If you’ve turned on your television over the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen the vicious attacks and outright lies being spewed by Kelly Ayotte and her allies directed at Joyce Craig and the city of Manchester. It is downright disqualifying for a candidate for Governor of our state to insult our largest city and the people who call it home and Kelly Ayotte and NH Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for their campaign of fear-mongering and division.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. Kelly Ayotte, like her “role model” Donald Trump, has been lying and spreading disinformation about her opponent in order to win an election. Just like Trump trashed New Hampshire as a “drug-infested den” (before Craig was elected in 2017) and the disgusting lies Trump is spreading about people eating pets in Springfield, OH, Ayotte is following his lead by slandering the Manchester community.
Granite Staters expect their Governor to be a cheerleader for the entire state and work together with local leaders to get things done, not punch down at the towns, cities, and people they are looking to represent.
Setting the Record Straight on the Queen City
Despite the fraudulent narrative being pushed by Ayotte and her allies about the Queen City, Manchester is, as NH Business Magazine describes, “a hub of innovation and technology.” Once-vacant mill buildings are now full of dynamic new industries, anchored by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), which aims to make Manchester the global leader in growing human tissue and organs and bring close to 10,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs to New Hampshire.
Manchester is regularly listed as one of the best places to live in the United States by US News and World Report and Livibility.com and was ranked by WalletHub as the 11th safest place to live in the US in 2021. The Queen City, home to the state’s only professional sports team (NH Fisher Cats), the Palace and Rex Theatres, the SNHU Arena, and the Currier Museum making it a hub for the arts, entertainment and culture. We could go on forever with the things that Manchester has to offer, but we’d recommend reading “Manchester’s Renewal”, published in Business NH Magazine during Joyce Craig’s first term as Mayor to learn more.
Craig: Tackling Manchester’s Challenges Head On
Just like every town and city in New Hampshire, Manchester has its challenges. Some are similar to its neighbors and some that are unique given its size and population density. But unlike Kelly Ayotte, Joyce Craig tackled these challenges head on rather than disparage others in order to win an election. And since Ayotte continues to spread lies about crime and homelessness, let’s take a look at how Joyce Craig took on these challenges.
Crime:
As Mayor, Joyce Craig worked hand-in-hand with the Manchester Police Department and prioritized public safety. She increased the number of Manchester Police officers by 33, making it the largest police force in the city’s history. She increased funding for training, implemented mandatory police-worn body cameras, increased community policing, and launched the city’s first gun violence reduction strategy.
And all these efforts paid off: according to the 2023 Manchester Police Annual Report, during Joyce Craig’s tenure as Mayor, the overall crime rate fell by almost 29% and the violent crime rate fell by more than 38%.
Homelessness:
We all know that there are many causes of homelessness and every person’s story is unique. But some of the most common causes are the lack of affordable housing and people dealing with substance misuse. And as Mayor, Joyce Craig took on both those challenges.
Craig’s coalition building efforts to reduce homelessness and addiction even caught the attention of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership program that they created a case study on her efforts. But more tangibly, as Mayor, Joyce Craig worked with developers to add more than 2,000 housing units in the city, including more than 500 affordable units, and broke ground on one of the largest affordable housing developments in state history. Craig also allocated more than $30 million to housing initiatives during her time in office.
There will always be work to do on both crime and homelessness, but Joyce Craig’s record on both demonstrates she knows what it takes to address the most challenging issues facing our state.
Perspective Matters: Manchester’s Had Much Tougher Times
During the heart of the Industrial Revolution, Manchester grew into one of the most important industrial and economic hubs in the entire country (if not the world), being home to the world’s largest cotton textile mill. And while the people of Manchester have had the grit and fortitude to reinvent itself a few times since the closure of the mills, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had its share of tougher times.
In the 1960s and 70s, things were so bad economically in Manchester that city officials seriously considered demolishing the entire Millyard, with one city official saying: “I remember standing in what is now Arms Park with a couple of other people and looking out over this huge cavernous parking lot without a job in site (sic).”
During the 1990s, after federal regulators closed eight NH banks, Manchester was devastated. “I remember in the early ‘90s being down on Elm Street one Saturday morning and watching a guy at one of the catch basins dumping his own feces out of a newspaper in front of City Hall,” recalled former Mayor Bob Baines. And a local property manager also said: “Have you been to Beirut? In the 1990s (Manchester) looked like that: bombed out.”
These examples are not to downplay the challenges that Manchester or our state faces today, but to emphasize the extent to which Ayotte and her allies are lying about the current state of Manchester when there are many in the city who have lived through much tougher times.
Context Is Key: Manchester Has Always Faced Unique Challenges
While Kelly Ayotte and NH Republicans may want Granite Staters to believe that all the challenges facing Manchester began with Joyce Craig, the fact is that for close to two centuries, Manchester has faced unique challenges as NH’s (and northern New England’s) largest city. Since around the time of Manchester’s incorporation as a city in 1846, Manchester has been the largest population center in the state, bringing with it different challenges than smaller and more rural areas of the Granite State.
As the largest population center in the state, Manchester is also the place where social services are more available than the rest of the state. For example, Manchester is home to just over 8% of the entire population of the state, but hosts almost 30% of all homeless shelter beds in the state. Because Manchester offers services not available in other parts of the state, it creates unique challenges and attracts more people in need of services. This has been the case long before Joyce Craig became Mayor and will continue long after.
But its also important to understand that Manchester (as well as the entire country) has been trying to address homelessness for a long time. Case in point: in 2008, then-Mayor Frank Guinta issued a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness due to the challenges the city faced. We know that Kelly Ayotte has no problem blaming Craig for things that happened before her time as Mayor, but to lob false attacks about the state of homelessness in the city without context is just another example of Ayotte’s gaslighting.
Ayotte to Continue Sununu’s Abysmal Record on Homelessness and Crime
Instead of putting forward her own plans, Ayotte has vowed to emulate the “Sununu path” if elected — a path that has resulted in skyrocketing statewide homelessness and offered little help to local officials who have asked for increased statewide assistance.
From 2016 to 2023, under Governor Sununu, statewide homelessness here in New Hampshire has increased by 85% (1,317 to 2,441 individuals). And in 2023 alone, under Sununu’s watch, statewide homelessness increased 52% to its highest point since 2008.
This exponential growth led to mayors of eight New Hampshire cities issuing a letter calling for more help than they have gotten from Sununu over the statewide homelessness, including:
Citing that “Governor Sununu declined a meeting with New Hampshire’s mayors to discuss the impacts of the end of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program”
Detailing a letter all 13 New Hampshire mayors sent to Sununu in 2020 requesting the state make it a priority to address homelessness, and sharing that “two years have passed since this letter was received, and there has been no improvement in collaboration with local communities”
Sununu responded to this letter not with help but by criticizing the “tone” of the 8 mayors
Between 2014-2016 (the two years before Governor Chris Sununu took office) New Hampshire had been experiencing an “encouraging decline” — a 19.45% decrease in homelessness statewide — a trend that began in 2012 under Democratic Governor John Lynch and continued under Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan.
Kelly Ayotte’s pattern of lying extends further than just falsely touting Sununu’s accomplishments. Just a few weeks ago, Ayotte was forced to pull a callous campaign ad that falsely linked Joyce Craig to the unsolved murder of Denise Roberts in Manchester in 2015 — an incident that occurred two years before Craig became mayor. In fact, the murder happened under the watch of Ayotte-supporter and Republican former Mayor Ted Gatsas.
Ayotte's campaign faced intense backlash from the victim’s family, with her brother Tom Robert saying, "Kelly Ayotte is lying by implying that my sister's murder happened in 2021...I'm calling on Kelly Ayotte to take this ad down and to never use my sister's memory to attack someone again."
While Ayotte falsely claims Joyce Craig has overseen an uptick in crime, it is Governor Sununu who has presided over a 47% increase in murders statewide since taking office in 2016.
Kelly Ayotte's campaign of fear and lying is a disservice to the people of New Hampshire. Her willingness to exploit tragedy for political gain, coupled with her blatant disregard for facts, demonstrates a shocking lack of integrity and credibility. Earlier this week, Manchester business owners echoed this sentiment in a letter supporting Craig’s candidacy, pushing back against what they call a campaign of “fearmongering lies” by Ayotte.
While Ayotte peddles disinformation, the reality is that under Chris Sununu, homelessness and murders have increased while Joyce Craig outpaced the statewide reduction in overall violent crime.
Ayotte's promise to continue down the 'Sununu path' is not a plan for progress, but a commitment to the very policies that have exacerbated our state's challenges. New Hampshire deserves leadership based on truth and solutions, not fearmongering and false narratives
Granite Post’s Voter Guide is Now Live!
For the last 9 months, the Granite Post has been delivering factual, relevant, pro-democracy, local news to New Hampshire. Just in time for the fall election season, Granite Post has launched their Voter Guide, which will provide information on how to register and to vote, as well as information on the candidates in key races across the state. Please make sure you check out the Voter Guide before you head to the polls! And if you haven’t signed up for Granite Post newsletter, please sign-up here. They are also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok.
Thank you,
Ryan Mahoney
Executive Director