Sentinel Opinion: Tom Sherman; It's time New Hampshire had a new direction and a fresh approach at the top

In what might be the most consequential race for Granite Staters this election year, we think it’s time for a change at the top and endorse state Sen. Tom Sherman for governor.

It’s been a long six years since Chris Sununu was first elected governor of New Hampshire. As he runs for his fourth term in the corner office, we’re mindful that elections are often a referendum on the incumbent. There’s a record to run on. Voters can more easily assess incumbents and decide if they’ve done a good job; if they’ve been truthful and forthright; if the direction in which they’ve taken the city/town/state/country is a good one.

After Sununu’s first term in office, we were concerned about all of the above. Sununu had done some things right but also moved the state in the wrong direction on employee rights, gun control, the environment and more. He’d too often said one thing while acting differently. And the state seemed to be moving in the wrong direction.

Two years later, we’d probably have said the same but for the unique circumstances of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 election came at a critical point in the pandemic, and we endorsed Sununu, who had to that point handled the crisis fairly well. Rather than make a change in the midst of an emergency, we felt he deserved to continue at that point.

In the past two years, we’ve seen Sununu cave to the more extreme members of his party on key issues, and what positive steps he’s taken for the state — providing a program to spur affordable housing, for example, have been paid for with the federal pandemic funds he’s spent much time criticizing.

Now, six years in, we again look at Sununu’s tenure and can’t help but feel the same way we did after his first two terms: New Hampshire could have done worse, but it surely could do better.

Under Sununu, the state government is headed in the wrong direction. Instead of taking steps to help battle the effects of climate change, it lags behind every Northeast state in adding renewables to its energy portfolio and has blundered badly on energy-efficiency efforts, leaving residents to suffer from higher electricity rate increases than our neighbors. Instead of making our streets and schools safer from gun violence, it’s loosened restrictions and fought school districts’ efforts to protect students and staff. Instead of working to better education, it’s tirelessly attacked public education funding and demoralized teachers. And instead of cementing a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices, it’s put those choices in the hands of lawmakers and lawyers.

Not all of these missteps were Sununu’s doing, but he could have prevented every one.

Sununu has used his veto power at a record pace. In fact, he’s seemed to revel in it, at one point joking at a GOP event where he auctioned off a copy of his veto message on a bill passed by the Legislature that would have enacted paid family leave. “Three hundred dollars for the greatest veto of all time,” he said.

His veto pen single-handedly killed a whopping 57 bills in 2019, including the state budget bill; paid family leave; net metering; increasing the state’s solar energy portfolio; increasing energy-efficiency efforts; abolishing the death penalty (that one got overturned, barely); higher Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health and substance-abuse providers; cracking down on political donations by LLCs; prohibiting discrimination in employment based on criminal background checks; changing the definition of “domicile” and “residence” to make clear those who live here can vote here; increasing protections for wetlands; requiring background checks for commercial gun sales; implementing a gun-purchase waiting period; strengthening gun-free school zones; setting a state minimum wage; establishing an independent redistricting commission that could have limited the extreme gerrymandering we’ve now seen this year; and allowing all voters to cast absentee ballot.

All of those things — positives things for Granite Staters — were denied by Sununu. In a single year. He doubled down by vetoing several of them again the following year.

But he wouldn’t do the same to a litany of harmful GOP-authored legislation.

He’s repeatedly signed bills furthering school vouchers and diverting millions in public education funds to private schools. In 2021, he refused to wield his mighty veto pen against the so-called “divisive concepts” law that has effectively gagged public school teachers on topics conservatives don’t want broached, such as slavery, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and gender equality. Many New Hampshire teachers have left the profession — or the state — over it.

He wouldn’t put ink to paper to stop the state’s new abortion ban that has no exception for rape or incest, instead bragging on a conservative podcast, “I’ve done more on the pro-life issue than anyone.”

The question is often asked regarding incumbents, “Are you better off now than you were 2/4/6 years ago?” In the case of Sununu, we think the answer is no, New Hampshire is not better off.

Tom Sherman is a relative unknown in this part of the state. The longtime physician from Rye has spent eight years in the Legislature, the past four as senator.

During his time in Concord, Sherman has — as one might expect from a doctor — pushed heavily for legislation relating to health care. But those topics are among some of the most vital facing the Granite State. He fought for the expansion of Medicaid that’s made health care accessible to tens of thousands in the state and cosponsored the bill that added adult dental care to that program. He authored a bill to decrease the boarding of mental health patients in hospital emergency rooms, and to cap the cost of insulin and epinephrine. And he cosponsored a bill requiring warning labels on opioid prescriptions.

His policy proposals as governor include raising the minimum wage, making child care more affordable, reducing regulatory barriers for New Hampshire farmers, boosting the state’s manufacturers and reducing property taxes instead of business taxes on out-of-state corporations.

Of course, those are proposals, not guarantees. But when we spoke with Sherman, we came away impressed with his way of thinking and his quiet competence. Maybe it’s his medical background, but he approaches issues clinically, thinking things through in both the near and long term. He didn’t talk in sound bites or give simple answers.

It was refreshing. And New Hampshire could use a refreshing approach in the governor’s office right about now.