Mike Liberty, District 2 Executive Council Candidate

Patch Candidate Profile, Mike Liberty

Age (as of Sept. 1, 2024)

43

Town or City of Residence

New London

Position Sought

Executive Council District 2

Family

Dr. Frances Lim-Liberty, Wife
3 Daughters, Ages 11,8,5

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

AB, Economics, University of Chicago
MBA, Stanford University

Occupation

After college, I worked in Finance for 4 years in Chicago. I then moved to Wilkes-Barre, PA for a year and worked as the Chief Operating Officer of a small insurance company. I then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend business school at Stanford while my wife did her pediatric residency at Children's Hospital Oakland.

I worked at PayPal for one year before co-founding a credit card fraud prevention company, Signifyd, where I served as the Chief Product Officer. I did that for 12 years, building it into a 500-person team, before leaving in 2023 to run for the Executive Council.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website

https://electliberty.com/

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most important economic issue facing our state is the lack of Affordable Housing. I plan to leverage the Executive Council's influence over the 10-year Transportation Plan to address it. I refer to this as a Housing-Oriented Transportation (HOT) Agenda.

In July, the median price of a single-family home in New Hampshire hit a record high of $530,000, driven by high demand and a lack of inventory. In April this year, to meet current demand, there was a need for an additional 23,500 units. By 2030, that need grows to 60,000 units.

The Housing-Oriented Transportation (HOT) Agenda is a comprehensive policy initiative designed to align New Hampshire's housing development with its transportation infrastructure, creating vibrant, connected, and sustainable communities.

As stated in NH RSA 12-O:71, "In exchange for New Hampshire housing champion designation, a municipality shall receive preferential access to state resources including, but not limited to, discretionary state infrastructure funds, as available." The HOT Agenda aims to ensure the Department of Transportation is operating consistently with RSA 12-O:71 by directing transportation investments towards communities that have earned the Housing Champion designation, a voluntary program developed by the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs.

By aligning state resources with housing development efforts in these communities, the HOT Agenda supports the broader goal of addressing the state's housing crisis, driving economic growth, and improving quality of life for residents.

Key Elements of the HOT Agenda:
-Targeted Transportation Investments: Direct transportation funding towards communities that have earned the Housing Champion designation, ensuring these areas receive the infrastructure support necessary to accommodate and encourage housing growth.

-Support Workforce Housing: Focus on expanding workforce housing options by aligning transportation projects with the specific needs of Housing Champion communities, contributing to the broader goal of addressing New Hampshire’s housing crisis.

-Strengthen Local-State Collaboration: Facilitate stronger partnerships between state agencies and local governments to ensure that transportation investments are aligned with community-specific housing needs and priorities.

-Respect Local Control: Empower communities to maintain local control over their development while receiving state support, ensuring that decisions about growth and infrastructure are made by those who know their communities best.

-Community-Centered Planning: Ensure that early recipients of the Housing Champion designation receive a community hearing as part of the Ten Year Transportation Plan listening sessions, fostering transparency and inclusivity in the planning process.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Action. Throughout my career, my focus has always been on the execution of strategy and ensuring that the actions taken deliver on the bigger vision. I’ve been responsible for making sure that plans don’t just exist on paper but are effectively carried out down to the last detail. That's how I built a successful business which employs 500 people today. I constantly search for areas where impediments are getting in the way of people doing their jobs and living their lives. It's not about being the smartest person in the room; it's about looking for how you can help empower others.

From a policy perspective, there is, admittedly, very little separation between me and my opponent except in one area. I believe that funds for education should be redistributed from wealthier towns to needier communities to ensure that no child's education depends on their zip code. As a Lebanon City Councilor, my opponent voted to join the Coalition Communities 2.0, which is currently fighting in our State Courts (Rand v. State of New Hampshire) against that redistribution, which would relieve the heavy, regressive local property tax burden that our needier communities must endure to properly fund their schools.

I believe that the Attorney General is wrong to defend the constitutionality of the current system of education taxes, I think the arguments the Coalition Communities 2.0 have put forward in their Appellate Brief are unfounded, I disagree with my opponent's vote to join them, and on the Executive Council I would not confirm any judge that believes the current system is constitutional.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

My top priorities if elected to the Executive Council include:

1) Reproductive Care: Safeguarding access to reproductive care for all Granite Staters by funding providers like Planned Parenthood and protecting abortion rights in our state courts.

2) Public Education: Fulfilling the State's duty to provide and fund adequate public education, addressing disparities between communities and fighting back against the attacks on public education.

3) Affordable Housing: Addressing the housing crisis by promoting the construction of more diverse and affordable housing options.

4) Green Abundance: Accelerating the transition to sustainable, affordable clean energy through technological innovation.

5) Modern Transportation: Improving transportation infrastructure, including repairing bridges and roads.

6)Working Families: Ensure that all approved contracts pay fair wages, good benefits, and prioritize creating local jobs.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this position?

Throughout my career and personal life, I've faced significant challenges and achieved meaningful results that demonstrate my ability to handle this position.

My journey began in New Hampshire, attending schools in Nashua, Hollis, and Manchester. I then earned my undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and later completed my MBA at Stanford.

Following four years working in finance after college, at 26 years old, I became the Chief Operating Officer for a 150-person company based outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, participating in its turnaround and helping it survive the Great Recession.

Building on that foundation, after business school, I co-founded Signifyd, a company focused on protecting small businesses from credit card fraud, which was mostly executed by organized crime rings. My co-founder and I saw this problem and were determined to fix it. Over the next 12 years, we grew the company into one of the largest fraud protection firms in the world, serving over 5,000 businesses and stopping billions of dollars in fraud.

During this time, I was also confronted with a personal health crisis—I was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. After undergoing surgery, we knew that chemotherapy would likely come in the future, and that it would cause genetic mutations which would make it difficult or impossible for us to have more children. We began trying for a third child. My wife Frances suffered two miscarriages. The second miscarriage came at 20 weeks and required a medical abortion. We finally welcomed our third daughter in the Summer of 2019, our rainbow baby. I began chemotherapy in March 2021 at the height of the pandemic, but I was thankful to be vaccinated earlier that year before being in an immunocompromised state.

Today, we are raising our three girls in New London, where they are thriving, which I consider my biggest accomplishment.

I believe this set of professional and personal experiences has prepared me well for the role of Executive Councilor.

The best advice ever shared with me was…

"Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the Union Leader" - Mr. Gorski, my 12th Grade English Teacher

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I'd like voters to know that I’m driven by a sense of urgency and a commitment to fairness. I believe in taking action on issues that matter—like affordable housing, public education, and access to healthcare—and I’m focused on delivering real, tangible results.

I’m dedicated to being a transparent and accessible Councilor who listens, acts, and communicates clearly. I’m here to serve, and I’m committed to making a positive difference for all Granite Staters.

I am proud to be endorsed by leaders like Former Senate President Sylvia Larsen, Former Senator Martha Hennessey, Speaker Emeritus Steve Shurtleff, Former Congressman Richard Swett and Bill Shaheen.