Locked in a tight race with Cinde Warmington for the Democratic nomination for governor, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig hit the campaign trail over the weekend with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.
Craig appeared pleased to have the Bay State Democrat’s endorsement, and Healey was likely happy just to get out of Massachusetts and away from the bad political news that is plaguing her first term as Massachusetts governor.
Campaigning with Craig in Manchester, Nashua, and Hampton, Healey told WMUR, “As a governor, I know Joyce is the one. She’s got the experience, the leadership ability.”
On the same day Healey was in the Granite State talking up Craig, news was breaking down in Massachusetts of yet another alleged sexual assault by an illegal immigrant on her watch.
“In a Friday statement from the Boston, Massachusetts, field office, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of Jorge Luis Castro-Alvarado,” the agency reported.
“ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston branch said that the migrant ‘unlawfully entered the United States before making his way to Massachusetts and allegedly victimizing a resident here.’ The Guatemalan immigrant had entered the U.S. without being inspected, admitted, or paroled,” ICE said.
That is just one of a string of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal aliens in Massachusetts. In one mid-August week alone, the ICE Boston field office announced its agents had arrested an Ecuadorian national in Plymouth facing rape and kidnapping charges, a Brazilian man facing attempted murder charges in his home country, a Mexican man living in Lynn who had previously been deported following a rape conviction, and a Guatemalan man who illegally entered the country in 2016 and was later charged with first-degree child molestation sexual assault, among others.
Meanwhile, Healey’s Bay State budget is being battered by the $1 billion it’s costing local taxpayers to house those migrants, many of them in the country illegally. It’s so bad, that just over a year ago, Healey declared a state of emergency over the illegal immigrant crisis.
Given Craig’s struggles with the issue of sanctuary cities and immigration enforcement, why would she campaign with a progressive governor who brought this chaos to the New Hampshire state line?
That’s the question Republican Kelly Ayotte wants New Hampshire voters to ask.
“A picture is worth a thousand words — and Maura Healey campaigning with Joyce Craig is an exact preview of what Joyce would bring to the Corner Office,” Ayotte told NHJournal. “We’d get the Massachusetts model of higher taxes, more crime, and disastrous sanctuary policies in New Hampshire. I won’t let that happen. As governor, I’ll fight every day to make sure they don’t MASS up New Hampshire!”
The Republican Governors Association also weighed in.
“Joyce Craig was spotted campaigning with Maura Healey,” it said via social media. “New Hampshire can’t afford to become Massachusetts!”
And Ayotte’s opponent in the GOP gubernatorial primary, former state Senate President Chuck Morse told NHJournal through a spokesperson, “Maura Healey prefers a liberal ally on her northern border, rather than having to contend with a well-run conservative state under Chuck Morse’s leadership.
“Having a strong conservative like Chuck Morse in the Corner Office will expose the dismal failures she’s inflicted on Massachusetts communities and further show the lack of leadership by Democrats in our neighboring state,” added Morse’s campaign manager Maya Harvey.
Republicans criticizing a Democrat is nothing new. But several Granite State Democrats told NHJournal on background that, while they happen to like Healey and believe she’s a good governor, the visit is just plain bad politics.
“Not a winner for Joyce,” one veteran Democratic operative told NHJournal. “Healey hurts more than helps.”
Another Democratic insider told NHJournal a Healey visit may have been the best her campaign could do. “She probably needed a ‘get out of the vote’ surrogate, asked everyone, and [Healey was] the only one willing to do it.”
Both insiders told NHJournal they believe Craig is likely to prevail over Warmingon on Tuesday. But they added if she does, it would be thanks to the state party’s establishment, not to the quality of Craig’s campaign.
“Manchester is where the votes are,” one of the Democrats said.
