CLAREMONT — The three incumbents representing Claremont and Croydon in Sullivan County House District 6 will face three challengers in the Nov. 3 election.
John Cloutier, D-Claremont, is seeking his 18th two-year term, and Claremont Republicans Dale Girard and Wayne Hemingway are each running for a second term in Concord. Also on the ballot are Claremont Democrats Chris Cogswell and Lisa Gosselin and Republican Emily Sandblade of Claremont.
Sandblade, 74, is a retired physicist. She ran unsuccessfully for the House two years ago. Sandblade was a lead petitioner on a warrant article last March asking voters to pass a cap on annual school budget increases. The article was easily defeated at the annual school meeting.
“The main thing I am into are the concepts of educational choice, the concept of government accountability and the idea that our institutions need to be run with a lot better management,” Sandblade said. “I absolutely believe parents have the right to choose how their kids are educated. Parents have an obligation to get the best education for their kids and they certainly have a desire to do that.”
Sandblade also said one of her “favorite things” on the ballot is the school tax cap question.
The measure, which will be decided by each municipality, would cap annual school tax increases and limit administrative costs to 6% of the overall appropriations.
“I am extremely fond of that,” Sandblade said. “I believe voters should have local control and this gives local control.”
Sandblade supports the private school voucher program, known as Education Freedom Accounts. She believes it will lead to more private schools opening now that parents will not have to pay the full tuition out of pocket.
“There will be more private school start-ups because you can educate kids at a fairly reasonable cost as long as you don’t go extremely heavy on administrative costs and are reasonable with the management,” she said.
The key to creating more housing in the state is lessening the permitting and regulatory burden on developers, Sandblade said. “All the permits, hearings, licensing just to build something is incredible. Those need to be streamlined. It would help things along,” she said.
Data centers are a “complicated” problem that isn’t solved by simply saying we should not build them, Sandblade said. But first the state needs to solve its energy availability problems before it starts building data centers, she said. “New Hampshire has a serious problem with production and allocation because of regulatory issues,” she said.
Lisa Gosselin, 68, is a retired clinical audiologist. This is her first run for statewide office, but she served on the Claremont School Board from 2000 to 2007.
If sent to Concord, Gosselin said she wants to bring back more collaboration and dialogue among members, which she said does not exist with a 40-seat Republican majority.
“I would like to see a Democratic majority but if not, at least more balance,” Gosselin said.
Her main focus would be addressing education funding disparities that are hitting school districts such as Claremont with high property taxes.
“The state has to start paying its fair share. New Hampshire is 50th in the nation in state aid to public education,” she said.
She opposes the school tax cap and believes the voucher program is an effort, led by the Free State initiative, to eventually eliminate that state’s responsibility for funding public education.
“I want to be a part of stopping that. We need education funding reform that takes care of educating our children adequately,” Gosselin said.
A decade of cutting taxes, including eliminating the interest and dividend tax and reducing the Business Profits and Business Enterprise taxes, has resulted in lost revenues of more than $2 billion, Gosselin said.
“[Republicans] reduced revenues and passed the cost on to the property tax,” she said. “It was reckless.”
Gosselin said she would like to investigate restoring the interest and dividends tax and gradually bring business taxes back up to previous levels. (The Business Enterprise Tax was at .75% in 2015 and now stands .55%. The filing threshold was increased from $298,000 to $400,000 in the last legislative session. The Business Profits Tax has been reduced from 8.5% to 7.5%.)
Gosselin said the state desperately needs more affordable housing so businesses will have a pool of workers to draw from to meet hiring needs. Senior housing is also needed, she stressed.
“I am willing to work on housing initiatives to solve those problems,” Gosselin said.
The power and water needed to run large-scale data centers concern Gosselin, because she said New Hampshire already has issues with those resources that need to be resolved.
“I think we need to slow down in general and have a better idea on how to regulate” data centers, she said.
Dale Girard, 59, is seeking his second term in the House. Elected as a Democrat in 2024, Girard, the mayor of Claremont and owner of Golden Cross Ambulance, switched his party affiliation to Republican earlier this year.
“One of the things we are dealing with is the school funding. It is a huge issue,” Girard said, though he has not committed to a new funding source. “I am not sure there is a good answer. There are a lot of ideas out there, but we have to figure out a way to minimize the effect on property taxes.”
Girard called the housing shortage a statewide problem but is reluctant to say there is a statewide solution.
“Some don’t want to take zoning away from local control,” he said, adding that statewide changes won’t work in every community. “Often people want a top-down approach, but I am not sure communities are ready for that.”
Girard said he voted against House Bill 1300, the school tax cap. But he is satisfied that the decision will be up to the voters in each community.
While he supports Education Freedom Accounts because they help families who do not wish to send their children to public school, he does not think the vouchers should be available across all income lines.
“I didn’t like the idea of taking the guardrails off last year” and making the program open to all families, regardless of income, Girard said.
A moratorium on data centers at this point is probably “a good thing,” Girard said. He said it will give communities time to study them and decide how to regulate them.
“I think we have to figure out what is there and make it safe for communities so they don’t cost taxpayers for upgrades” for water and electricity, he said.
If voters send him back to Concord, Girard promises to continue his independence and not always vote with his party.
“Voters will get somebody who listens on their behalf and will vote along the lines of what is best for Claremont and Croydon,” Girard said.
Wayne Hemingway, 63, first elected in 2024, is retired from the military and serves on the Claremont City Council.
Like other candidates, Hemingway said working on lowering property taxes and increasing state funding for education will be his priorities if re-elected.
“I want to look at how school funding is done and adjust that and get property taxes lowered,” Hemingway said.
Though he has not decided on additional revenue sources to fund more state aid, Hemingway believes affluent communities are getting more education aid than they should, and that should be examined.
Hemingway voted to send the school tax cap to the ballot but said he is neutral on the question. “It is up to the citizens,” he said. “I gave them the opportunity to vote on it.”
Hemingway also supports Education Freedom Accounts, as he sees them as a way to create competition among schools, which he views as a good way to help improve public schools.
Hemingway agrees that housing is a critical issue in the state with the high cost of homes and rents and an insufficient supply. But he is not an advocate of statewide initiatives that strip municipalities of local control.
“Some say we need a statewide solution, but each community has its own way to develop. I am still strong on local control, but there are some zoning rules that could be loosened,” he said.
Streamlining the process might help but not at the expense of zoning and planning board control, he said.
“No matter what the state does, local boards have to have the final say,” he said.
Hemingway wants a closer look and more study of large-scale data centers, and right now he would not support a data center in his district.
Summing up his campaign, Hemingway said his guiding principle in Concord would be working to lower taxes and make better use of the taxes collected.
John Cloutier, 68, is one of the longest-serving members of the House.
“The main thing is to solve education funding and provide an adequate education without relying so much on the property tax,” Cloutier said about his campaign’s focus.
Reducing electricity rates and providing more money for roads and bridges are two other priorities for Cloutier.
To pay for more state funding for education, Cloutier favors creating a capital gains tax rather than reinstating the interest and dividends tax, which he said could hit citizens who rely heavily on dividends for income.
“I think it is a good idea to impose a state capital gains tax to replace interest and dividends and make it more progressive and raise money by taxing wealthier people,” said Cloutier, who also supports bringing the Business Profits and Business Enterprise taxes back to previous levels.
Cloutier supports letting families choose what schools they want their children to attend, but he does not support taxpayers footing the bill through Education Freedom Accounts, especially for wealthier residents who send their children to private schools.
“At the very least, we need to make it more accountable and then work on phasing it out so the money can go back to public schools,” Cloutier said.
Cloutier also opposes the school tax cap, calling it a “gimmick” that will erode local control. He said districts where the tax cap is passed can be in trouble if special education costs increase or there is a sudden emergency that must be paid for.
“Republicans are pushing it because they refuse to sit down and come up with a solution to adequately fund education,” he said.
Housing, Cloutier said, is a “complicated” issue that needs a collaborative approach including the state, developers and the community that can lead to more affordable housing.
“State government needs to work with municipalities and the private sector,” he said. “The state can partner with Claremont or Croydon, depending on their needs.”
Cloutier said he is co-sponsoring a bill that would prevent non-disclosure agreements on data centers so there is full transparency on the builder and investor under any proposal. He is also concerned with the amount of water and electricity required.
“I think we need to slow down on data centers,” he said. “I don’t want to impose them on communities.”
Chris Cogswell, 36, is an engineering consultant making his first run for statewide office. He is currently serving his first term on the Claremont City Council.
“I am really running because I want to make the system more fair,” Cogswell said during an interview at Claremont’s Fall Festival in early October. “New Hampshire is run like a bad business. I want to get in there, find out what affects voters and try to fix things and improve their lives.”
Affordability is a main theme Cogswell said he wants to look at. “I want to find a way to make sure people are able to stay here that want to stay here,” he said.
Cogswell believes many voters are “being squeezed” and taken advantage of while the state gives tax breaks to businesses and puts the burden on the property tax.
The school tax cap is a bad idea, Cogswell said. He sees it as a cut in services for school districts because of inflation and other cost increases. He also opposes Education Freedom Accounts, which he said have not fulfilled their intent of helping lower-income families send their children to private schools. The only result of the accounts is higher taxes for most while the wealthy are taxed less, he said.
If a public school is not performing well, the solution is not to take money away for private schools, he said. Cogswell wants an income cap for the accounts and a deep look at the program to see if it is meeting its goals.
For new revenue to increase state education funding, Cogswell thinks large businesses that come to New Hampshire to take advantage of its tax structure should be paying more in taxes so less of their revenue leaves the state.
“We are so desperate to bring and keep businesses here we give away too much,” Cogswell said. “We don’t have to give away New Hampshire so companies will come here.”
The housing shortage won’t be solved simply by streamlining the regulatory and permitting process, because the costs to build are related to some degree to tariffs and the war in Iran, Cogswell believes. He would like to increase taxes on those who buy two homes or more as investments, not residences.
Data centers are noisy, run hot, waste energy and are not good for local communities, Cogswell said. But they choose New Hampshire because of lax environmental laws and a state that won’t hold them accountable for any environmental damage, he added.
“If they do come here, we must have good regulations and laws to protect people,” he said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
