Hello Maura Sullivan,
I read your op-ed in the NH Union Leader online. I wish to thank you for your military service and strong commitment to Veterans. I don't live in your congressional district, but you have my endorsement for U.S. Congress 2018 to succeed Representative Carol Shea-Porter. I am a 100% service-connected disabled Veteran.
- Jonathan Melle
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Another View -- Maura Sullivan: “Inconsistent leadership has failed our veterans”
By Maura Sullivan, op-ed, NH Union Leader, April 19, 2018
Over the last five months of our campaign, I have met dozens of veterans statewide and the caregivers who serve them at the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center. What I hear is frustration with the low quality of care — and how lacking resources and leadership at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hamstrings local caregivers. Instability at the top, heightened in recent weeks by the replacement of former Secretary Dr. David Shulkin, only worsens local problems. I know because as a VA assistant secretary appointed by President Obama, I worked to improve veterans’ health care. What our veterans and the caregivers who serve them need — and need now — is reform, resources, and strong leadership that delivers the best care, not partisan politics and chaos. Without it, I expect we will hear more heartbreaking stories like these:
One veteran I met at an American Legion Post in Portsmouth said he must drive 45 minutes to the VA in Manchester, but often can’t get the care he needs. He wonders what the VA can do to bring care to him, as I’ve seen local VA hospitals do elsewhere for veterans residing more than 40 miles from the nearest center.
A VA caregiver I spoke with at Red Arrow Diner in Manchester said she sees with her own eyes the lack of resources, and it breaks her heart. She wonders where the federal dollars are to ensure we don’t fall short when it matters most for our veterans.
A veteran from Conway told me access to mental health care is difficult to access. He wonders how we can bring to Manchester the insights and expertise of top VA mental health care centers elsewhere in the VA system.
Unfortunately, crisis at the top of the VA is not new. Four years ago this spring, it came out that 40 veterans had died awaiting care at the VA hospital in Phoenix. Our system and our government failed them. As a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, I proudly joined the leadership team in 2014 that fought to fix the VA. Together, we worked to implement the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014. We initiated reforms like improving VA care for veterans who were on waitlists greater than 30 days and lived more than 40 miles from a hospital. “Choice,” as the bill is called, was imperfect, like many bills, but a helpful step forward. We were optimistic about the VA’s future.
Now, the VA will have its fourth secretary in less than four years. And our veterans and caregivers alike in Manchester and elsewhere district-wide suffer because of it.
And it’s not just Manchester. The VA is one of the largest agencies in the federal government — administering care for more than 9 million enrolled veterans, at more than 1,200 health care facilities nationwide, with a budget of over $180 billion. Imagine a business with four CEOs in four years — what is the impact? Likely a lot of frustration, minimal progress, and backsliding.
Augmenting the VA’s current care with private providers is necessary — we did it while I was at the VA to clear waitlist backlogs and put fewer veterans at risk. This is particularly important for specialties like mental health and routine care for veterans in more remote areas. However, private care is no panacea. We need public and private care. Most importantly, veterans want and need both.
Some would argue that choosing both is expensive. It is. But so is war. In so many ways, the Bush administration hid the true cost of the war in Iraq, a theater I served in and a war I saw firsthand become one of the worst foreign policy blunders of our lifetimes.
The federal government needs to invest in our veterans and their families with the same rigor we apply to nearly $700 billion in defense spending. It’s time Congress appoint a bipartisan commission to determine how best to improve our care for the brave men and women who serve our country.
Our country has some of the best health care capabilities in the world. But more than they should, our veterans struggle to access them. One out of 14 Americans has served in the military. They have earned easy access to the very best care we can offer. The answer to how we get there should be about resources and outcomes, not politics. Our veterans and their caregivers deserve nothing less.
Maura Sullivan, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and Iraq veteran, is a Democratic candidate for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District.
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“Sullivan raises $475K in past 3 months for Congress race”
By Paul Steinhauser, news@seacoastonline.com - April 5, 2018
If elections were decided on campaign fundraising alone, then Maura Sullivan would be the overwhelming favorite to win the wide open race to succeed retiring four-term Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.
Sullivan’s campaign reported early Thursday morning that the Democratic candidate raised more than $475,000 in the first quarter of this year.
The new fundraising figure follows an eye popping $430,000 that Sullivan brought in during the first nine weeks of her campaign for New Hampshire’s First Congressional District. The campaign highlighted that Sullivan’s raised over $910,000 since she announced her candidacy in late October. The new figures were first reported by Seacoastonline.
“I’m honored that so many people are supporting us, volunteering their time, resources, and energy to help strengthen our democracy and realize our vision of country over party and people over politics,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who moved to Portsmouth last July, is a U.S. Marine and Iraq War vet who later served at the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon under President Barack Obama.
Campaign cash figures are considered an important early barometer of a candidate’s clout and popularity, and of a campaign’s strength. Fundraising dollars can be used to pay for staff, voter outreach, and ads.
The Sullivan campaign highlighted that over half of the contributions were small dollar donations of $250 or less.
But it also acknowledged that only 20 percent of the first quarter haul consisted of “grassroots contributions from across the Granite State.”
The Sullivan campaign did not report how much money it spent in the January through March period, or how much cash it has on hand.
Sullivan appears to be the first of the 11 declared candidates in the First District race to reveal first quarter fundraising figures.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Sullivan greatly out raised all the other candidates in the race. Democratic Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester came in second, bring in nearly $220,000. No other candidate cracked $100,000 in contributions.
Sullivan’s campaign revealed their fundraising haul the morning after Pappas was backed by Sen. Maggie Hassan, the first major endorsement in the race for the Democratic nomination.
The First District is considered one of the most high-profile swing congressional districts in the country.
The district, which stretches from Manchester east to the Seacoast and north through the Lakes Region to White Mountains, has flip-flopped the past four elections between Shea-Porter and former GOP Congressman Frank Guinta. And the purple district in a purple state is also one of only 12 across the country controlled by Democrats that Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.
The other Democrats in the race are state Rep. Mark Mackenzie of Manchester, a former fireman who served more than two decades as head of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO, retired Portsmouth trial lawyer Lincoln Soldati, a former Somersworth mayor who also spent 17 years as Strafford County attorney, state Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye, an environmental scientist, Army and Iraq War veteran and current Rochester city attorney Terence O’Rourke, and technology executive and community activist Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth.
Levi Sanders, the son of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, jumped into the Democratic nomination race in February. The legal services analyst lives in Claremont, which is in New Hampshire’s 2nd District.
There are three declared Republicans in the race. They are businessman and conservative state Sen. Andy Sanborn of Bedford, Eddie Edwards of Dover, a Navy veteran and former South Hampton police chief who also served as top law enforcement officer for the state’s liquor commission, and Mark Hounsell of Conway, a Carroll County commissioner and former state senator.
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Maura Sullivan, a former Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs and senior Pentagon official in the Obama Administration and Marine Corps Veteran will spend Wednesday in Carroll County on the campaign stump. (COURTESY PHOTO)
“Sullivan to stump in Carroll County on Wednesday”
conwaydailysun.com – Lloyd Jones – May 15, 2018
CONWAY — In 2006, Maura Sullivan went door-to-door around the Granite State campaigning for Carol Shea-Porter. Eight years later, she hopes to replace her in Washington as representative from the 1st Congressional District.
Shea-Porter (D-Rochester) announced last October she would not seek re-election.
Sullivan is viewed by some as the front-runner in a crowded Democrat Party field for the nomination. She has raised more money than any of the eight other Democrats and three Republican hopefuls.
The Portsmouth resident will spend Wednesday in Carroll County with stops scheduled for the Moose Mountain Democrats, meeting at the Poor People’s Pub in Sanbornville from noon-12:45 p.m.; and at The Conway Daily Sun for an editorial board from 2:30-3:30 p.m. She also will tour the Mt. Washington Economic Council office at Tech Village in Conway from 4-5 p.m.
Sullivan, 38, announced her candidacy last October. While she hasn’t run for office before, she has served her county. A former Marine Corps captain, Sullivan spent two years stationed in East Asia before deploying to Fallujah, Iraq," her website says, adding, "Maura was struck by how servicemen and women were paying the consequences for poor decisions made by out-of-touch leadership in Washington and resolved to do something about it.”
The Department of Defense website says that Sullivan's service included a deployment in Fallujah in 2005 with Combat Logistics Battalion 8, two years with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa, Japan, and serving as the Deputy Officer-in-Charge of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group Re-organization team.
She earned the Navy Commendation Medal and a Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal with a Gold Star. According to the DoD website, she earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a John F. Kennedy Fellow and a George Fellow. She received a BA from Northwestern University, which she completed on a Marine Corps ROTC scholarship.
After her military service, Sullivan managed Frito Lay’s Central New England Zone business, and before that PepsiCo’s New England Franchise Bottling business.
Sullivan was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 as a commissioner on the American Battle Monuments Commission, where with her fellow commissioners she managed America’s overseas military cemeteries and memorials. She was later named the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public & Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Obama later appointed Sullivan as the assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Sullivan was "principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for communication, news media relations, public outreach, engagement, public affairs and visual information,” according to the DoD website.
Sullivan and her fiance, Marc Sorel, a Naval Reserve Officer, own a home in Portsmouth.
Nine other Democrats have filed for Shea-Porter's seat: Shea-Porter’s Chief of Staff Naomi Andrews of Epping; state Rep. Mark MacKenzie of Manchester; Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth; state Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye; Rochester City Attorney Terence O’Rourke; Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester; Levi Sanders, son of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; and former Strafford County Attorney Lincoln Soldati of Portsmouth.
Vying for the GOP nomination are tech executive Bruce Crochetiere of Hampton Falls; former South Hampton Police Chief Eddie Edwards of Dover; perennial candidate Andy Martin of Manchester; and state Sen. Andy Sanborn of Bedford. Former state Sen. Mark Hounsell of Conway withdrew from the race last month.
The filing deadline is June 15, and the primary election takes place Sept. 11.
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Democratic candidate Maura Sullivan visits the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council at the Technology Village in Conway on Wednesday. (Jamie Gemmiti Photo)
“Maura Sullivan states her case for Congress”
By Daymond Steer, Reporter for The Conway Daily Sun, May 16, 2018, Updated May 18, 2018
CONWAY — Retired Marine and former Obama administration official Maura Sullivan told the Sun on Wednesday that if elected to Congress she will question authority and fight for affordable health care.
Sullivan, 38, is a Democrat from Portsmouth who is seeking the seat now held by Carol Shea-Porter (D-Rochester). As a Marine captain, she served in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005.
Shea-Porter has said she is not seeking re-election from the 1st Congressional District.
Meeting with the Sun's editorial board, Sullivan discussed her time in Iraq serving alongside fellow Marines who were only 19 or 20 years old.
"What I saw when I was there was that leaders in Washington at the time, this was 2005, made a lot of decisions that got a lot of other peoples' kids killed," said Sullivan. "I felt members of Congress in both political parties didn't ask the right questions, didn't ask tough questions, and I didn't think that was right."
Sullivan said that first off, the U.S. should not have been in Iraq. She said troops didn't get the resources they needed, such as armor on vehicles.
If elected, Sullivan said she would make a case to be on the House Armed Services Committee, on which Shea-Porter sits now. She then would "stand up to the president on matters of national security."
One of her priorities is to make sure the president — any president — consults Congress before taking military action like bombing another country.
Another goal is to calm the "chaos" and "bitterness" in Washington.
As for domestic issues, Sullivan said access to affordable health care is an issue she has experience with.
"I was appointed by President (Barack) Obama to serve on the leadership team of (Veterans Affairs), which is the largest integrated health-care system in the country," said Sullivan, adding the country isn't doing enough for its vets and that it's disheartening the VA doesn't have a secretary right now.
She said during her time at the VA, she helped to implement the Veterans' Choice Act, which she says provides vets with better access to care.
She said not just veterans worry about the price of health care.
"I think we need a public option," said Sullivan.
She said people should be able to buy into Medicare, that Congress needs to explore lowering the age of Medicare and that Medicare should able to negotiate for lower drug prices. There also needs to be more transparency when it comes to health-care costs, she said. Patients have a hard time shopping around because the costs are "opaque." She added that insurance companies need to do more to provide mental health coverage.
She would try to prevent Congress from doing away with protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Another domestic priority for her is curbing gun violence. She called for an assault weapon ban and universal background checks. She said AR-15s are not needed for hunting or personal protection. Arming teachers, she said, is a bad idea.
"Teachers are supposed to teach," she said. "I think it's absurd to even consider it."
During the meeting, she addressed criticisms that she is a "carpetbagger," a person who moved from out of state to run for office. She came to New Hampshire last summer.
A Midwesterner, Sullivan said she first came to New Hampshire at age 12 for skiing at Attitash.
"I fell in love with the White Mountains," she said, adding that she had hoped to attend Dartmouth College. When she didn't get in, she found a home in the Marine Corps instead.
During her time in the Marines, she lived in Japan, trained in Korea and served in Iraq. After retiring from the military she came to New England for graduate school.
Sullivan earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a John F. Kennedy Fellow and a George Fellow. She received a BA from Northwestern University, which she completed on a Marine Corps ROTC scholarship.
In 2006, she campaigned for Shea-Porter and later in 2008 for Obama. Between 2006 and 2008 she said she would come to the state for hiking and skiing.
Sullivan and her fiance, Marc Sorel, a Naval Reserve Officer, bought a home in Portsmouth, where they originally intended to raise a family.
"That's what I thought I'd be doing for awhile until Carol said she wasn't running," said Sullivan. "I was going to help her get re-elected."
Asked if she would address news reports about military footage of UFOs, including a New York Times story from a retired Navy pilot who now lives in New Hampshire, Sullivan said she would look into it as part of her job on Armed Services Committee.
"I would be asking questions about digging deeper into the UFO issue," said Sullivan, who said she also would ask the Pentagon about its personnel and training budget because she is concerned about military accidents like the recent helicopter crash that killed a soldier from New Hampshire.
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“Tom Bergeron to star at Maura Sullivan for Congress event”
fosters.com – by Elizabeth Dinan – May 24, 2018
PORTSMOUTH — Democratic candidate for Congress Maura Sullivan announced television personality Tom Bergeron will appear at a Portsmouth house party and fundraiser for her campaign.
A Marine Corps veteran and former assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Obama administration, Sullivan’s campaign said the public is invited to the June 12 event at a private home in Portsmouth.
Sullivan is a resident of the city’s West End and is running in a 10-person Democratic primary race for the First Congressional District seat being vacated by Democrat Carol Shea-Porter. Sullivan raised $480,000 during the first three months of the year, making her the top fundraiser in the race.
A Sullivan staffer told the Portsmouth Herald that Bergeron, host of “Dancing with the Stars” on ABC “is a big supporter” of Sullivan’s “commitment to service” and is making the unpaid appearance to support her campaign.
“As you know, Tom Bergeron proudly got his start in Portsmouth and I’m excited to have him back here in our neighborhood to support our campaign,” Sullivan said. “We’re looking forward to a really fun event and hoping he will inspire some memorable dance moves from our supporters here on the Seacoast.”
The address of the house party will be given to guests when they are confirmed by the campaign to attend. It will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., there is a $25 suggested contribution and RSVPs can be made by email to kaytlynn@maurafornh.com, or maurafornh.org/tom. Guests will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis and according to Sullivan’s campaign, there is a large back yard that can accommodate a good-sized crowd.
Before hosting “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Bergeron cut his teeth as a disc jockey on Portsmouth’s WHEB radio. He’s also a frequent guest host of the New Hampshire Film Festival held annually in Portsmouth.
The “fun and conversation” event featuring Bergeron is being hosted by Seacoast residents Janet Prince and Peter Bergh, who, Sullivan’s campaign said, are supporters of New Hampshire Public Radio, New Hampshire Community Foundation and New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Also hosting is Joanne Lamprey, former CEO of Lamprey Brothers, president of InterQual and a local leader in health care, energy, sustainability and business.
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“NH’s First Congressional Democratic Candidates Speak Out On Trump’s Family Separation Policy”
By NH Labor News, June 21, 2018
This week the world watched in horror as pictures, videos, and reporters descriptions of the Trump policy of ripping families apart at the border and placing children into "tent cities."
I reached out to all of the Democratic candidates running for Congress in the First Congressional District to see where they stand on this issue.
Maura Sullivan
“What is happening right now at our borders is un-American. Separating children from families is both cruel and immoral and is not consistent with our American values. This is not who we are as a country. We are a country of immigrants that protects families and opens our arms to those in need. President Trump should put an end to this immoral policy immediately. And Congress must act now to protect future families from this trauma and heartache.”
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“Maura Sullivan Is Bringing In Boatloads Of Out Of State Cash From Multiple Wall Street Companies”
By NH Labor News, July 10, 2018
Maura Sullivan raked in nearly $1 million dollars for her campaign in the first two quarters and very little is coming from New Hampshire
It is that time of the year again, the quarterly FEC reporting deadline. With so many people running for Congress in the First Congressional District (NH-01), I thought now would be a good time to take a look back at last quarter's FEC reports and see where the candidates started their fundraising, and where their money is coming from.
The big winner last quarter was: Maura Sullivan. She has raised 916,000 dollars in her campaign for Congress. The next closest in the Democratic Primary is Chris Pappas with $425,000 followed by Mark MacKenzie with $159,000. But looking closer we can see some serious differences between the fundraising being done by these candidates. It also gives a glimpse into who truly supports each candidate's run for Congress.
In her statement announcing the $475,000 she received in the first quarter of 2018, Maura Sullivan said, "Grassroots contributions from across the Granite State made up 20% of the campaign’s fundraising this quarter...Overall, over half of the campaign’s contributions were under $250."
A cursory glance at Open Secrets tells a very different story of Sullivan's fundraising. As of her first quarter filing, she had raised a total of $27, 573 from New Hampshire and another $3,150 that has "no state data." Her in-state donations (including "no state data") total less than four percent (4%) of her overall donations.
Compare that to the other Democratic and Republican campaigns in the first district. Pappas has 76% from in-state donations. Andy Sandborn has 86% in-state donations. Though Mindi Messmer has not raised a lot of money, what she has raised comes from New Hampshire with 89% in-state donations.
I should also point out that Deaglan McEachern also has some big outside investors. He raised $21,000 in-state and $92,000 from out of the state, with a large portion coming from Boston (where he went to school) and Chicago. At least McEachern has nearly 20% coming from New Hampshire.
Open Secrets also found that less than 15% of Sullivan's donations came from small donors who gave less than $200 dollars. So I guess it is possible that another 5% of her overall donations came in between $200 dollars and $250, but that seems unlikely as she has tons of donors who have maxed out contributions. That is $2,700 for the primary and $2,700 for the general election for a total of $5,400 dollars.
Here at the Labor News, we have discussed at length the corrupting influence of Money in Politics. We have also published numerous articles from Republicans and Democrats about how Wall Street funnels millions of dollars into our political system.
One of those companies is Bain Capital, the company that was at one time run by Mitt Romney before he left to become a full-time politician. The same company that made hostile takeovers a common phrase. The company that shuttered factories and shipped thousands of good paying union jobs to sweatshops overseas.
“Bain Capital, with Romney at its head, epitomizes the Gilded Age capitalism of the last decades, the casino finance that eventually brought the economy to its knees," wrote Bob Borosage at Campaign for America's Future in 2013.
Mother Jones wrote about how Bain Capital was spending millions lobbying and fighting for tax cuts that benefited the ultra-wealthy, like Bain's CEO Mitt Romney.
"In [2007], lobbying expenditures for the industry practically tripled. The spike was the result of an industry-wide effort to preserve a number of tax giveaways for the finance industry and its CEOs—including the carried interest rule, a tax loophole that allows Romney and other private equity mavens to reduce their taxes by millions of dollars."
In the first two filings by Sullivan, Bain Capital gave over $58,000 to her campaign.
From New Hampshire, Sullivan brought in $17,000 from 6 donors in the last quarter of 2017 and around $10,000 in the first quarter of 2018.
She has received more than twice the amount of money from Bain Capital than she has received from New Hampshire residents.
She also has a number of high powered donors from investment firms pushing tens of thousands of dollars into her campaign. Some include McKinsey & Co, Rally Ventures, Greylock Partners, Trident Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Goldman Sachs.
So the real questions are: who is pushing Maura Sullivan to run and funding her campaign? And what are these wealthy donors looking for in return?
In our previous article, we highlighted the connection between Sullivan and Emily's List, the powerhouse DC fundraising group. But there is no way to know from FEC reports who is pushing these Big Money donors to Sullivan's campaign. All we know is that she is getting boatloads of cash like we have never seen in NH before.
There is no doubt that whoever is funneling money from Wall Street directly into Sullivan's campaign are expecting something in return. This is what our corrupt political system has become: ultra-wealthy elites funding candidates on both sides of the aisle to enrich themselves.
"People are sick and tired of thinking that our politicians only represent the big donors, and that our government doesn’t belong to the people anymore,” said Dan Weeks, then Executive Director of the NH Rebellion, during the 2016 Presidential Primary.
We have not heard any more news about Chris Pappas's "Homegrown Campaign Pledge" to limit outside money in the primary. All we know is what John Distaso reported last month: that Sullivan basically said "No" without actually saying it.
UPDATE: Will @maurasullivan take the 'Homegrown Campaign Pledge' proposed by @ChrisPappasNH ? Here's what she told us when asked... #nh01 #nhpolitics #WMUR https://t.co/BzmKi5uxl0 pic.twitter.com/1ELRu2JSZ0
— John DiStaso (@jdistaso) June 28, 2018
Weeks is a strong supporter of Pappas' efforts to limit outside money. He said, “Understanding that this is not going to be fixed overnight, I want to see candidates get creative and do as much as they can under the existing laws to demonstrate a commitment to being accountable to their own constituents and not folks across the country...”
We reached out to the Sullivan campaign, twice, to ask for a response to some of our questions about her fundraising in and out of the state. We asked about how much she received from Bain Capital and other investment firms.
We received no response to our questions.
What we did receive was a press statement that stated she raised another $600,000 dollars in this most recent quarter. The FEC reports aren't available yet, so she has yet to release the details on who or where the money came from. Her campaign did tell me that they would get back to me with details about the donations.
Read NH Labor News coverage of Bain Capital here: http://nhlabornews.com/tag/bain-capital/
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Opinion
“Protect our democracy, vote for Maura Sullivan for Congress”
Seacoastonline.com – July 24, 2018
July 23 -- To the Editor:
Our beloved democracy is on the slippery slope to an autocratic dictatorship shoved downhill by the American oligarchy. We will lose all the benefits of a democracy in the next two years if we do not stop the slide in the upcoming November elections. As a former chair of the Hampton Democrats, and a retired Navy officer who has served our country, I can tell you that Maura Sullivan is the best candidate to protect our country and our democracy.
We need to elect proven leaders with the experience to hit the ground running, employing their self-assurance and dedication to solve difficult issues. We need to elect strong-minded individuals who have the confidence and maturity required to work on national issues. We need to elect representatives who believe in bipartisanship. We need to elect a Congressperson with the National Security experience to fit immediately into the House Armed Services Committee chair occupied by retiring Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. For all these reasons and more, we need to elect Maura Sullivan to represent New Hampshire’s first district in the US Congress.
Dick Desrosiers, CDR USN (ret)
Hampton
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“She moved to the state last year. Now she’s running for Congress. Can she win in N.H.?”
By James Pindell, The Boston Globe, August 13, 2018
Manchester, N.H. — On paper Maura Sullivan may be the perfect Democratic congressional candidate: Iraq War veteran, two Harvard degrees, and prominent roles in the Obama administration. She counts US Representative Seth Moulton and political adviser David Axelrod as allies, and she has raised more money than any other New Hampshire candidate for Congress in history.
There’s just one thing: Sullivan moved to the state three months before announcing her campaign, and she has almost zero ties to New Hampshire.
To be fair, when she moved to Portsmouth in July 2017 with her fiance, no one expected US Representative Carol Shea-Porter to announce her retirement. In fact, just a few months before Sullivan moved to New Hampshire,she was reportedly recruited to run for Congress in the Chicago suburbs where she grew up.
But if she pulls off a win in the Sept. 11 primary — something local political observers say is increasingly possible — she would further upend the state’s parochial political culture built on grass-roots activism. In the district that includes Manchester, the Seacoast, and the state’s Lakes Region, she faces 10 candidates, many of whom, unlike her, have been embedded in the state party ranks for decades.
“The defining narrative in this race has been about Sullivan, someone who came out of state and is raising all this out-of-state money,” said University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala. “New Hampshire’s self image already took a huge hit when Donald Trump won the last Republican presidential primary without going through the traditional retail politics motions, but this could take it to another level.”
Among the others running for the nod in the First District are Shea-Porter’s chief of staff, Naomi Andrews; former Somersworth mayor and longtime county prosecutor Lincoln Soldati; the son of a two-time former nominee for governor, tech businessman Deaglan McEachern; the longtime head of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, Mark MacKenzie; and state Representative Mindi Messmer. Also in the race: The son of US Senator Bernie Sanders, Levi Sanders, who lives in Claremont, which is more than an hour outside of the district.
But observers say the Democratic nomination will probably come down to two candidates: Sullivan and Executive Councilor Chris Pappas, both of whom are 38 years old.
Pappas hails from a well-known Manchester family who own the Puritan Backroom restaurant, a local haunt for politicos. Both of the state’s US senators have endorsed him, and he has benefited from some outside money, with interest groups such as Equality PAC hoping to make him the first openly gay person to win major office in the state history.
Sullivan and Pappas are the only candidates airing television ads and are far ahead of competitors when it comes to staffing and campaign infrastructure. There has not been any recent public polling in the race.
Last week offered a capsule into the race: Pappas held a press conference Tuesday with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who officially endorsed him. At the same moment, Sullivan was holding campaign events with former US secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. No other campaign held public events that day.
Pappas doesn’t directly refer to Sullivan’s loose ties to the district, but he does hint at them. For example, his campaign suggested in June that all candidates in the race take the “Homegrown Campaign Pledge,” in which they vow that a majority of campaign funds would come from the district.
According to The Center for Responsive Politics, only 2 percent of Sullivan’s $1.5 million in fund-raising comes from inside the district — compared with 53 percent for Pappas, who has brought in $665,800 so far.
Early in the race, every media interview with Sullivan included questions about her residency. Sullivan would reply she has fond memories of vacationing in the state as a kid and that she once knocked on doors for Shea-Porter in 2006 when she was at Harvard.
More recently, she dismisses the issue, saying it is not what voters care about. “The first chance my fiancé and I had to put down roots, we chose Portsmouth as our home,” she said in a statement to the Globe. “But what I hear from voters isn’t about how long I’ve lived here — what I hear is that our children are afraid to go to school because of gun violence, seniors and working families are worried about affording health care, women are concerned about their reproductive rights.”
New Hampshire voters have seen outsider candidates before. In 2014, Republicans nominated Scott Brown — a former US senator from Massachusetts — over three local candidates. That same year, Republicans picked as their candidate for governor Walt Havenstein, who barely survived a residency challenge to remove him from the ballot. (The only residency requirement for congressional candidates is to live in the state on Election Day.)
But there’s a key difference: Republicans, struggling for a strong contender to challenge Shaheen and then-governor Maggie Hassan four years ago, recruited Brown and Havenstein, whereas Democrats this year note there are plenty of local options for the First District.
‘The defining narrative in this race has been about [Maura] Sullivan, someone who came out of state and is raising all this out-of-state money.’
— Dante Scala, University of New Hampshire political science professor
The First District has been dubbed “the swingiest swing district” because it has switched party hands in every election since 2008. In 2016, both Trump and Shea-Porter, a Democrat, won the district.
James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell or subscribe to his Ground Game newsletter on politics: http://pages.email.
bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp.
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To the Editor: “Maura Sullivan will fight for us”
fosters.com - August 9, 2018
To the Editor:
On Sept. 11 I’m voting for Maura Sullivan for Congress in District 1 as the Democrat to replace Carol Shea Porter. Her stand on the issues that matter to me as a grandmother and senior in the Granite State align with my values on the key issues of Health Care, Education, economic growth and opportunity, gun violence prevention, protecting our environment, women's rights and how to deal with the opioid crisis.
Maura Sullivan recognizes the right to health care for all and supports a public option so people could buy into Medicare . She advocates for more job training and supports a $15/hour minimum wage, and paid family leave. She recognizes the national security threat of Climate Change. She advocates for rejoining the Paris Accord and recognizes the need for regulations to protect our clean air and water. She supports investing in our infrastructure, repairing our roads and bridges. I recommend attending an event to hear Maura speak in person. She’s a dynamic, energetic leader who will work for New Hampshire with the determination and loyalty of a Marine.
The issues our state faces are National in scope and impact, so we need to send a strong proven leader to represent us. I’m voting for Maura Sullivan so she can fight for me!
Mary Siudut, Durham
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“Maura Sullivan for Congress”
The NH Union Leader, Letter to the Editor, August 26. 2018
To the Editor: I am supporting Maura Sullivan because she has the federal experience and strength needed to fight for policies that will help strengthen the people of New Hampshire and the country as a whole.
Maura’s unwavering commitment to obtaining affordable health care for all, recognition of climate change as a national security priority, and work to gain paid family leave demonstrate only some of the ways she will continue to fight for high stakes issues once in Congress.
As a woman in college, I am astounded by our government and the current leaders in D.C. and look to Maura to bring reason and democratic leadership to Washington. I am not alone in perceiving Maura as the strongest candidate as several well-established organizations such as Emily’s List, New Politics, and VoteVets, to name a few, have whole-heartedly endorsed Maura. I know with Maura in Washington not only will there be a woman in the room, but someone who cares for all people, especially those of New Hampshire.
Una O’Brien-Taubman, Portsmouth
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Maura Sullivan makes an appearance at the Gibson Center for Senior Services in North Conway last week. (Jamie Gemmiti photo)
“Maura Sullivan challenged to produce her combat ribbon”
By Lloyd Jones, Editor,The Conway Daily Sun, August 27, 2018
Conway — The military record of former Marine Corps captain Maura Sullivan, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District primary, has been called into question by fellow candidate and Army veteran Terence O’Rourke (D-Alton), a Bronze Star recipient for his service as a captain in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When confronted with those questions, Sullivan cried foul, accusing the Sun of sexism.
In an email sent out to news organizations last Wednesday, O'Rourke said “former Marine Corps Capt. Maura Sullivan has repeatedly and insistently stated that she ‘fought’ in the War in Iraq and that she is a ‘combat’ veteran."
In fact, a current TV spot paid for by Sullivan's campaign and approved by the candidate shows Sullivan holding what appears to be an assault rifle and saying: "This is a weapon I trained on in the Marines and carried in Fallujah, Iraq. It was a war zone. No child should face one of these in New Hampshire classrooms ..."
According to O'Rourke, "There is no record currently available to the public to justify those statements; in fact, statements made by her prior to running for office would indicate otherwise.
"As an officer with integrity, I have pointed out that while Ms. Sullivan performed honorable duty in Iraq, she did not ‘fight’ in combat. In response, Ms. Sullivan publicly launched a personal attack on my character in the hopes of minimizing my service and obfuscating the truth about her own. She even went so far as to claim gender discrimination," he said.
"Ms. Sullivan, who claims to be a champion of veterans, should know better. Over 400 female Marines have been awarded the CAR (Combat Action Ribbon) for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and over 9,000 female soldiers have received the CAB (Combat Action Badge) in the same conflicts."
O’Rourke has asked Sullivan to produce her CAR.
During an Aug. 22 editorial board, Sun staffers did the same.
In response, Sullivan said: “I served for a little more than five years on active duty in the Marines, fought in the Iraq War, was stationed in Japan and trained a lot in Korea and I’m really proud of my service. I’m not sure why someone would be attacking my service and speculating about it. It’s disappointing and strikes me as making assumptions that are sexist in nature and to do so somebody owes me an apology and owes an apology to any woman who has ever worn the uniform of the United States.”
Asked again if she had received a ribbon and been in combat, Sullivan replied: “I’m very proud of my service. Men and women have been serving this country, on the front lines, for many, many years now. I’m very proud of the men and women who served. There is a healthy disrespect among veterans — we don’t qualify or criticize one another’s service. For someone to criticize my service is to question the service of anyone who has worn the uniform.”
In another recent campaign ad, Sullivan mentions within the first 10 seconds, “I didn’t fight in Iraq to let the gun lobby …”
O’Rourke also shared a Harvard Kennedy School video profile on Sullivan while she studied there.
In it, Sullivan says: “It was my job a lot of times to coordinate missions and then send different Marines from battalions and various companies out into the city of Fallujah and the surrounding areas, but it wasn’t my job to accompany them.”
On Aug. 23, Sullivan spoke about her military service in the morning during the MWV Economic Council’s congressional candidate forum at the North Conway Grand Hotel. She and six other candidates shared the stage for 90 minutes.
"I fought in an unnecessary war,” Sullivan said of the war in Iraq, and later said, "I'm a United States Marine. I fought in the Iraq War.”
Sullivan came to New Hampshire in the fall of 2006 to support Carol Shea-Porter, who was protesting the Iraq War and running for Congress.
"We have gotten involved in way too many misadventures overseas that have cost thousands of American lives,” Sullivan said last Thursday, and later added: "I was in basic training when 9/11 happened, and we felt that (Afghanistan) would be over by the time we left basic training. Seventeen years on, we are still there."
Sullivan spent two years stationed in East Asia before deploying to Fallujah," her website says.
The Department of Defense website says Sullivan's service included a deployment in Fallujah in 2005 with Combat Logistics Battalion 8; two years with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa, Japan; and serving as the Deputy Officer-in-Charge of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group reorganization team.
She earned the Navy Commendation Medal and a Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal with a Gold Star, the DoD website said.
If elected to Congress, Sullivan said she wants to get on the Armed Services committee to avoid unnecessary wars.
Sullivan was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 to serve on the American Battle Monuments Commission, where, with her fellow commissioners, she managed America’s overseas military cemeteries and memorials. She was later named the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public & Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Obama later appointed Sullivan as assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Sullivan was "principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for communication, news media relations, public outreach, engagement, public affairs and visual information,” according to the DoD website.
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August 30, 2018
Re: Trump canceled pay raise next year for federal civilian workers
I am a 100% disabled Veteran who relies on my VA and SSA monthly disability checks to financially survive. I saw on the news tonight that President Trump blocked federal civilian workers' pay raise next year. I am counting on my cost of living adjustment (cola) next year to stay financially solvent. Will Trump's decision to rescind federal workers' pay raise next year impact my cola to my VA and SSA disability checks? Do you have any say over any of these matters that financially impact federal civilian workers, disabled Veterans, and Social Security recipients? Please reply to my message; thank you.
- Jonathan Melle
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“Maura Sullivan will fight for us”
The NH Union Leader, August 30, 2018
To the Editor:
Michael Avenatti, everyone’s favorite lawyer to hate, recently said “Democrats have a tendency to bring nail clippers to a gunfight,” and while hilarious, it’s true. Don’t forget, apparently there’s a civil way we should be calling out bigotry, racism, and human rights violations.
It was 12:45 a.m. last Friday when I heard a startling ad on CNN: “This is a weapon similar to the one I trained on in the Marines. No child should face one of these in New Hampshire’s classrooms.” I was donating to Maura Sullivan’s campaign before the 30-second spot ended.
I cry with each school shooting, horrified that one day my 3-year-old daughter might face the same. I bet you do, too. Maura Sullivan won’t back down on common-sense gun control, because being civil isn’t her priority. She’s a fighter, and she didn’t get started with nail clippers. Some consider Maura an outsider. She didn’t get endorsements from the local political heroes. I get it.
But I have questions: Are those people fighting as hard as you’d like them to? Are they getting anywhere? Could they use an extra set of hands not preoccupied with being nice? Think long and hard about those answers. They matter.
What we don’t need is a yes man in Washington. We need a leader, a fighter, a voice, and someone who isn’t afraid to hold their ground. Maura Sullivan is that person.
Sara Locke, Goffstown
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Letter to the Editor: “Maura Sullivan and Chicago money”
fosters.com A service of seacoastonline.com – Opinion – September 7, 2018
To the Editor:
I read the news that Maura Sullivan moved here to New Hampshire in June 2017 to primary Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter with a mixture of amusement and disgust. Amusement because Carol is close to the Democrats in our district and counts them as her friends, and Maura obviously did not know that. The disgust is the more important reaction though.
I am disgusted because she was planning to run for Congress from Chicago, but she thought it would be too hard, so she went “district shopping” with the help of a Massachusetts congressman, who didn’t offer his district up — just ours.
Maura Sullivan showing up with money from Chicago and trying to break in and buy a seat after living here for just four months should offend all of us who treasure our state’s proud tradition of retail politics. I know about that tradition — I was Carol’s first campaign manager—and I do treasure it.
Granite Staters are proud that their politicians have a long campaign process that calls for attending house parties and dinners around our state, and talking to friends and neighbors and skeptical locals who want to know who they are, why they are running, and what they think about a variety of issues. They want to know if the candidate knows them.
Maura Sullivan does not know them. The first time she will ever vote in a federal election in NH will be when she votes for herself this Tuesday. She skipped voting in the 2016 presidential primary in DC, where she was working at the time, but she wants NH citizens to make the effort to go to the polls on Tuesday and vote for her, even though she has tried to up-end our retail politics tradition and replace it with raising money, almost all of it from out of state, to drown out the other ten candidates with constant television ads and mailers. This may not be illegal, but it is ugly. There is too much money coming into races around the country, but when 97% of your money is from out of state, this crosses the boundary of decency.
The first time Carol and I ever met Maura, she no longer had to primary Carol because Carol had announced she was not running again. But she fawned over Carol—then and every time after that—telling her and the groups gathered how much she admired Carol and how she had volunteered for her. Carol and I knew she had not volunteered, but we stayed quiet because it wasn’t important. But this is. District shopping is not illegal, but I wish it were. Because I believe Congressional seats should be for the people, by the people, of each state. And Maura Sullivan was not one of our people until 16 weeks before she announced her candidacy, when she moved here to primary our congresswoman.
There are many choices on Tuesday. Carol and I will be voting for Naomi Andrews. Please consider her or the other NH candidates who have lived and worked in NH.
Susan Mayer, Lee, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s 2006 Campaign Manager
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“Maura Sullivan’s smear tactics do not work in NH”
Seacoastonline.com - Opinion - September 5, 2018
To the Editor:
Three weeks ago I got a phone call, asking me to answer some survey questions about the primary election. It turned out the survey included some anonymous smears of Chris Pappas, who is also running. After each smear I was asked, did this make me more likely to vote for Maura Sullivan? The whole survey was about the two of them.
The next day I attended a gathering in Manchester, and a man I was talking to mentioned he had gotten this call. I said, me too! And about ten more people standing near us said they also had gotten that call.
I was concerned enough to attend a meeting with Chris Pappas a few days later. I asked him about one smear, that he was taking money from Big Energy and supporting Northern Pass. He looked stunned and blurted out, “But I appointed one of the five members of the Site Committee that turned Northern Pass down.” Pappas then went on to assure me of his environmental commitments.
Since then, I’ve gotten two more survey calls, each with different smears about Chris Pappas. And several people have told me that certain survey companies can be hired to conduct polls like this. They’re called ‘push polls.’
I looked up Maura Sullivan. Do you know she only moved here to N.H. in late 2017, in order to run for this Congressional seat?
And what does it mean to say she lives in Portsmouth now, when she works full time in D.C.? (She has been on the American Battle Monuments Commission for four years).
Yes, she was a Marine and I respect her service for the hardships she endured and the danger she faced, for the time she spent away from home and friends. But not for the rifle she looks at so lovingly in her newest TV ad, as she declares she used a gun like that in the Marines. I don’t believe killing people qualifies anyone to govern.
Maura Sullivan’s TV ads have given her a high profile. She has raised more than a million dollars from outside N.H., and most of it from Bain Capital. What kind of progressive Democrat takes big money from Mitt Romney’s old company? According to WMUR, Sullivan trails only Romney in donation dollars received from Bain.
And what kind of callousness of spirit does it take for Sullivan to sanction a survey to smear Pappas as financially indebted to big corporations, when her own campaign is almost entirely funded by Bain Capital?
Will Maura Sullivan be able to offer constituent services to the towns and cities of N.H., when she has hardly spent any time in N.H.? Does she even know the names of our towns?
We need a representative who can help get funding for bridge repairs, rehab centers, Medicaid Extension, and health care services. Sullivan campaigns on two issues only: veterans affairs and keeping guns out of schools. We need a representative who can work with elected officials all over N.H. Does Sullivan even know who they are?
I am appalled by her campaign tactics against Chris Pappas, and have decided to vote for him because he responded to my questions openly and honestly, because he cares about a wide range of issues and is informed about them, and because he has lived in N.H. all his life. He does, in fact, know his way around the state. And more than any other candidate, he has a chance of beating Maura Sullivan.
Let’s tell Maura Sullivan to pack her carpetbag and move somewhere else.
Rev. Nancy Rockwell
United Church of Christ NH
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“Maura Sullivan would be a disaster for New Hampshire Democrats”
Seacoastonline.com - September 9, 2018
To the Editor:
I am writing because the Union Leader report today (Sunday) about Maura Sullivans voting record was the last straw. The paper reports that Ms. Sullivan, 38 years old, did not vote in 2006 (she would have been 26), 2008, 2010 or 2014. She did not even vote in the critical 2016 primary.
A clear profile has emerged of an opportunistic candidate who sees 2018 as chance to capitalize on her resume as a female Marine but who seeks to replace local vetting with a prepackaged campaign.
Theres this great national network of PACs and individual high-dollar contributors ready to support Democratic women, veterans (Ms. Sullivan was a Marine logistics officer in Iraq), and former Obama appointees (Ms. Sullivan held 3 public affairs appointments in just a year and a half). Those networks are a wonderful asset but, in this case, it has led Ms. Sullivan to move to New Hampshire, a small state where those big dollars will go a long way in either primarying Carol Shea Porter or, as luck would have it, running for an open seat.
What we are seeing is a highly programmed candidate who knows little about New Hampshire, striving to override our retail campaigning style with a flood of well produced TV ads and highly structured public appearances.
At the WMUR debate last week, I was struck by the contrast between her tightly scripted statements and the authentic thoughtful responses of the other 10 candidates. After the debate, she steamed through the crowded lobby, led by her staffer, looking straight ahead in the posture of a VIP with somewhere else to be. It turned out, according to WMUR, that she was the only candidate to avoid the spin room opportunity talk with the press after the event.
Out of almost $2 million she has raise, less than $60,000 came from within New Hampshire. Thats a remarkably low figure. Either she is not getting out to introduce herself in house parties or she is failing to impress in living room close-ups.
Is this the approach she would take in our short general election campaign? We need to elect a Democrat but do not want to be stuck with a vulnerable candidate we dont even know and who may not know how to connect with New Hampshire general election voters.
Ms. Sullivan has had the hubris to imagine that, having seldom voted in her adult life, she can use carefully crafted words and a selective resume to ride the anti-Trump wave right into Congress.
My message to fellow Democratic primary voters is that there is no need to vote for Ms. Sullivan. I will vote for Chris Pappas, also 38, but who has served the State for half his life, with no such grandstanding. In addition to Chris Pappas there are 9 other committed, thoughtful candidates on the ballot, many of whom we have come to know over the years, because they show up to do the real work as well. And Ill bet it never would have occurred to them not to vote in an election.
Bill Duncan, New Castle
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“What we know about Sullivan”
fosters.com - September 8, 2018
To the Editor:
As I write this we are five days out from the election and here is what we know about Maura Sullivan:
1) She moved here from DC with millions in out-of-state dirty, dark money to primary Carol Shea-Porter, the first woman elected to Congress from New Hampshire and one of the nation’s leading progressive.
2) She has lied about why she moved here. She denied coming here just to run for Congress. Her former Professor at Harvard has confirmed that she is lying.
3) She has 97.6% of her money from outside of NH and has received nearly $1 million more in outside spending from DC Establishment outfits VoteVets, Emily’s List, and With Honor.
4) She is against Medicare for All.
5) She has exaggerated her service record in Iraq to a point that borders on Stolen Valor. When called out, she hurls baseless accusations of sexism.
6) She has never held a job in New Hampshire and has been unemployed since moving to Portsmouth in August, 2017.
7) She opposes the removal of statues honoring Confederate traitors.
8) I believe she lied about campaigning for Carol Shea-Porter in 2006.
9) She did not vote in the 2016 Democratic Primary.
10) The number one single source of individual contributions to her campaign are from employees of Bain Capital.
Simply put, Maura Sullivan is a fraud. Her candidacy is a direct attack on our state. Her and her financiers believe that the people of New Hampshire are rubes and that they can simply fool us into voting for her. If she wins the Democratic nomination, not only will Eddie Edwards be our next Congressman, but our state and party will suffer an embarrassment which will take years to get over.
What am I asking of you? Please ask everyone you know who intends to vote in the Democratic Primary on September 11th to vote for anyone but Maura Sullivan. Ask them to vote for real Democrats who support Medicare for All. Ask them to save us from this catastrophe. Ask them to save New Hampshire.
Terence O'Rourke (D), Congressional Candidate, 1st Congressional District, Alton
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“1st CD: Pappas earns Democratic nod from crowded field”
By Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Union Leader, September 11. 2018
Manchester - Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester was largely outspent but easily romped to victory in the crowded, 11-person Democratic primary Tuesday night.
Pappas, a three-term councilor, opened up a huge lead in his hometown winning nearly 70 percent of the vote. The second-place finisher, former Obama administration official Maura Sullivan of Portsmouth, finished a distance second there.
Sullivan outraised Pappas by more than 2-1 in the race but party leaders said Tuesday night Pappas' ground game was much better than Sullivan, who was barely known before the campaign began.
It became clear before 8 p.m. this was going to be Pappas' night when he won nearly twice the votes in one ward of Portsmouth, Sullivan's adopted home city.
Unofficially, Pappas won Manchester by nearly a 4-1 margin over Sullivan, 6,868 to 1,904.
He also won in wards in Dover along with the Seacoast towns of Rollinsford and Stratford.
With only 15 percent of the vote, Pappas had a huge lead, 56 to 23 percent.
The conference room across the parking lot from the Puritan Backroom Restaurant that Pappas owns filled up slowly as campaign workers filtered in.
But throughout the day, prominent Democrats were tweeting to their supporters to go out and vote for Pappas, including Sen. Maggie Hassan, her state director Pam Walsh and longtime lobbyist and Democratic operative Jim Demers of Concord.
All 11 candidates said they were liberal and vowed to support abortion rights, paid family and medical leave and to oppose the Trump tax cuts and his foreign policy.
Both Pappas and Sulllivan played it safe on some issues, failing to offer their support as some rivals did for a government-run single payer health care system.
U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH, surprised even longtime supporters with her stunning decision last fall that she would not be seeking a fifth term this fall.
Shea-Porter, 65, has not ruled out a future return to politics. Many political observers think the Rochester Democrat would seriously consider running for the U.S. Senate in 2020 if Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, decided to retire on her own.
Initially, Shea-Porter said she would stay out of this race and that touched off a flurry of candidates from across the district, which covers the eastern half of the state.
Many thought Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester was the early favorite given that he was able to win three times in the most Republican district on the Executive Council. Pappas had considered mounting a challenge to Shea-Porter in 2016 but decided instead to hold onto his seat.
Most of the political establishment was on board with Pappas, 38, including Sens. Maggie Hassan and Shaheen, former Gov. John Lynch, the State Employees Association and the two largest unions representing public school teachers.
But Pappas had an ambitious and well-financed rival in former Marine Capt. Maura Sullivan, 38, of Portsmouth.
Sullivan had lived in the state less than a year but said she had worked to help first elect Shea-Porter and was committed to staying here.
She worked in the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs and parlayed those relationships into an impressive financial juggernaut that raised nearly $2 million in campaign donations -- more than 90 percent of it outside the state.
If that wasn't enough, Sullivan had liberal special-interest groups bankrolling their own campaign ads for her, to the tune of $800,000 worth by the third week in August.
Groups backing veteran candidates, led by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Emily's List, the liberal group supporting abortion rights, were big supporters.
Pappas did well financially -- raising about $825,000 -- but that still left him with half as much money as Sullivan, who swamped the airwaves with ads.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and ex-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus have come to campaign for her here and much of her money has come through the Obama/national Democratic network of donors.
Equality PAC, a group backing LGBTQ causes, spent $228,000 on ads for Pappas, who would become the first gay candidate to win nomination to a major office in New Hampshire.
The race attracted several other first-time candidates for major office.
State Rep. Mindi Messmer, 55, of Rye, said as an environmental scientist she's been able to get legislation passed through the Republican-dominated Legislature the past two years.
Rep. Mark MacKenzie, 66, of Manchester won his own State House seat after retiring as a city firefighter and longtime president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO union.
Deaghlan McEachern, 35, of Portsmouth, helped create a technology startup and is the son of three-time candidate for governor Paul McEachern.
Naomi Andrews, 37, of Epping was the candidate Shea-Porter ended up endorsing as she had been her chief of staff and former campaign manager. Rochester City Attorney Terence O'Rourke, 40, is an Iraq War Army veteran and outspoken activist.
Lincoln Soldati, 69, of Somersworth, served as Strafford County attorney.
Levi Sanders, 49, lives in Claremont, which isn't in the 1st District, but he is the only son of Vt. independent Sen. Bernie Sanders who won the 2016 Democratic presidential primary here.
The other candidates who filed were small business owner Paul Cardinal of Merrimack and William Martin of Manchester.
Union Leader Correspondent Jason Schreiber contributed to this report.
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These images provided by the US Marine Corps show, from left, Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31, of York, Pa., Staff Sgt. Christopher K.A. Slutman, 43, of Newark, Del., and Cpl. Robert A. Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, N.Y. All three were killed on Monday, April 8, 2019, when a roadside bomb hit their convoy near Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. AP
“Since Trump won’t act to protect American troops, Congress must”
Reports that President Trump was informed in March 2019 that Russian agents were offering bounties on US service members in Afghanistan should alarm every American. Congress can protect our troops where the president has not.
By Maura C. Sullivan, op-ed, The Boston Globe, July 7, 2020
Leaks last month alleging President Trump had been briefed in March 2019 that Russian agents were offering bounties on US service members in Afghanistan should alarm every American. The bounties may have resulted in a Taliban attack that killed three US Marines near Bagram Airfield on April 8, 2019, when their vehicle was hit by an explosive. Yet news reports indicate the Trump administration “is not planning an immediate response” because Trump does not consider the intelligence “actionable” and, according to a recent presidential tweet, is a “Fake News tale.”
To be sure, parsing leaked intelligence for ground truth is no simple exercise. The interests of those who leak information, access to additional intelligence to contextualize the leaks, and possible administration preference not to disclose concurrent follow-up investigations are among myriad factors to consider before reaching any meaningful conclusions. However, of the many Trump administration failures on the bounties intelligence — ensuring the president reviewed his intelligence reports, failing to share the intelligence with members of Congress and allies, dedicating resources expeditiously to validate the intelligence, and acting to protect service members from on-the-ground threats — the most disturbing is the president’s abdication of his responsibility as commander in chief to the women and men of the US Armed Forces.
There is a special trust that exists between those who serve and the president — both swear a solemn oath to defend the Constitution. Those who serve do so trusting that the president will do everything in his or her power to bring them home to their families. The notion of anything to the contrary has been described by some fellow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans this week as outrageous. Each of the three young Marines killed near Bagram Airfield — Sergeant Benjamin Hines of York, Pa.; Staff Sergeant Christopher Slutman of Newark, Del.; Corporal Robert Hendricks of Locust Valley, N.Y. — was somebody’s son, brother, husband, or fiancé. Around our country, Gold Star families and Blue Star families have expressed disbelief and incredulity at the president’s handling of the Russian bounty situation.
In this context, the actionability of the intelligence, which the Trump administration repeatedly highlighted last week, matters little. In a functional administration, reports of bounties paid by a nation-state to nongovernment militants to kill US service members would prompt an immediate White House response to drive urgent executive action. It should be duly noted that these allegations shouldn’t take anything away from the myriad hard-working and dedicated public servants within the intelligence community. The failure here is one of leadership from the top.
On its own, the commander in chief’s sacred duty to protect our troops, like the additional bad behavior that the bounties may encourage if left unchecked, would be reason enough to act. Consider, for example, what lessons Iran Quds Force leaders and their Middle East proxies might glean from Trump’s failure to follow up here. And consider what immediate, chilling effects a White House-proclaimed intent to act might have on Russian intent to pay further bounties. That’s why the White House’s publicly proclaimed inaction is so startling.
Congress can hold President Vladimir Putin of Russia accountable and protect our troops where the president has not. First, Congress can hold hearings to investigate who knew what, when. Next, it can exercise its oversight authority to address closable gaps in intelligence community reporting, sharing, or briefing. Moreover, if the intelligence is sufficiently supported, Congress may pass a resolution condemning Putin and the Russian government for its bounty payments, an act likely to slow any administration efforts to readmit Russia to the Group of 7 summit. Finally, congressional leaders can tie passage of the defense budget to administration action that holds Russia accountable. For those who question whether a congressional investigation is warranted, consider the bar for a congressional investigation into the attack on the US mission in Benghazi, a bar that unaddressed intelligence about alleged Russian bounties on American troops comfortably clears.
Whatever comes next, the American people, and American service members and their families, deserve answers. The administration must immediately provide a full accounting to Congress and to the American public. Since the president refuses to protect America’s national interests, Congress must act swiftly to hold Russia accountable and protect our troops. Our citizens, as well as our service members, veterans, and their families, deserve nothing less.
Maura C. Sullivan served as an assistant secretary at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and special assistant to the secretary of the Navy during the Obama administration. A resident of Portsmouth, N.H., she is an Iraq War veteran and a former Marine Corps officer.
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