Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington dominated the WMUR Democratic gubernatorial primary debate Wednesday night, effectively making the case that nominating former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig means handing the Corner Office to Kelly Ayotte.
“Joyce Craig says she wants to run New Hampshire like she ran Manchester? Seriously? If so, Democrats will lose New Hampshire the way they lost Manchester,” Warmington said.
“And you don’t have to take my word for it. The voters of Manchester rejected Joyce Craig’s agenda. In the last election, they voted Republican while Democrats won all around the state.”
While Warmington was wailing away on Craig’s record, the former Manchester mayor continued to struggle in front of the cameras. Joyce Craig reacts to news cameras the way vampires react to sunshine.
It’s a problem she’s had since her first WMUR appearance of the gubernatorial campaign when she asked if she could start over during a live-to-tape interview.
Craig has been under fire from both parties over her dismal record as Manchester mayor, in particular her inability to address the homelessness problem that plagued the streets of downtown. Asked about the homeless camps on city streets, Craig lamely offered, “We did what we could.”
Craig repeatedly tried to shift the blame for Manchester’s homelessness crisis to the state, and she accused Warmington of voting against homelessness funding as an executive councilor.
Warmington was having none of it.
“Joyce Craig is absolutely incorrect. I have fought for every penny of money to address the homelessness crisis that has ever come before the council.” And, Warmington added, “I reached out to her as an executive councilor, because, quite honestly, her relationship with her own executive counselor and with the governor is so toxic that she was unable to get things done.”
And when the debate turned to the attack ads the two candidates are running regarding the opioid issue, the Democrats didn’t hold back.
“I am disgusted that Joyce Craig is attacking me for legal work I did 22 years ago, long before Purdue Pharma’s lies were known,” Warmington said. “I have spent decades helping families who are devastated by addiction. Joyce Craig is smearing me because she can’t defend her record in Manchester.”
Craig repeated her attacks.
“The facts are that Cindy Warmington was a Purdue Pharma lobbyist. She said that Oxycontin was a miracle drug. She was a business agent for a notorious pill mill in Somersworth that pushed pills into all of our communities, and then she took $69,000 from these bad actors for her campaigns.”
“It is very clear that Cindy Warmington cannot stand behind her record,” Craig added.
But Warmington wasn’t done. She pointed out that thanks to her husband’s law practice, “Joyce Craig personally profited off the defense of opioid traffic, opioid dealers that were putting opioids and cocaine and fentanyl on the streets of Manchester. She lives in a glass house, and she’s throwing stones now to cover up her own failed record.”
Craig tried to respond with outrage. “It is beyond the pale that Cindy Warmington is bringing family members into this election. We are on the ballot. Our family is not on the ballot.”
But mostly Craig mechanically repeated her “Perdue Pharma” line, in a forlorn hope that somehow it would bring the beatdown to a halt. It didn’t.
“Joyce Craig, as mayor, signed a form every single year, notarized and under oath, that she had a personal financial interest in the law firm that her husband is participating in,” Warmington said. “I don’t know what that financial interest is, but she had a personal financial interest profiting off the trafficking of drugs in her city. And when this was pointed out last week, I noticed that the law firm quickly took that page down off of their website in a parent attempt to hide what they’ve actually been doing.”
Asked who won the debate, every New Hampshire Republican who spoke to NHJournal quipped, “Kelly Ayotte.”
In fact, it was Ayotte’s second bad night in a row. After a less-than-stellar performance in her own debate on Tuesday, the Republican frontrunner may have watched Craig lose the nomination on Wednesday.
The good news is that Warmington hurt her own general-election prospects with some of her extreme, far-Left stances.
For starters, she not only backed a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” but she endorsed the possibility of a gun buyback program, too.
“We may implement a buyback program, that will be up to the legislature. We will be working through the details, but we will be working towards the ban of these assault weapons,” Warmington said. (Craig also touted buyback programs.)
She also opposed the policy of Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais banning camping on city streets and in downtown city parks, another unpopular stance that she shares with Craig.
And Warmington said she wanted to commute the sentence of cop killer Michael “Stix” Addison, on death row for the murder of New Hampshire Police Officer Michael Briggs, to life in prison. Craig said Addison belongs on death row.
For reasons unknown, obscure Democrat Jon Kiper was also allowed to participate on Wednesday. But other than saying men shouldn’t take a position on abortion policy, he was largely ignored. He did, however, finish strong.
“Cinde Warmington will lose to Kelly Ayotte because of her ties to Purdue Pharma. Joyce Craig will lose to Kelly Ayotte because of homelessness in Manchester. Frankly, those are the facts.”
Craig’s finish was absolutely perfect in its own way.
“I ask for your vote on Sept. 15,” Craig said.
Election Day is Sept. 10.
