New Hampshire’s largest city seems to loom large in state politics these days. There’s the Manchester mayoral race pitting Democrat Kevin Kavanaugh against Republican Jay Ruiz, with voters heading to the polls next Tuesday. And there’s outgoing Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig’s bid to become the first Queen City mayor in a century to be elected governor. All of this puts the city’s challenges — real and perceived — front and center now, which is likely to continue through 2024.
One would expect a rare open seat race to see Manchester in a tough fight. And this year’s elections have clear contrasts. Cavanaugh, a longtime congressman and former Democratic senator with strong union ties, is stressing continuity if elected mayor next week.
“I have relationships that I’ve built and I’m going to use them,” Cavanaugh said at a recent candidate forum. “I have so many contacts on my phone. It’s not “Let me introduce myself.” It’s, “Let’s get together and fix this.” “
Ruiz — a former Republican congressional staffer serving in the National Guard — for his part, is calling for change.
“I will make sure that everything we do is fiscally responsible, that we always have accountability and that data drives our decision-making,” Ruiz said.
But while the candidates have ideological differences, they agree on the race’s biggest issues: homelessness, public safety and drug addiction.
Opponents also agree on the tone Manchester’s next leader should strike — and both have promised to play the same role if elected: “cheerleader” for the city.
Hearing a politician cheering in Manchester is not uncommon these days. In fact, smearing the town has become almost compulsive for top New Hampshire Republicans.
Former state Senate President Chuck Morse, who will be a Republican candidate for governor next year, recently vowed: “I will not let our state become the Manchester of New Hampshire, where homelessness, drugs and crime are everything. on the rise”.
Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is also running for governor, recently described the city as a “revolving door” for criminals. Those remarks took aim at a state bond law, but in the early days of her campaign, Ayotte often referred to Manchester as a smaller version of Massachusetts, often confusing the two as places rife with dysfunction and danger.
While spurred by Craig’s run for governor, the argument Republicans are making — that New Hampshire’s largest city is out of control in ways the rest of the state is not — is broader. They may be confronted with statistics showing that serious crime has fallen in recent years, across the state and in Manchester.
But politically, Manchester’s quality-of-life statistics may be insignificant, says Chris Galdieri, a political scientist at the College of St. Anslem.
“Segregating Manchester from the rest of New Hampshire is a deliberate rhetorical strategy,” Galdieri said.
He described this strategy by saying, “So all the things you find attractive in Manchester, that’s not the real New Hampshire. Real New Hampshire is all our little farm towns and smaller towns and tourist areas and that sort of thing. And then we have this one place called Manchester where we put all the bad stuff.”
The fact that New Hampshire’s two major news outlets — WMUR and the Union Leader — are based in Manchester means that the bad news in town doesn’t always stop there. And while there’s no doubt the city faces significant challenges with homelessness and drugs, some who live and work there feel their city is being unfairly maligned.
Martin Delgadillo, who has owned Consuelo’s Taqueria on Amherst Street for 17 years, says there are more homeless people, people in mental health crises and people using drugs on the streets of Manchester than in the past. But he believes the same could be said for any New Hampshire community.
Delgadillo says he sees racism in some of the rhetoric about Manchester. But he says he sees it mostly as Republicans looking for votes in a state where most people are white and live outside urban areas.
“I think politically they have to talk about it because they’re looking at the majority,” said Delgadillo, who was born in Mexico. “So they talk to them.”
The dynamics driving this debate — the challenges of drugs, homelessness and crime, as well as New Hampshire’s changing demographics — will test whoever becomes Manchester’s next mayor. Meanwhile, there isn’t much evidence that Republicans will drop their charged rhetoric involving Manchester — or as state GOP Chairman Chris Ager recently said on undocumented immigration: “We don’t want to turn the state into what we now call ‘Mandh-Ghanistan’. “
In fact, such rhetoric will likely only intensify if Craig exits the Democratic primary in next year’s race for governor.