Connie
Connie has been a State Representative for Ward 2 in Concord and Penacook since 2018, serving on the Election Law Committee. There, she has advocated for bills to simplify the voting process, eliminate gerrymandering by creating a redistricting commission, and get dark money out of NH politics. This past session she co-sponsored 10 bills related to election laws, 1 to create a study committee about state loans to low-middle income residents for first time homes or student loans, and 1 to require live streaming of properly noticed local municipal meetings.
Connie has called Concord home for 38 years, raising her two sons, practicing law, and devoting time to her community in the schools, her church, and as a member on numerous nonprofit boards.
Since arriving in New Hampshire, Connie has been a stalwart advocate for affordable housing because she believes providing affordable housing to all encourages and supports the economic and community development of the Granite State. She has worked with the NH Community Loan Fund to assist manufactured housing owners form cooperatives to purchase the parks in which their homes are located. She has also donated hundreds of hours of legal services to numerous affordable housing projects in the Concord area. Connie was one of the founders of CATCH Neighborhood Housing, a local affordable housing nonprofit, and served on its Board of Directors for two terms. She served for five years on the Board of New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority which promotes, finances, and supports affordable housing for NH residents.
Connie knows that public schools are the bedrock of a vibrant democracy. While her sons were in the Concord school system, Connie volunteered to be room parent, ski chaperone, and dedicated “Crew” parent. She witnessed how shortages of supplies, books, art supplies, computers, and adequate recreational facilities affected the ability of teachers and administrators to teach our children. As a member of the board of Concord Trust for the Enhancement of Public Education, she participated in the awarding of grants to teachers who wanted to introduce innovation into their classrooms.
During her years as a legal aid attorney, Connie learned first-hand the importance of Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, and other assistance programs for low-income individuals. Many of her clients were forced into poverty due to a disability, mental health issues, domestic violence, or caring for another family member with those issues. She saw the heartbreak that substance abuse brings to families and helped them obtain assistance for the financial and medical challenges they faced. She has represented domestic violence victims and worked to expand services for those victims with crisis centers and other legal aid programs. Connie helped found Legal Advice & Referral Center, which was recognized nationally as a leader in expanding legal services to low-income individuals.
Until her recent retirement, Connie was a shareholder in Orr & Reno, a law firm in Concord. As a former small business owner, she recognizes the challenges facing businesses in New Hampshire, including the lack of qualified employees, and the rising costs associated with inflation, health insurance, transportation, and rent.
As a former board member and chair of Red River Theatres, Connie was in the midst of the rejuvenation of downtown Concord. Red River has been an integral participant in the revitalization of Concord and is an example of how critical arts are to economic growth. Under her leadership, Red River hired a new executive director and renovated its third theater. This year, Connie worked with other board members and the executive director to handle the threats to Red River posed by Covid 19.
As an active member of the Concord Unitarian Universalist church for many years, Connie served that community as a Sunday school teacher, covenant group leader, and coordinated the annual Thanksgiving basket program for families in need in the Concord community.
You can watch Connie’s video explaining her background and reasons for running for office by clicking here.
Why I'm Running for Office
I want to ensure that NH reflects the values that our country was founded upon: equal justice and opportunity for all. Every person should have a chance at the American dream, regardless of race, income, gender, faith, or sexual orientation. To be a successful State, we must provide quality public education, affordable housing and health care, jobs that provide a livable wage, and a voting process that ensures that every inhabitant of NH can easily exercise their most important right: the right to vote.
After my third term in office, I am even more dedicated to providing affordable health care to my constituents, who are still dealing with the long-term impacts of the pandemic and the opioid crisis, in addition to everyday healthcare needs. Over the years, I watched my clients’ lives drastically altered, sometimes forever, due to unexpected disabilities, mental illnesses, substance abuse, domestic abuse, or medical trauma. Most families in NH cannot afford an unexpected bill of any kind over $400. It is no wonder that a medical problem can drive a family into debt or poverty. We need expanded Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Section 8 housing, food stamps, and countless other programs to help the most vulnerable in our community. We cannot turn our backs on them.
When I think of my legal aid and pro bono clients, I wonder what my life would have been like if I had not been blessed with a great education and healthy children. I was lucky to have parents who emphasized the importance of education and made sure we lived in neighborhoods with the best public schools. We were all healthy. My Dad had a college degree thanks to the GI bill, and a good job with IBM that provided health insurance. We were white in the Deep South. I wasn’t aware of how privileged that made me until I was a young adult. Given all that has transpired over the past few years after the countless murders of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement officers, I understand even more how institutional racism adversely affected my classmates and friends of color. It has resolved me to help address and change the institutional racism that pervades our society. I am proud that over the past six years I have voted for bills that would have taken steps to do so, and will continue fighting for the rights of people of color in New Hampshire.
During my legal career, I had jobs that provided health insurance so that when my family had medical crises, they could get treated without sending my family into spiraling debt and my employer did not fire me when I had to take off time to care for my children when they were sick or when my husband was battling cancer. The same should be true for every family, which is why I support Paid Family Leave and universal healthcare. My son was able to go to Boston Children’s Hospital for his kidney issues that baffled doctors in Concord and Dartmouth. My husband was able to go to top doctors in Boston for his cancer treatments. Both are doing well today, but we were lucky. Not everyone is. Luck should not be a factor in providing health care. I will work hard to bring universal healthcare to all, regardless of employment or existing conditions. If Canada, Mexico, all the nations of Europe, and many others across the globe can figure out a way to pay for universal healthcare, I am confident that we can do the same thing here in the US.
My experiences and those of my friends, family, and clients have shown me how important it is to be vigilant and to fight for the basic civil rights of all those who live in NH. I have worked hard as a state representative to ensure that your vote counts, voting is an easy and secure process, NH has quality public education, affordable housing is available to all, and everyone has access to quality healthcare. I will continue to fight hard on your behalf on these and other issues if re-elected.