While Joyce Craig was on a fundraising jaunt to northern California this weekend with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, another Bay State progressive — U.S. Sen. Ed Markey — was stumping for Craig in the Granite State.
It’s just the sort of juxtaposition Kelly Ayotte’s “Don’t MASS Up New Hampshire” campaign likes to see.
News of Craig’s planned fundraising trip with Healey was first reported by NHJournal on Sept. 20, exactly one week before both were scheduled to appear as featured guests at a breakfast fundraiser in Berkeley and at a high-dollar luncheon in San Francisco.
“Healey, Markey and Berkeley all in the same weekend? Joyce Craig hit the far-Left trifecta,” quipped NHGOP chair Chris Ager.
The Ayotte campaign has been mocking Craig’s West Coast trip for more than a week. They sent a rolling billboard through downtown Manchester with a photo of Craig and Healey superimposed over San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge and the all-caps taunt, “BON VOYAGE, CALIFORNIA CRAIG!”
Ayotte also took the opportunity to spend part of her weekend touring LaBelle Winery in Amherst, a not-so-subtle reference to Craig’s weekend in northern California.
“Today, Joyce Craig is sipping Napa Valley wines and collecting campaign cash with the governor of Massachusetts,” Ayotte’s campaign chortled in a social media post.
One of the California fundraisers was hosted by East Bay resident Betsy Cotton, a longtime California activist who’s donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats over the years, including to Sens. Maggie Hassan, Elizabeth Warren, and former California Sen. Kamala Harris.
The latter was in San Francisco on Saturday as well, attending a fundraiser of her own.
The Craig campaign would not respond to requests for additional information about her California travels, including whether she and Healey attended the Harris event.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts U.S. Senator and lead author of the Green New Deal Ed Markey was “hitting the doors for @KamalaHarris and @JoyceCraigNH” this weekend, according to a social media post.
Having repeatedly made the case that Craig would bring Massachusetts values to New Hampshire, Ayotte was more than happy to add California to the mix as well.
“Just massive amounts of taxes, higher crime, you know they’ve had a real homeless issue in California — it’s very different than New Hampshire,” Ayotte said. “That’s not the model that we want here.
Craig’s campaign manager, Craig Brown, responded in a statement that Ayotte “will say anything to change the subject from her abysmal record of attacking reproductive freedom and making millions of dollars working for companies that exploit American workers and drive up housing costs.”
Those two lines of attack have been central to Craig’s campaign against Ayotte.
The Republican Governors Association also piled on, calling California “the nation’s largest sanctuary state” and citing a recent spate of arrests in Massachusetts involving illegal immigrants charged with committing sex crimes against minors.
“It only takes a quick look at what Manchester was like under Joyce Craig’s leadership to know that’s where New Hampshire is headed if Craig becomes governor,” an RGA spokesman told NHJournal.
The political controversy over the Craig-Healey outing doesn’t end at the New Hampshire state line.
Healey has a track record of keeping her private travel plans as governor secret from the press. In November 2023, Healey announced she would no longer be disclosing her out-of-state travel plans, citing “security concerns.” She relented — partially — in March, after first stonewalling press inquiries asking where she was for four straight days the previous month.
Healey finally revealed that she spent those four out-of-state days in February vacationing in Puerto Rico with her partner, Joanna Lydgate, who once served under Healey during the latter’s stint as Massachusetts attorney general. Healey later agreed to disclose her travel history, but only at the end of each month and only by request.
“The governor’s focus is on balancing the need to protect the privacy and security of her family while also providing information to the public,” Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said at the time.
Friday, while Healey was in California, her office announced she was moving forward with plans to seize a Boston hospital by way of eminent domain from a bankrupt hospital property chain. Massachusetts news outlets quoted a series of prepared comments by Healey extensively, all without disclosing the fact the plan advanced while the governor traveled out of state.
Hand has not yet responded to NHJournal’s request for Healey’s September travel schedule.
