Senate District 11 candidates Sen. Gary Daniels and Rep. Shannon Chandley faced off in an issue-based debate at the Milford Town Hall on Friday.
Chandley is a three-term state representative for Hillsborough District 22. Daniels has served two terms in the senate, and is the incumbent for District 11. In addition to his senate terms, Daniels has also served a total of 18 years in the state House, from 1990-2000 and from 2006-2014.
District 11 serves the towns of Amherst, Merrimack, Milford and Wilton.
The economy was a touchstone topic for both candidates throughout the debate, playing into responses on several issues, including education and the opioid crisis, though the candidates often had opposing views on how to handle the issue.
Chandley said in order to attract and retain young people to the state, she supported infrastructure improvements including a railway and better broadband infrastructure, as well as implementing benefits such as Medicaid expansion and family medical leave.
Attracting young people was also a concern of Daniels, who spoke of a need to keep business taxes low to spur continued economic growth.
Daniels spoke in favor of SB 193, the “school voucher” or “school choice” bill, which would have allowed parents to use state tax dollars to educate their children at private, religious or home schools instead of public schools. Daniels said the rejection of the bill was putting “politics before people” and is damaging to children who do not thrive in a public school setting.
Chandley, however, said the bill would have put unneeded pressure on public schools, and considered it a downshifting of costs from the state onto municipalities.
On addressing the opioid crisis, Chandley said there needed to be a multi-pronged approach to treatment, and criticized the failure of a bill that would have designated 10 percent of the state’s rainy-day fund to contribute to funding the public health crisis.
“If this is not a rainy day, I don’t know what is,” she said.
Daniels pointed to the funds already spent by the state in fighting opioid abuse, upwards of $100 million, and said there needed to be a better understanding of where those funds have been spent and their impact before allocating more spending.
The candidates were asked about legislative solutions to school safety.
“Your question presupposes there needs to be a legislative solution. I don’t know that that’s necessary,” Daniels said.
Daniels said the state has already implemented $28 million in grants for school infrastructure updates for school safety, saying that the state has already taken, and stressed the need for common-sense measures such as re-enforcing drills, bolstering student support, addressing bullying, and communication between administration and the student body. But those weren’t measures that needed to be legislated, he said.
Chandley said it was problematic to take a stance of “there’s nothing we can do” and said that there needed to be better access to mental health services and “reasonable” gun –regulations, including the ban on bump stocks – an accessory that allows semi-automatic guns to mimic automatic firing. She also said she saw the state’s decision to repeal the need for a concealed carry permit as a mistake.