POLITICS

Sullivan touts support in bid to succeed Shea-Porter

Newcomer to NH raises $430K in first p weeks of campaign for 1st Congressional District

Paul Steinhauser news@seacoastonline.com
Maura Sullivan, a retired U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran who served at the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon under President Barack Obama, seen at Caffe Kilim in Portsmouth, is running for the Democratic nomination in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. [Paul Steinhauser photo]

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles by Seacoastonline interviewing the large field of candidates running in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. The first article, on Lincoln Soldati, can be found at http://bit.ly/2mu19Bj.

PORTSMOUTH — Maura Sullivan says she’s really proud of the “significant” financial support she’s getting as she runs for Congress.

The U.S. Marine veteran who was deployed in the war in Iraq and who served at the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon under President Barack Obama raised an eye-popping $430,000 during the first nine weeks of her campaign for the Democratic nomination in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District.

“We are really proud to have such significant support and grassroots throughout New Hampshire,” Sullivan told Seacoastonline.

The impressive numbers are in the range of the campaign contributions that Democratic Congresswoman Annie Kuster in the state’s Second District usually rakes in per quarter. Kuster’s known as a perennially strong fundraiser.

In announcing the figures last Thursday, Sullivan’s campaign officials noted more than half the contributions were $250 or less. They also indicated 80 percent of the contributions came from out of state.

Sullivan said she was “really proud to have the support of friends of mine from when I served in the Marines and throughout my career in public service. Those friends live throughout the country and are concerned about what they see and are very supportive and encouraging of new leadership that is going to change the way our politics work.”

Sullivan is one of the nine declared candidates – seven Democrats and two Republicans – running to succeed retiring four-term Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter in the 1st District, which is considered one of the most high-profile swing congressional districts in the country.

The district, which stretches from Manchester east to the Seacoast and north through the Lakes Region to White Mountains, has flip-flopped the past four elections between Shea-Porter and former GOP Congressman Frank Guinta. And the purple district in a purple state is also one of only 12 across the country controlled by Democrats that Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.

Sullivan sat down for the interview with Seacoastonline at Caffe Kilim on Islington Street in Portsmouth.

“The Dancing Goats blend is my favorite coffee in Portsmouth. I love it here. It’s one of my favorite spots,” she shared.

Sullivan and her fiancé moved to Portsmouth last summer.

“I chose New England as my home when I left the Marines a little over 11 years ago. I was a student in Massachusetts (Sullivan earned master’s degrees in business administration and administration from Harvard University) and came up here a number of times in 2006 to knock on doors for Carol Shea-Porter,” Sullivan said. “I came here in 2008 to campaign for President Obama when he was running. And spent time here when I was in business.”

She added, “When my fiancé Mark and I were figuring out where we wanted to raise a family in New England, we’d spent time in Portsmouth and loved it. It’s where we want to raise our kids.”

Asked if she’s worried that she’ll face the “carpetbagger” criticism former Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts faced after he moved to New Hampshire just before challenging Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2014, Sullivan quickly answered “no, not at all.”

“I’ve been serving my county most of my adult life as you know, in the Marines, more than six years in the Obama administration. And first chance I got to put down some roots, this is where my fiancé and I chose,” she said.

Pointing to her deployment to Iraq as a Marine, Sullivan said “it was really my service in Iraq that crystallized my deep commitment to public service, my conviction to serve our country.”

But she added that when she moved to New Hampshire last summer, running for Congress “was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“My fiancé and I bought a home. I got a new job. I thought the biggest decision I’d be making is picking out paint colors at the Sherwin-Williams store,” Sullivan said, repeating a line she uses as she speaks to voters on the campaign trail.

Sullivan said she “was shocked by the news” from Shea-Porter three months ago that she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2018.

“I didn’t hesitate. The reason I didn’t hesitate is because of what’s going on in the country right now,” she said of her decision to run for Congress. “I’ve never seen a more critical moment in our country, a bigger threat to our democracy and to our nation than the moment we sit in right now. I think the fundamental principles of this country are at stake. And I simply couldn’t sit on the sidelines so I didn’t hesitate.”

Asked about Trump, Sullivan said “I think the president’s behavior is erratic, bizarre. I’m deeply concerned about it. I’m deeply concerned about the example that some of his rhetoric sets for our children. I’m incredibly concerned about it when it comes to matters of national security. I think he’s putting the national security of this country at risk.”

Sullivan is one of seven Democrats running for the seat. The others are Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester, state Rep. Mark Mackenzie of Manchester, a former fireman who served more than two decades as head of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO, retired Portsmouth trial lawyer Lincoln Soldati, a former Somersworth mayor who also spent 17 years as Strafford County attorney, state Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye, an environmental scientist, Army and Iraq War veteran and current Rochester city attorney Terence O’Rourke, and technology executive and community activist Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth.

The two declared Republicans in the race are businessman and conservative state. Sen. Andy Sanborn of Bedford and Eddie Edwards of Dover, a Navy veteran and former South Hampton police chief who also served as top law enforcement officer for the state’s liquor commission.

Asked what makes her stand out from the rest of a large field of candidates, Sullivan touted “my service in the Marines, my service in the Obama administration at two of the largest agencies in the federal government.”

She highlighted her team efforts while at the VA in the 2014 passage of the Veterans Choice Act. And she showcased her tenure as an adviser at the Pentagon, “where I advocated for family leave policies to include maternity leave, fertility preservation and child care center hours.”

“The issues that I have seen and dealt with and the leadership experiences that I have had. These issues are similar to the greatest challenges that New Hampshire families face today,” she added.

Sullivan said if elected, “I would fight vigorously to ensure that” New Hampshire finally gets a full-service VA facility.

She also listed health care, family leave, the state’s acute opioid epidemic and national security as her other top issues.

And she said her six years working in the Obama administration also makes her stand out. “I know how to get things done there (DC) and hit the ground running right away and get results for the people of this district,” she said.

She vowed to work in a bipartisan way if she wins the seat, “putting the country first. Putting people ahead of politics.”

Sullivan, 38, called for “new leadership on both sides of the aisle (in Congress), a new generation of leadership.”

But she sidestepped whether if elected to Congress, she’d support longtime Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi or back someone else. And she wouldn’t say if she supported eventual Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont during the divisive 2016 party primary battle.

“I was working in the Obama administration and restricted by the Hatch Act,” she said. “I didn’t leave the Obama administration until the general election at which time I proudly supported the Democratic nominee.”

Sullivan’s interview with Seacoastonline came after a busy week talking to voters. She and Pappas spoke to a group of Dover Democrats on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she joined all six of her Democratic rivals at a Belknap County Democrats “speed dating”-style forum in Meredith. And Thursday she held a house party in Portsmouth.

“Our priority is reaching to, talking to, and, most importantly for me, listening to as many people as possible throughout the district,” she said. “One of the most important leadership lessons I learned in the Marines was to listen.”

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