Days after a petition popped up calling for her to drop out of the governor’s race, Democrat Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington went on offense, accusing her primary opponent of hiding from the voters.
“I think that voters need to hear from both candidates. And right now I seem to be the only candidate in this race that’s willing to speak to voters anytime, anywhere,” Warmington said on WGIR radio Thursday. She also repeated her desire to debate her opponent, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.
Warmington’s campaign followed up with a press release reiterating its message that “her primary opponent refused to join” her on the air.
“Warmington has been conducting regular interviews with media outlets across the state, from TV to radio to print and online, while her opponents rarely speak with outlets, denying voters the chance to hear how they would govern New Hampshire,” the campaign claimed.
However, Warmington has never held an open press event and she is participating in a “black list” of New Hampshire Journal, refusing to send the news outlet her press releases or respond to reporters’ inquiries.
Warmington was asked about an online petition drive led by recovering addicts and members of the addiction treatment community calling for her to drop out of the governor’s race over her previous work as a lobbyist for OxyContin.
“We’re coming together as community members who have been impacted by OxyContin to call on Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington to drop out of the race for governor,” the petition reads.
“In 2002, Councilor Warmington worked as a paid lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the company that supercharged the opioid crisis and flooded our communities with their poison. When lawmakers here in New Hampshire were looking to implement restrictions on the prescription of OxyContin, Councilor Warmington was paid to stop those restrictions and defend the drug. Warmington repeated one of Purdue’s worst lies, calling OxyContin a ‘miracle drug’ with ‘very few side effects.’ When she was confronted about the drug’s potential for misuse, she said, ‘to say OxyContin has been abused, it certainly has been—in the press.’”
Asked on WGIR if the claims about her actions as a Purdue Pharma lobbyist were accurate, Warmington conceded they were. “It was 22 years ago. For nine months, I was an associate in a law firm and I was assigned a project,” Warmington explained. “This is an issue put out by my political opponents to distract people.”
Warmington was more direct on the issue of increasing the amount of available housing in the Granite State.
“The affordable housing crisis has gone neglected for way too long. We are going to be 60,000 units behind. It is what’s underneath our homelessness problem. It is what’s underneath our workforce shortage and the fact that our young people can’t stay in the state and raise their own families here. So we need to tackle this issue once and for all,” Warmington said.
Her solution?
“There’s only one way out of this crisis and that is to build, build, build,” Warmington said.
While Warmington is a pro-government, pro-regulation progressive on most issues, when it comes to housing development, she takes a more free-market approach.
“When I talk to developers around the state and say, ‘Tell me why you’re not building in this state’ and they will tell me zoning requirements,” Warmington said.
“We absolutely need to change the narrative around housing,” Warmington added. “People need to realize that this is not a ‘Not In My Back Yard’ situation… We also need to change the narrative for communities so they understand that the communities that build housing first attract the tax base and the families that bring the businesses, that bring the jobs and bolster our economy in our communities.”
