Warmington, Wheeler win Executive Council primaries

Rick Green, The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
Updated ·2 min read
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Sep. 14—Cinde Warmington, whose N.H. Executive Council District 2 takes in Keene and much of the Monadnock Region, easily defeated former Executive Councilor Michael Cryans in Democratic voting on Tuesday.

The lone Democrat on the five-person panel over the last two years, Warmington will face Harold French of Franklin in the Nov. 8 general election. French, a Republican state senator, coasted to an easy victory over Kim Strathdee of Lincoln in the Republican primary for Executive Council.

Meanwhile, Executive Councilor Dave Wheeler of Milford easily won a GOP primary for the panel's District 5, which includes Peterborough and many other area towns. He defeated former state Rep. Anne Copp of Nashua.

Totals from the N.H. Secretary of State's office show Warmington had 21,040 votes to 4,244 votes for Cryans.

French had 12,184 votes to 6,095 votes for Strathdee.

Wheeler had 18,160 votes to 5,259 for Copp. Wheeler will face Democrat Shoshanna Kelly of Nashua in the general election.

In a unique system, the council shares executive authority with the governor. It approves receipt and expenditure of state and federal funds, confirms the appointment of judges and commissioners and hears pardon requests. Each councilor represents one-fifth of the state's population or approximately 263,000 citizens.

Warmington, a Concord health attorney who is seeking her second term, has been the only councilor to vote in favor of the state contracts for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which has an office in Keene, and two other providers.

In July, the council rejected for the fourth time in a year more than a million dollars in funding for organizations that provide people of low income with cancer screenings, contraceptives, treatment and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and abortion care.

The other councilors, including Wheeler, voiced concerns that this money could be used for abortion services, but the providers said, and a state audit confirmed, that such funding is kept separate and not used for that purpose.

This article has been updated with numbers from the N.H. Secretary of State's office.

Rick Green can be reached at RGreen@KeeneSentinel.com or 603-355-8567