Hanover
“Economically, things in this state are booming,” Sununu told the crowd of area businesspeople gathered in the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College.
The first-term Republican said he has helped to cut down on regulations and spread the word about New Hampshire’s business advantages during his first 10 months in office, all while avoiding the kind of partisan divisions that have gripped Washington.
Sununu, a supporter of President Donald Trump, called the uproar in the nation’s capital over the president’s attempts to enact his agenda “that political nonsense.”
Sununu said he wanted a “seat at the table” in Washington to work for his state’s interests, but was not afraid to make deals with Democrats or confront Trump when necessary.
“Don’t let the nasty national politics drag you down,” he said. “Do I support Donald Trump? Sure, I do.”
But when the two men disagree, Sununu said, “I call him out on it.”
The governor’s attitude toward the president was evidenced by his rebuke of Trump, who in August called New Hampshire a “drug-infested den.”
Sununu painted a far more upbeat picture of his state on Friday, noting that it had the highest median household income and the lowest poverty rate in the nation.
A recent poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center indicates that Sununu’s lighter, more positive touch may have done better with in-state voters than Trump’s confrontational approach.
Despite nearly winning New Hampshire in the 2016 general election, Trump had fallen to a 33 percent job approval rating in last week’s poll; Sununu, on the other hand, stood at 61 percent approval, including 50 percent from Democrats.
“His enthusiasm is contagious,” Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman Curt Jacques said while introducing Sununu on Friday.
Sununu opened with a quip about his intercession, in May, on behalf of a mother bear and her cubs who were slated for euthanasia after entering a Hanover home in search of food.
He said that while he had been thinking about which topics to cover in his remarks to the chambers, one lunchmate identified a subject to avoid.
“I heard, ‘Don’t talk about the bears.’ I don’t know why not,” Sununu said with a grin, sparking laughter from the crowd. “I saved the bears.”
Sununu had the bear family relocated to northern New Hampshire in response to public outcry over plans to kill them, but later experienced backlash for not heeding state biologists’ warnings that the animals would prove a nuisance anywhere.
Among Sununu’s efforts to promote the “Live Free or Die” spirit and the associated economic benefits were his March business trip to Quebec and his highly publicized recent bid for an Amazon headquarters in New Hampshire.
Amazon, the internet retail sales giant, has sparked a bidding war among states and municipalities around the nation to host the company’s second headquarters and potentially thousands of its employees.
For many observers, New Hampshire initially didn’t even make the long list.
But Sununu this week secured widespread attention for the state’s business-friendly ethos by submitting a proposal that offered the benefits of proximity to Boston, but “without the traffic, without the taxes, without the bureaucracy.”
All the same, New Hampshire’s governor wasn’t content to bear all the responsibility for getting the word out.
His constituents, particularly the business leaders, should spread the message, he said.
“Tell all your friends about it,” Sununu said.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.