By AARON DAVIS, InDepthNH.org
The first of two back-to-back WMUR Granite State Debates featured five Democrats vying to succeed U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District on Thursday night.
Coming into the debate, polling and fundraising showed two candidates in the clear lead; former Marine and Obama administration official Maura Sullivan and Portsmouth health-care and legacy politician Stefany Shaheen. Progressive candidate and Hampton Board Chair Carleigh Beriont was running third but gaining in momentum with former Pentagon lawyer Christian Urrutia and nonprofit executive Sarah Chadzynski trailing in money and polls.
The first question from WMUR moderators asked candidates whether they supported Medicare for All (M4A) and if so, how would they fund it.
Beriont delivered a reliable progressive line stemming from Yale School of Public Health research that M4A would save lives and cost $1 trillion less overall than the current healthcare system.
Sullivan navigated a line, starting with “we can all agree, that healthcare is a huge challenge in our district” before discussing a tax on billionaires and an audit of the Pentagon to have “Medicare for All Who Want It or Medicare for All.”
Shaheen didn’t miss the opportunity, particularly in a Democratic primary debate where the moderator’s next question was on growing discontent among Democrats at the establishment.
“We need big, bold solutions and Medicare for All Who Want It is Medicare for Some and the only person who supports that is our opponent, Maura Sullivan,” Shaheen said.
Having anticipated the tenor of the night from recent lines of attack among candidates, moderators went on to ask why candidates believed they were the “change candidate.” Urrutia defined himself as bringing new energy and new politics to the table.
Chadzynski flexed her working class credentials and national advocacy. Shaheen called for big ideas and holding Trump accountable. Beriont pointed to her coalition of activists, door knockers and organizers and her belief that “hope is doing what is right when the outcome is uncertain.” Sullivan told voters of her jobs waiting tables, joining the Marines and taking out significant student loans as evidence she was running for the “98% of the rest of us.”
A question then came where moderators cited a WMUR interview of former candidate Heath Howard where, when pressed twice whether he identifies as a democratic socialist to voters as he is door-knocking, says “if I am asked.” Moderators framed the question as candidates going to great lengths to hide their beliefs from voters and asked “Do you support the Democratic party’s move toward socialism, yes or no?”
https://www.wmur.com/article/heath-howard-democratic-socialist-status/73197023
All candidates responded “no.”
THE BIGGEST FIGHT
After the curious respite, moderators got to the meat of the fighting that has been occurring in the campaign in the last few weeks: campaign donations.
Candidates didn’t answer the moderator’s question of “why do campaign donations matter?” but instead took the time to outline what they would do to reduce the role of money in politics. Sullivan started and outlined her anti-corruption platform and a ban on congressional trading.
Shaheen touted her local donors and recited from her recent television attack ads, saying 90% of her campaign donations had come from outside of New Hampshire, that she had taken donations from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group and that she had also received money from Jeff Bezos.
“It’s disappointing that so early in this debate, my opponent is lying about me,” Sullivan responded, then said she had never received support from AIPAC nor bundling. Doesn’t know about Jeff Bezos and says that Benjamin Netanyahu cannot have a “blank check” in Israel.
According to FEC records reviewed by multiple news outlets, Sullivan has received between $296,000 and $304,000 from individuals who also gave to AIPAC or its United Democracy Project afilliate. While it shows similarities with donation bundling, which is the practice of collecting contributions from multiple donors and submitting them to a political campaign, it isn’t enough to prove it. She has also received $20,000 in funding from NORPAC, another pro-Israel political action committee (PAC).
https://nhjournal.com/stefany-shaheen-swings-left-with-aipac-attack-on-sullivan
The donations from Jeff Bezos were first donated to With Honor, which then gave to the Servant-Leader Fund and ultimately to Sullivan’s campaign, so the connection is less direct than implied.
Sullivan clapped back at Shaheen, saying “when you don’t come from a political family, you have to work three times as hard,” referencing Shaheen’s mother, the former governor and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
Urrutia jumped in after that, saying Sullivan was not giving a credible explanation, saying she ran ads claiming she never took PAC money, but that she had taken money from Second Front Systems, a PAC that has also donated to Trump. Sullivan said she refunded the check and fired her compliance firm when she found it, though Urrutia pointed out it was many months later.
Chadzynski and Beriont both aimed to stay above the fray in different ways.
The largest and most enthusiastic area of agreement came when moderators asked if they were to take back the House in January, would they push to impeach President Trump and for what offenses, in 30 seconds.
Most candidates said there wasn’t enough time to list all the offenses, but the hits kept coming.
Endemic corruption from Urrutia, giving military equipment contracts to family members from Chadzynski, profiting to the tune of $2 billion from Shaheen, trading defense stocks before the war in Iran from Beriont and corruption around government contracts and the White House ballroom from Sullivan.
The debate continued with less fireworks and more agreement on many issues, from reforming the Supreme Court to reducing the costs of energy and housing and supporting statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.
In their closing statements, each candidate stuck to their wheelhouse. Sullivan talked about her time as a Marine and in the Obama White House. Shaheen thanked the local support and pledged to put New Hampshire first. Chadzynski said she was a mom, wife to an independent, a teacher and not a millionaire. Urrutia delivered a short speech on not revering, but renewing the American Dream. Beriont shared her early organizing experiences, forming a union as a public high school teacher.
With five candidates in one hour and the primary five days away, no single moment appeared to shatter the top tier. Sullivan spent much of the debate under siege from Shaheen and Urrutia over donors, Israel and PAC money, while Shaheen absorbed her own hit over lobbyist money and her late-August leftward lurch on Israel aid. Beriont stayed above the fray and pushed a grassroots-organizing message. Chadzynski delivered a powerfully emotional answer on immigration and leaned hardest into her outsider identity. Urrutia had the sharpest personal moment on health care and the most specific, researched attack on Sullivan’s corporate PAC receipt.
The largest unanswered question is whether any one of the three lower-polling candidates consolidated enough progressive support to tip a race that polls show is still within the margin of error.
The Granite State Debates will wrap up on Friday with a debate between the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, Karishma Mansur and Chris Pappas.