Tonight, the candidates for governor. Good evening and thank you for joining us for tonights governors debate. I am political director adam sexton. We will hear from the candidates for the Corner Office about their plans for New Hampshire and their records so far. The debate is happening live but as usual, inc. s will look different. Studio,lists are in the Jennifer Vann and john to stay so. The candidates are in a different studio, separated by several feet as part of covid19 precautions good we look forward to a robust debate. Lets look at the candidate backgrounds. Governor whos planning and management faced a life or death tested this year. Governor sununu there were tough decisions we had to make. For known for pushing progressive reforms. Ive been pushing for families every step of the way. Adam they have two different approaches be it republican governor chris sununu has spearheaded much of the state response to covid19 and move forward on another of this years issues, police reform, using an executive order to implement a first round of changes. Governor sununu we are not a crisis point but i dont want to wait for a crisis. New hampshire does democracy better than any other state. Feltes worked on expand health care coverage. He says he will not lose focus on solutions that help workingclass families. Selected candidates considered most newsworthy to participate in the debate. Candidates get one minute to answer questions and 32nd rebuttals a lot of the moderator discretion. We think both candidates. Our opening question is about the covid19 pandemic and it goes to you first, senator feltes. Thanksgiving is a little more than fiveweek the way and it is fair to say that a sense of connection is more important to people and it has been. The reality is we are seeing cases of covid every day and rising numbers across the country. How do you lead granite stators through the end of the year as they no doubt want to be together with loved ones but fear that could put them in others at risk . Sen. Feltes families are sacrificing and struggling. Hundreds of lost loved ones, tens of thousands of lost jobs, thousands more their homes, cases are going up right now in schools shutting down. Obamacare, the Health Care System we rely on, is in jeopardy right now. Working families dont know what the next week will ring, let alone the next day, let alone workingclass families. Especially workingclass families. Be here, i didto not come from a family of politicians like the governor. My dad worked in a furniture factory for 35 years. Day in and day out for 45 years. My mom, a parttime job while raising four kids. I worked for workingclass family serving as a legal aid attorney, delivering results for working families and that is what i will do as governor of the state of New Hampshire. Adam governor, same question. Thanksgiving is a time for gatherings and families. This has been a trying time. The last six or seven months has been amazing here in the state of New Hampshire and it has its challenges but thats one of the reasons why im always saying thank you. I think the people of the state have done a phenomenal job wearing masks, maintaining social distancing making sacrifices. Its one of the reasons we have some of the lowest covid numbers in the country. We have said since may that we knew the numbers would be rising this fall and sure enough, on firstly, we see it across the country. Not rising here as fast as the rest of the country but we knew those spikes would come. We have to ask folks to stay vigilant, to stay smart about what they do, just because you are with uncle bob and aunt mary, it doesnt mean the virus cares. Safe,se settings, be maintain distances, wear your mask with folks not in your immediate family, and if we do that, if we keep it up, theres no reason we cant be successful through the winter. Adam the first panel question istaso. Rom john dest john we have up to 100 cases in the last week. You said should have expected as children go back to school and less timeaters spend outside, the cases would rise, but what should have a new happen now . State departments like the dmv scaling back, private gatherings 10 people or fewer . Is it time to reverse the opening of the state . Gov. Sununu when we first entered the pandemic in march, there was no playbook. We had very little resources, no testing, ppe, we did not have so many of the capabilities we were able to build as a team, putting us in a much more adventitious position today. Advantageous position today. We wrote the playbook working with the division of Public Health, working with businesses to open in a smart and safe way and have a successful summer. As was mentioned, we have always known the numbers would go up, universities and schools are coming back, it is adding colder and we are all staying a little more inside, but it doesnt mean we have to go back to where we were in march. There are still some restrictions we could put in place down the road, we could still play those hands, but we are far away from where we were. We had maybe over a dozen folks in hospital beds. Manage theng to overburden on the Health Care System. Weve done a great job and theres no reason we cant keep up our success. John same question. Sen. Feltes the most opponent thing is a Health Care System, without a doubt. For years as a legal aid lawyer, i have battled Health Insurance industries to get access to health care for granite stators and working families, and i did the same thing in the senate, delivering Prescription Drug relief, medicaid expansion, expanding health care access. Thats what weve got to be focused on right now. To the was taking it Health Insurance industry, chris sununu was taking corporate contributions from the industry. Supportsld trump, he the repeal of obamacare and has worked to restrict access to safe, legal abortion and just like donald trump, he would have you believe that everything is fine. Donald trump gives himself in a plus and chris sununu gives himself the Gold Standard and everything is not fine. We have to lift up working people and fight to stabilize and strengthen our Health Care System. Gov. Sununu obviously we are not fine. Folks in the state have done a great job. My opponent likes to vote my name and the idea that we are against health care but at the end of the debt, im one of the few republican governors in the country actually fighting to keep the Affordable Care act in the u. S. Supreme court today. New hampshire is on the lawsuit today funny to keep the Affordable Care act, only one of four or five republican governors. It is happening today and i know that dan likes to make a political statement that sounds nice, but the facts are the facts. Sen. Feltes governor, these are your own words, when you ran for governor in the first time in 2016, you ran on appeal repealing obamacare. You asked why you supported donald trump, you said because he would finally end horrible programs like obamacare. You voted in 2012 to turn down the Obamacare HealthCare Exchange and in 2017, you cheerled replacing obamacare without a replacement. And senatoreen mccain turn that down. You cannot rewrite history on the debate stage. Gov. Sununu then why is the state of New Hampshire why did i empower the attorney general to fight that . Sen. Feltes you support the process moving forward on judge barrett, who has a long history of opposing obama care, and you support trump in the justices who will overrule obamacare and you have a long history against obamacare, it is documented. I dont understand how you can stand here tonight and say otherwise. We have to protect obamacare and strengthen it for working class folks. If obamacare is repealed, it will fall to the states, and you need to trust that you have a governor who fights for health care. I have fought for Health Care Every step of the weight and will do the same as governor. Adam we are going to go on to our next question from jennifer. Good evening, gentlemen. Lets move onto masks. Nashua is among the communities that passed a mask mandate. In spite of that, the city has seen a sharp rise in covid cases in early october. Senator feltes, youve pushed for a statewide mandate. If it hasnt worked in nashua, why push for one throughout the state . Sen. Feltes we need to listen to the medical experts. They have recommended masks. The commonsense public mask requirement makes good sense, we are the only state in new england without it. Donald trump and chris sununu have not listened to medical experts on masks. Donald trump has been clear donald trump, lets be clear, has been a complete failure on covid and has worked to be the divider in chief of our country. We have folks in the state of New Hampshire, including the governor, he is a top enabler of donald trump, he calls himself in his own words, a trump guy through and through. Those are Chris Sununus words. I cast my vote for joe biden and roud to do so. Governor sununu, when you cast your vote for donald trump, will you be proud to do that . Jennifer on the mask issue, governor, basically mask mandates theoretically will take the politics out of it. If the rule is to wear one, people dont have to make a judgment about wearing one. With the issue being so politicized, do you think its an error not to institute a mask mandate . Gov. Sununu there is nothing political about wearing a mask. Again, those communities that wanted to institute a mask mandate, specifically in the southern tier, we are supportive of it. Numbers are different in the southern tier. 60 of the cities and towns in our state do not have any covid whatsoever. So to understand the socioeconomic dynamics in the state are different and how the virus spreads is different. We are very supportive of those communities, specifically in the south, that have been strongly impacted and want a mask mandate. But to say we will blanket a mask mandate and everything will be better, that is not a solution. We can always play that card as the number start to rise, if we want to institute a mask mandate statewide, it is possible but not necessary at this point. Masks are just one part of the puzzle. It is maintaining social distancing, basic hygiene, washing your hands, keeping distances when you can, staying remote when you can. All of these pieces need to be put in place and the citizens of New Hampshire did a great job with. Adam next question from john. John governor sununu, the vast majority of pandemic deaths in New Hampshire have occurred in longterm care facilities. Is it fair to say you and the Public Health team should have moved more quickly to deal with that . And why is it that despite significant lockdowns and tight rules, the deaths continue to come at longterm care facilities . Gov. Sununu lets look at the real data. Understand, lets one death is too many. But in terms of the number of fatalities we have had at longterm care compared to the beds in a population, we are one of the lowest numbers on the east coast. The lowest in new england. We had about 20 outbreaks, back down to a handful of outbreaks. We have very few fatalities in the general community. The ratio of fatalities in longterm care was higher because we had so little transmission that resulted in a fatal rate. I think commissioner shiva binette has done a phenomenal job. Her background was running longterm care facilities. I think she and the department of health did a great job identifying the issue. We are one of the most aggressive states with testing and ppe. All of those tools and resources and that is why the numbers have dropped precipitously in longterm care. John senator feltes, you allege the governor reacted too slowly to the pandemic, but as cases of covid19 were beginning to build in New Hampshire, as Senate Majority leader you pushed to convene the legislature for two long days. As to why the senate needed to be in session while much else was closing, you said, i think the executive branch and the legislature have taken a different perspective so far, but were going to continue to monitor the situation. How do your words and actions then square with your criticism now . Sen. Feltes we suspended activity roughly when everyone else did. On Nursing Homes, lets be clear, societies are judged by the way they treat the most vulnerable. Homesen, folks in nursing and longterm care facilities. It took a month and a to get a inf contract to do testing some facilities, of the workers. The contract went to a Corporate Campaign donor of chris sununu. We have to move forward on this. We are ranked at the New York Times as the worst covid situation in longterm care, and we have legislation to support longterm care with ppe and testing and Financial Support , and to do an independent audit of what happened in longterm care. Chris sununu vetoed it, Bipartisan Legislation to do an independent audit. Now we have outbreaks across New Hampshire. Lastly, we need to make sure we protect and strengthen obama care because if we dont, our assisted living facilities will be in worse conditions. Adam governor, go ahead. Gov. Sununu to be fair, senator feltes brought a bill june 30, months after the pandemic started. They went home. The legislature threw up their hands and went home. My team took action very aggressively in New Hampshire, which is what we have one of the lowest fatality rates in longterm care on the east coast. Sen. Feltes thats not true. Gov. Sununu it is true. Weeks we had press conferences talking about we were going through, looking at what we happened, looking at airflow and how the dynamics of the virus was moving through facilities. We took aggressive action which is why 20 outbreaks became two quickly. Sen. Feltes and we have more outbreaks now because there was not the kind of analysis and independent review to determine what to do moving forward. If that bill had been signed, our Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities would have been stood up. Now we have Health Care Facilities in the red and lakes General Hospital filed region bankruptcy today. The cares act relief fund the unilateral control over, couldve stabilize a Health Care System and dinning, could have stabilized assisted living facilities and didnt, and gave a bunch of money to corporations. I want to ask everyone at home, 1. 25 billion chris sununu gave out, how much did you and your family get of that . I bet you did not get any. Gov. Sununu lets be fair about the 1. 25 billion. We are the only state in the country that put over half that money to businesses, employees, selfemployed, nonprofits. We put more out in relief efforts than any other state in the country. More than sort of new york, california. It was an amazing opportunity for individuals. When it came to the legislatures attempt at the money, they tried to slow it in court and with government bureaucracy. I was cutting deals on the phone for ppe and testing on a moments notice in the early days and we did a phenomenal job. We were one of the best dates in the country ringing and ppe because we had flexibility with cares act money. Everything we have done is 100 transparent. You can go to the website to see where the dollars have gone. Transparency is the foundation of public trust which is why i have been constantly out there, whether it is press conferences or taking messages right here on wmur at a moments notice. Its one thing to say we are in it together but its another thing to do it. We knew early on we would be transparent through the whole process. There is nothing behind closed doors. We just moved very quickly and we were not going to let bureaucracy hold up the opportunity in the middle of a pandemic. Sen. Feltes everyone believes in transparency but this has not been transparent. Vetoing legislation to do an independent audit of what went wrong is the epitome of not being transparent. And giving big contracts to Corporate Campaign donors. Giving out cares act money. Over 200 corporations got 350,000 of the cares act money. Small businesses got very little. And i bet if you are sitting at home, you did not get any of it. Gov. Sununu only Small Businesses got those dollars, only Small Businesses could qualify. Sen. Feltes businesses of 20 billion a year in annual revenue. Gov. Sununu that is a small business. That is a fraction of how the government defines small business. Those hundreds of thousands of dollars have shaved jobs saved jobs and businesses. We have less business closures this year than last year because they could pay their bills and employees. Stand up their businesses through the toughest of times. Sen. Feltes thats not what im hearing. Gov. Sununu the economy is strong here in New Hampshire. Sen. Feltes one half of New Hampshires children live and working poor households now. 20,000 people are detached from the labor market because of lack of access to childcare. And we are going to stand up ourselves on the back . We have to move forward and Work Together. Strengthen and protect obamacare. Work for people on the ground. Adam we have to move on, 15 seconds. Gov. Sununu democrats put a bill of cares act money to go to childcare. I put in 25 million in the beginning and we put in another 10 million last week, i put in more dollars to childcare and they wanted to do and we did a faster with better r