feel I need to be to join the fight, stand up for Dover, and stand up for our rights.

Susan Treleaven

Hometown: Dover

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and placed the power to regulate abortion with the states. What should state lawmakers do regarding abortion laws?

State lawmakers must realize that every American citizen is entitled to bodily autonomy and medical decisions must be based on each citizen’s personal decision. Medical decisions must be made based upon the most current medical science, along with medical advice given by a medical professional and the citizen's personal decision, period. No one has the right to decide for another what to to with their body.

The state's residents and businesses face many economic challenges, including high prices for electricity and fuel, a labor shortage, a lack of affordable housing and rising prices due to inflation. How would you address these challenges?

While our economy is based on capitalism and consumerism, we are all in this together and must find ways to fund energy efficient technologies, fair taxation, community sensitive development planning and support for strong cities and towns. Zoning regulations should encourage sensible, affordable growth. Scientific findings and strategy must be used to promote alternative energy production and use. Wages must reflect the true cost of living in New Hampshire so that workers will choose to remain, and thrive here. Inflation is a nation wide problem with complex causes that must be addressed nationwide while knowing that our focus on fairness, solid housing and increased energy efficiency will go a long way toward solutions.

What else do you want voters to know about you or your policy positions before the election on Nov. 8?

As an incumbent I want voters to know that I represent their interests, a community and statewide view for progress and serve with time, attention and effort on my committee, Municipal and County Government and in the State House.

Geoffrey Smith

Hometown: Dover

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and placed the power to regulate abortion with the states. What should state lawmakers do regarding abortion laws?

The big challenge facing Democrats in New Hampshire, as well as nationwide, has been how to protect a women's right to make choices with their own bodies in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. For those of us running for state office here in New Hampshire, our focus should be on making sure our state laws continue to respect this right and allow legal access to abortion services. This is something that we are being counted on to make happen. The "red wave" that the Republican Party has been hoping for this November has been seriously threatened by this ruling and outcome. It is an issue that many people felt should not have come to the junction that it has come to and this is forcing us here in New Hampshire to face this reality. Though the ruling is said to bring the issue to the states, we are already seeing national Republican party members talking about putting a nation wide ban into effect, turning this state centered ruling around into a national issue. This would seem to be a funny turn around on their part, if it were not so cruel. The butt of that joke, of course, are the women of both our country and New Hampshire. And I would work with my fellow state lawmakers to make sure New Hampshire remains a safe place for a women's right to choose for themselves.

The state's residents and businesses face many economic challenges, including high prices for electricity and fuel, a labor shortage, a lack of affordable housing and rising prices due to inflation. How would you address these challenges?

The best way to address any issue is to learn about its root causes first. What are actually causing the high prices in electricity and fuel? What is causing inflation? In order to understand these type of issues we actually need to listen to what we are being told from experts around the state regarding the economic factors that are causing these issues and what is felt can be done on a state level to address them. These are the type of issues for which there are no easy answers but certainly several actions we can take to try to alleviate them. There are ways we can look at how state assistance to needy families can help to offset costs to them for things like electricity and fuel. We can evaluate the reasons behind the large statewide increases to our electricity costs and determine factors to change them. I would work to understand all of these factors as best I can, and then support the legislation placed before us to combat these issues for New Hampshire's families.

What else do you want voters to know about you or your policy positions before the election on Nov. 8?

I want the voters of Dover to know that as a father of three school age children, I will firmly support our states schools and teachers, and will not support any bills that would try to make their already difficult jobs harder. I will also continue to support everyone's right to vote and will not support making it ever more difficult for New Hampshire residents to exercise their rights to do so. Furthermore, I would want the residents of home town to know that representing them in the State House would be an honor and privilege I will feel every day I am in the State House. And while I am there doing so, I would advocate tirelessly for the policies I feel will best serve those who have entrusted me with the duty of doing so.

Editor's note: Foster's made a good-faith effort to distribute our candidate questionnaire to all candidates. We will add any missing candidate questionnaires when they are received. If any candidates have questions or need information on how to be included, please email news@fosters.com with "candidate questionnaire" in the subject line.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: NH election 2022: Six candidates Strafford District 21 of Dover