Party: Republican
Age: 55
Town of residence: North Haverhill
Profession/experience in elected office: Police chief for town of Bath since 2021. Twenty-eight years in law enforcement, including seven years as deputy with the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department. Grew up in Avis, Penn. Associate’s degree in police science from the Harrisburg Area Community College. Moved to New Hampshire in 1996.
Top issue: I will give the best value for the taxes that you pay. I don’t want to promise anything except that I will look to see how I can improve the services once I get in. I will make reasonable efforts to keep our community, our delegates and our commissioners all informed about current and new matters that might impact services from the Sheriff’s Department. And I’ll listen to the law enforcement concerns of our community and address them in the most pragmatic way.
I would like to see, personally, more law enforcement coverage, a more proactive approach — although I don’t want to say that the department isn’t already fulfilling that within its means right now. Whether that comes from the Sheriff’s Department or ‘regionalization,’ however, we can as a society figure out how to provide that.
Party: Democrat
Town of residence: Lisbon
Age: 30
Profession/experience in elected office: Special investigator, Littleton Police Department; former sergeant, Grafton County Sheriff’s Department; small business owner.
Top issue: As sheriff, my priorities will include upholding the policies of the Department. I will lead with integrity and fairness … I will repair partnerships with local, state and federal agencies. I will ensure that the fugitive warrant list is worked on daily, so that offenders are held accountable for their actions. I will make the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department an honorable and desirable agency.
Party: Democrat
Age: 64
Town of residence: Orford
Profession/experience in elected office: First elected register of deeds in 2011. Before entering public office, Monahan worked in the floral de si gn business serving both wedding and corporate clients.
Top issues: My priority is to keep the office functioning at top efficiency. We broke a record in July of processing over $2 million in shared revenue, followed the next two months by $1.5 million each. Our five-year contract with our land records management vendor is up for renewal in 2025, and I look forward to negotiating another exceptional contract. I have spent the last four years planning and completing three major restoration projects while totally redesigning our vault for better protection and access. I am committed to increasing security for our offices and to providing safe access to the records by our rural citizens and seniors who lack internet or the computer skills to access their records online.
Party: Republican
Age: 67
Town of residence: Campton
Profession/experience in elected office: Recently finished three-year terms on Campton School Board. General contractor of mostly residential homes in New Jersey for 30 years and excavator for septic business for 11 years; managed ski areas for about five years in New Jersey. Moved to New Hampshire 11 years ago.
Top issue: My goal is to get in there and make the customer service better, give it a better outlook and help it to run smoothly. I plan on doing a lot of listening when I get there. There are three really good employees there who do really good work but they are being reined back from doing their job. I want to learn from them the best way to do it, not from a book. Right now they’re heading towards doing it all online. But there’s a lot of older people out there who don’t even have a computer, let alone know how to use it. I would love to meet with people face to face over a desk rather than take three days to do something that takes two hours. Just that customer service, belly to belly, goes a lot farther to get the job done quicker and more efficient.
Party: Democrat
Age: 73
Town of residence: Hanover
Profession/experience in elected office: A Grafton County commissioner for 19 years (1998 to 2017) and executive councilor for two years (2019 and 2020). I was a senior vice president of Dartmouth Banking Company.
Top issue: The investment of county tax monies is the most important task of the treasurer and I will do my best that the county gets the maximum return. Also all reports are filed on a timely fashion. I hope my time as a county commissioner will help me in my new position.
Name: Brian Dear
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Lyman
Profession/experience in elected office: could not be reached for comment
Top issue: could not be reached for comment
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Sugar Hill
Profession/experience in elected office: De Mayo is a member of the New Hampshire State Republican Committee. He has served as chairman of the Northern Grafton County Republican Committee and treasurer of the Northern Grafton County Republican Committee.
Top issue: De Mayo did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Party: Democrat
Age: 67
Town of residence: Franconia
Profession/experience in elected office: Former executive director of the North Country Health Consortium. She served the past two years as a country commissioner for Grafton County District 2. She previously was a two-term state representative, representing Franconia and Bethlehem.
Top issue: “My primary issue or interest area is around the aging population in Grafton County. We’re one of the older counties in the state, and we do provide a nursing home, so making sure that the care we provide is high quality care to our residents is really important to me and that we do it with the efficiency that we can. The first term that I was county commissioner, and the first budget year, we were employing a lot of travel nurses, which is great that we have that available, but it’s not really the best care for the long-term care population. It also was costing us $4 million (…) and I worked really hard to make sure that we reduced the number of travel nurses, reduced the budget in that area, and instead paid our own local folks to stay and work at the county. …We did increase the rate of pay, we also implemented LNA training and we have (a) regular training program for local folks to come in and get certified as LNAs, or Licensed Nursing Assistants.
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Wentworth
Profession/experience in elected office: Ahern is in his fourth term as Grafton County Commissioner.
Ahern did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Party: Democrat
Age: 63
Town of residence: Plymouth
Profession/experience in elected office: A nurse for 42 years, a nurse practitioner for 20 and served on the Plymouth Elementary School Board for 12 years.
Top issue: “Probably my top issue is the nursing home really because we have an aging population and we need to figure out how to care for people in all sorts of different ways.”
“Some of the issues that are facing our county nursing home as well as others is staffing and they’re doing a really good job. They have now in-house (Licensed Nursing Assistant) training and they’re looking to do that for the (Licensed Practical Nurses). We’ll also have to try and work with the state and other funding mechanisms because oftentimes, usually, nursing homes are paid on a per day stay and the money that’s paid by Medicaid is not sufficient to cover the cost. So I think we need to look at those two things but staffing is going to be paramount.”
Party: Democrat
Age: 61
Town of residence: Claremont
Profession/experience in elected office: Retired in 2003 after serving 22 years in military intelligence with the U.S. Army and then worked in business development in the Washington D.C. Currently a consultant helping municipalities and nonprofits access grant funding. Formerly held positions of Claremont School Board member, Republican state representative, Claremont city councilor, Claremont mayor, Claremont Planning Board member. Currently chairwoman of the Claremont Housing Authority.
Top issue: I am running for treasurer as I enjoy public service and believe that my years of fiscal experience would serve Sullivan County well. Having served in numerous governmental positions and on boards of multiple nonprofits, I understand budgets and am prepared to fulfill the responsibilities of county treasurer. I also bring new ideas to an organization. For example, as a former member of the Sullivan County Delegation (of state representatives) and vice chair of the Delegation’s Executive Finance Committee, I initiated a capital reserve fund. This was adopted and proven beneficial to the taxpayer.
Party: Republican
Age: 64
Town of residence: Newport
Profession/experience in elected office: 40 years in banking. Has served 10 years as county treasurer. Formerly held positions of Trustee of Trust Funds in Newport, chairman Newport Budget Advisory Committee and vice chairman of the Newport Planning Board.
Top issue: Position of the treasurer is the caretaker of the county’s funds. Assuring that all funds are making significant interest to aid the county but more importantly, assuring that all funds in any bank or investment is adequately collateralized so as not to jeopardize any county funds. I have successfully held this position for the last ten years, and with my experience in banking I feel qualified to continue.
Party: Republican
Age: 71
Town of residence: Claremont
Profession/experience in elected office: Retired owner of automobile repair and sales business. Has served four years as commissioner from District 1. Former Cornish police chief and a former state representative.
Top issue: Finish the $75 million nursing home construction project which will serve the county for the next 50 to 75 years. Planned opening is May 2026 and my focus will be to get it done on time and within budget.
Continue the county’s workforce development program for nursing staff. The last two years the program has provided us with 13 full-time equivalents…
Finish the Sullivan County Community Power Plan to provide additional choice to purchase electricity for citizens in the county without a Community Power Plan in their community.
Explore a child care facility at the Unity complex. With changing demographics and younger employees, having an on-site child care facility will be critical.
Party: Democrat
Town of residence: Claremont
Age: 30
Profession/experience in elected office: Owner and operator of Claremont Spice & Dry Goods
Priorities: My top issues for the county are workforce housing and infrastructure adaptation. The county is a large employer in our region and filling the staffing mandates with traveling nurses is expensive.
Investing in both housing for the workforce of the county but also helping our municipalities develop more community-centric, dense housing is a solution that our residents and business need so people can live and work here.
With more extreme weather becoming the new norm, our bridges, culverts and roads need adaptations. We have seen the devastation in Vermont and how difficult and painful relying on federal aid to rebuild is.
The county can proactively seek federal funds to enable redesign of our infrastructure so that we can build a safer and more secure future for our residents.