More Concord School Candidates Jump In On Last Day Of Filing

CONCORD, NH — For a lot of Concord city councilors, November will be a race against the blanks — unless a flurry of new candidates file by petition in the coming days, something that is unlikely.

Only one incumbent city councilor, Brent Todd, in Ward 1, is being challenged in 2021, as the last filing day came to a close. William Barton filed to run for the Ward 1 city council seat last week.

All other incumbents: Ward 2’s Erle Pierce, Jennifer Kretovic in Ward 3, Ward 4’s Karen McNamara, Keith Nyhan in Ward 7, Gail Matson from Ward 8, Ward 9’s Candace Bouchard, and Zandra Rice Hawkins in Ward 10, escaped challenges. At-large Councilors Amanda Grady Sexton and Fred Keach will also be unopposed.

Paula McLaughlin, the only candidate to file in Ward 6, will also be elected by default.

Ward 5 residents have a competitive race as Rob Werner, who was first elected to the seat in a special election in 2007, declined to run for re-election. Stacey Brown and Mark Coen, a former councilor, are facing off for the seat.

Candidates in Concord for 2021: Promote your campaign for free. Fill out this Patch profile before the election and then email a photo to Concord NH Patch Editor Tony Schinella at tony-dot-schinella-at-patch-dot-com.

Mayor Jim Bouley is being challenged by Taylor Hall.

ALSO READ:

• Concord City Council, School Board, Charter Candidates Emerge
• More Incumbents File To Run For Concord City Council
• Navigating The Sordid Past Of Concord's School District Charter
• Jim's In: Concord's Mayor Files For Unprecedented 8th Term: Watch
• Concord Mayor, City Council, School Election Signups Begin Friday
• Concord School Board, Charter Seat Signups Begin Sept. 3
• Nancy Kane, Concord School Charter Commission Candidate
• Stacey Brown, Ward 5 Concord City Council Candidate
• Brent Todd, Ward 1 Concord City Council Candidate
• Fred Keach, At-Large Concord City Council Candidate
• Erle Pierce, Ward 2 Concord City Council Candidate
• Mark Coen, Ward 5 Concord City Council Candidate

New School Candidate Files

As expected, Barbara Higgins, who was first elected to a district seat, lost re-election, but then ran at-large and won again, filed to run on Monday.

Higgins waited until the last minute to file, saying while she has a newborn, and the job is hard, it did not feel right to quit just because being a board member was difficult — especially after the last year.

“My main reason for running is I feel that certain things are not yet complete,” she said. “Also, it is refreshing to work with such a terrific superintendent who is open and clearly working as hard as anyone to make things better for our students.”

Higgins said the board was still “very young … in terms of experience … as well as age.” While she did “feel in my gut” that “change is good,” especially new people joining the board, she still thought she could be effective.

“One more term seemed right,” Higgins said.

Higgins will face off against Pamela Walsh, who is running for her first full term, as well as J. Robert Cotton and Timothy Benitez are running for three at-large board of education seats.

One incumbent school board member, however, decided not to run again.

Danielle Smith, who unsuccessfully ran for a district seat before running again and winning citywide, decided not to run for re-election. She noted that she changed her mind “at least 15 times” during the past month.

“I’m eager to work with our current board over the next four months, but I’m also looking forward to things slowing down a bit and to be able to spend more time with my family,” she said.

Kretovic Withdraws From Commission Race

Kretovic, who signed up to run for the Concord School District Charter Commission, has withdrawn from the race.

It is unknown, at post time, why she dropped out. However, former Ward 2 City Councilor Allan Herschlag, in a blog post on Patch, raised the issue of whether or not it was against the city's charter for a councilor to serve on the commission, since "...Neither the Mayor nor Councilors while serving as such, shall be eligible to hold any other municipal office except that Councilors may serve as Mayor Pro Tem."

After Monday's city council meeting, Kretovic said she did not see a conflict, adding that it was an "unpaid commitment" to serve on the commission and it had no connection to her role as a councilor. She reiterated that was motivated by her work on rape crisis issues and the Primo "Howie" Leung teacher-student rape case. But after seeing the other candidates who had filed, including Croteau, a former educator, and Lesser, a professor with children in the school system, Kretovic decided to withdraw.

“The school district appeared to coddle a pedophile,” she said. “And we deserve to know the true reason why. I felt their public process was alienating our community. And the charter talks very specifically about the public process and non-public process.”

Kretovic though did raise concerns there were a lot of former school board members and experiences on the commission at a time when there needed to be new voices at the table. She added she would attend the meetings and still participate, in the hope that the commission would hold the school district accountable for the Leung mess.

Four Charter Commission Candidates File On Last Day

On the last day of filing, four more candidates filed to run for the SAU 8 school district charter commission.

One candidate, Elizabeth “Betty” Hoadley, previously served on the 2011 charter commission and signed up to run at large.

She joins William Ardinger, Clint Cogswell, Roy Schweiker, and Robert Washburn competing for three seats.

Two more candidates also signed up to run for the District A (Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4) seat: Patrice Myers, who barely missed being elected to the school board in 2019 and state representative in 2020, and Benton “Chick” Smith. They join Croteau, Matthew Fisk, and Lesser running for two seats.

No new candidates signed up to run for the District B (Ward 5, 6, and 7) seat so Bill Glahn and Nancy Kane will be elected in November.

A second candidate, Cathryn Vaughn, signed up to run for the District C (Wards 8, 9, and 10) seat. She and Eric Weiner will also be elected by default.

Croteau is the only candidate running for the three-year school district treasurer position while Patrick Taylor, also a former school board member, is the only candidate running for the three-year clerk position.

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