Warmington Comes Out Swinging, Lands Few Punches in First New Hampshire Governor's Debate

By Michael Graham

Democrat Cinde Warmington came out swinging in her first debate with Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Tuesday, blaming the incumbent for everything from soaring rents to rising health care costs.

Subscribe

But Ayotte gave as good as she got, hitting "opioid lobbyist" Warmington on her energy proposals and her opposition to the proposed property tax cap.

The debate, moderated by Scott Spradling, was sponsored by the Greater Manchester Chamber and held at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Warmington's pitch was simple: Everything costs too much, and it's all Ayotte's fault.

"Look at your bills. Your electric bill is up 15% on her watch. Child care is through the roof. Healthcare costs are through the roof," Warmington said. "She's responsible for this."

Ayotte touted legislation she signed to address housing costs and lower business taxes, while taking aim at Warmington's left-of-center policy positions.

"Facts are stubborn things," Ayotte said. "She (Warmington) has refused to commit to a ban on an income or sales tax. She said it was a political gimmick. I don't think it's a political gimmick when it comes to the New Hampshire Advantage, and I will protect our advantage."

Perhaps the sharpest example came on energy, when Warmington's attacks on electricity costs gave way to questions about her own proposal to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

"She put out an energy plan that is going to increase your bills. It's more aggressive than Massachusetts trying to bring us to so-called net zero by 2040. In order to do that, you would have to eliminate fossil fuels, natural gas, home heating oil. Imagine how much that would cost in terms of your bills," Ayotte said. "She and I have a very different approach on energy. Mine is in all the above."

Warmington said that energy plan is old news.

"That energy policy that I put out was not in this election. It was in the prior election when we actually had a very robust energy investment from the federal government that the Trump administration has now cut," Warmington said.

"Your plan was less than two years ago, right?" Ayotte shot back.

Warmington entered the debate trailing Ayotte 51% to 42% in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.

From her opening remarks, the former executive councilor argued that Ayotte's upbeat campaign message was disconnected from voters struggling to pay their bills.

"This economy is fundamentally broken, and we need to fix it," Warmington said.

Ayotte repeatedly acknowledged the economic pain caused by high prices but warned that Warmington would make things worse.

"If you're wondering what her policies are going to be like, just look who she hangs around with. She recently was hanging around with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. You know what's happened in California? Not only do they have really high income and sales tax, but increased taxes on businesses, increased payroll taxes, increased healthcare taxes. So who you hang around with tells a lot about you."

Housing produced some of the morning's sharpest exchanges as Warmington returned to a Democratic attack from 2024: Ayotte's time on the board of the investment company Blackstone.

"Private equity is buying up housing in the state and jacking up the cost of rent. It's sending the market rate of rent up," Warmington claimed. "This is how Kelly Ayotte made her millions on the board of Blackstone, doing exactly this. The biggest corporate predatory landlord in the country, this is how she made her millions."

Ayotte dismissed the claim.

"First of all, she doesn't understand anything that's happening in the state," Ayotte said, noting that Blackstone owns just three properties in the state.

The fundamental problem, she said, was insufficient supply.

"That's why we have worked on ways to increase supply, passing the law to allow ADUs [accessory dwelling units], making sure you can convert commercial properties into residential, reforming our permitting system so that we can get more, make it done faster because the faster you get it done, the more we can get housing done."

Warmington repeatedly attacked Education Freedom Accounts as a transfer of taxpayer dollars to wealthy families.

"These education freedom accounts are nothing but a pickpocket scheme, taking money out of the pockets of the working people of our state and handing it to the wealthiest people in our state."

Ayotte responded by pointing out that, as an executive councilor, Warmington voted to block federal education funding that would have gone to New Hampshire charter schools like Manchester's Founders Academy and Spark Academy.

"Let's just be clear where those charter schools are; we're talking about public schools in the state," Ayotte said.

Property taxes gave Ayotte another opening to turn Warmington's central argument back on her.

Warmington accused the governor of "downshifting costs" onto municipalities and driving up local property taxes. Ayotte noted that the state sent a record amount of funding to local schools in the most recent budget. She also questioned Warmington's fiscal bona fides.

"If she's suddenly so focused on property taxes, which I am, I think property taxes are too high. Why is she so against a property tax cap?" Ayotte asked.

Warmington called the proposal an attempt to blame cities and towns for decisions made in Concord.

"This is just a way for Kelly Ayotte to blame the cities and towns for her irresponsible spending," Warmington said.

"Every community already has the right under New Hampshire law to have a tax cap. This ballot measure is just a way of telling the of saying to the communities that 'it's not our fault that your property taxes went up. It's your own cities and towns.' It's not true. Don't be fooled by it."

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.