According to Joyce Craig, Kelly Ayotte is lying when she says she won’t sign a statewide abortion ban if elected governor.
And according to Kelly Ayotte, Joyce Craig is lying when she says doesn’t support an income tax in New Hampshire.
That’s how the two candidates kicked off the second gubernatorial debate Tuesday morning, hosted by the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council. Moderator George Epstein offered both candidates an opportunity to refute each others’ accusations.
“Well, actually, [Craig’s] attacks have been misleading and false in many instances,” Ayotte said regarding Craig’s ads claiming the Republican would support more restrictive abortion laws. “I believe that New Hampshire’s current law is a consensus, and I support our current law on abortion.
“As governor, if there is a more restrictive abortion law sent to my desk, I will veto it. I’ve been very clear on this from day one in this race.”
Craig pushed back on Ayotte’s claims regarding her stance on taxes.
“Kelly Ayotte is saying anything she can to get it elected, and her statements are completely misleading. I do not support a sales or an income tax and would veto that if it came across my desk,” Craig said.
However, in the same answer, Craig attacked Ayotte for opposing the Democrat’s plan to bring back the income tax on interest and dividends income that expires at the end of the year.
“Kelly Ayotte is interested in giving tax breaks to the most wealthy in our state,” Craig said.
Gov. Chris Sununu and GOP legislators passed a law phasing out the state’s last remaining individual income tax, the tax on income from interest and dividends, beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
While Ayotte repeated her pledge not to change New Hampshire’s abortion law, Craig reiterated her support for the income tax on interest and dividends. She repeatedly attacked Ayotte for opposing a return of the income tax, calling it a “huge tax break to millionaires” and claiming that by opposing the tax Ayotte would be “basically downshifting costs for education to local communities that will increase our property taxes.”
Ayotte was happy to tie Craig’s interest and dividend income tax to the former Manchester mayor’s overall record on taxes.
“When you’re proposing an increase in your budget every year as mayor, that doesn’t work at the state level, in terms of balancing our budget and being responsible with taxpayer dollars. She has also signed up for a $160 million tax increase on people here in New Hampshire that will hit retirees, those [people] saving for retirement, and small businesses.”
Epstein, who had asked Craig and Ayotte to consider canceling their dueling attack ads prior to soliciting both candidates’ opening rebuttals, appeared concerned by the tone of the debate that he began.
“For those of you watching, these are extremely nice people,” he told viewers. “They’re very pleasant, they probably even like each other a little bit, but we do have them kind of fired up.”
Neither candidate agreed to pull down their ads.
One fact about the current state of the race became clear: Craig is not happy with Ayotte’s attempts to link her to Massachusetts.
On energy policy, for example, Ayotte said the key difference between the candidates is Craig’s embrace of the Massachusetts model while she follows the New Hampshire way.
“I look to the New Hampshire model of no mandates,” Ayotte said. “Our energy costs are too high, so we cannot look to the model that Joyce Craig would offer of Massachusetts and other states in our area that have put forward mandates that drive up energy costs, because we have to be thinking about ratepayers.”
“I am not looking to Massachusetts or any other state,” Craig responded. “Kelly, again, is saying things to get elected, but she is completely lying.”
Ayotte fired back. “By the way, she says, ‘Why do you [say] we look to Massachusetts?’ Because she spends so much of her time campaigning with the governor of Massachusetts.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) endorsed Craig in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and the two have campaigned together several times, including a recent fundraising trip to Berkeley, Calif.
The two also clashed over Education Freedom Accounts, with Craig stating her opposition to any school choice programs.
“My opponent wants to make the voucher scheme universal, which would basically decimate public education and again, downshift all of the costs to our local communities and increase our property taxes,” Craig said of Ayotte’s support for EFAs.
Ayotte returned serve by pointing out the poor performance of Manchester public schools under Craig’s leadership.
“If you look at those schools, they are behind the state standards substantially, in math, in English, in science, and they’re ranked, unfortunately, some of the worst schools in the state,” Ayotte said. “So that we cannot have that type of standards at the state level, we need to elevate education as a whole.”
Like the Massachusetts comments, Ayotte’s digs at conditions in Manchester under Craig’s watch got under the Democrat’s skin.
“I think it’s really sad that someone running for governor is actually attacking a community, attacking Manchester,” Craig said. “You know, as governor, we should be lifting up every community in our state and making sure that we are focused on how we can all do better.”
“I believe in Manchester. I think Manchester is a very important city, it’s our number one city,” Ayotte replied. “Unfortunately, Joyce Craig failed Manchester.”
Based on the most recent Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, the race remains close, with Ayotte holding a slim 47-44 lead overall. It’s unlikely the North Conway debate, which was only available outside the region via streaming video, caused a major shift in the race.
The two candidates have three more debates scheduled: NHPR on Oct. 22, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 24, and the WMUR debate on October 30.
