Fundraising leads to questions in N.H. District 10 Senate race

Jessica Arriens
Sentinel Staff

Campaign fundraising is at the center of a question raised by a state Senate candidate this morning.

On WKBK radio this morning, Republican candidate Thomas R. Eaton of Keene charged his Democratic rival, incumbent Molly M. Kelly, also of Keene, of taking more than the $1,000 limit for campaign contributions.

“Am I saying she did something illegal? No,” Eaton told The Sentinel. “I’m saying it’s something we need to look into.”

Eaton said his statement this morning was made in regard to the discussion about whether to build a new Keene Middle School or renovate the current building downtown.

Eaton said Kelly won’t make a clear statement on whether she supports moving the middle school out of downtown Keene because she has accepted more than $1,000 from a “person that pushed keeping (the school) downtown.”

But Kelly said, “I have been very clear about my stand” on the middle school.

Kelly said she is planning to review an architectural study, which compares the costs of moving the middle school or renovating the current building.

Ballot misspelling no cause for worry

Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff

About 70 local voters received absentee ballots with a candidate’s name misspelled, according to election officials in Marlborough and Troy, but they say the mix-up won’t affect election results.

All voters who received ballots with the mistake, which misspelled the name of  Thomas R.  Eaton, a Republican candidate for N.H. Senate District 10, have been mailed corrected versions.

District 10 includes Chesterfield, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale, Keene, Richmond, Surry, Swanzey, and Winchester, in addition to Marlborough and Troy.

“As part of the process, we go through a number of proofreading sessions, but there’s close to a thousand candidate names,”  said Deputy Secretary of State David M. Scanlan. “We don’t catch everything that‘s out there, and we count on the town clerks to read and check the ballots when they arrive, but even they don’t always catch mistakes.”

On the misprinted ballots,  Eaton is listed as “Thomas R. Eatony.”

In Troy, Deputy Town Clerk Ralph Heald noticed the misprint, after sending out just five of the ballots, said Town Clerk Marcy R. Johnson, but the mistake slipped by the folks in Marlborough, where a voter pointed out the mistake.

Greenville rep has eyes on Senate

Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff

Stephen P. Spratt says he wants the N.H. state government to take a look at the long range.

Spratt, a Democratic state representative from Greenville, is running for the state Senate seat from District 11, hoping to make more of an impact.

District 11 includes Jaffrey, Peterborough, Rindge and other towns.

“I’m running for the same reasons I ran in 2006,” when he won his current seat in the Legislature, Spratt said in a recent interview with The Sentinel.

“We need to change the way we’re doing things. We need to get back to common sense.”

Common sense would be thinking now about how the national economic crisis will affect state revenues down the line, he said. It also tells him the only way to fix the state budget — which analysts anticipate will be $300 million short this year — is to make cuts.

Sanborn: Inefficiency costing taxpayers

Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff

When asked what his top three priorities would be if elected to represent District 7 in the N.H. Senate, Andy Sanborn only had two answers:

“Budget, budget, budget, and taxes, taxes, taxes,” he said at a meeting with Sentinel editors Thursday.

Though New Hampshire is in a budget crisis, with a multimillion-dollar projected deficit, “it’s not too late to turn our state around,” Sanborn, who is running for his first elected office, said.

Sanborn is running against Democratic incumbent Harold W. Janeway in District 7, which covers Antrim, Bennington, Hancock, Harrisville and Nelson, among other towns.

To fix the budget, Sanborn said the state government needs to look first at making existing departments more efficient, not cutting jobs or programs.

Senate hopefuls debate

Kelly, Eaton differ on budget issues

Phillip Bantz
Sentinel Staff

State Sen. Molly M. Kelly and former state senator Thomas R. Eaton faced off Sunday evening during a live debate on Cheshire TV, discussing New Hampshire’s budget problems, bailouts, underage drinking, gambling, education and the death penalty.

Kelly, D-Keene, and Eaton, R-Keene, are running for the N.H. Senate District 10 seat, which covers Chesterfield, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale, Keene, Marlborough, Richmond, Surry, Swanzey, Troy and Winchester.

The debate made clear a major difference in the candidates’ views on the state budget deficit and how it can be fixed.

While Kelly, 59, said she believes the state needs to find new ways to generate more revenue, Eaton, 58, stressed the importance of curtailing government spending. He accused Kelly and other lawmakers of being spend-happy.