Meet the Republican candidates for Executive Council

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For years – decades – New Hampshire’s Executive District 2 has been in Democratic hands, the product of a redistricting process that strung together traditional liberal bastions from Keene to Portsmouth.

But this year, two Republicans say they’re ready to change that status quo. Jim Beard and Stewart Levenson are vying for a spot in the general election.


Jim Beard

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Jim Beard

Jim Beard had his head in the skies for decades. These days, he’s looking to stay a touch more grounded.

As a commercial pilot from a young age, Beard got familiar with the aviation industry. Soon, he graduated from flying the plane to selling it.

Over a decades-long career, the Lempster Republican worked for a range of airline manufacturers, helping them secure sales contracts for regional commuter flights. The work included extensive time with Saab’s aircraft division, and brought him around the world, including extended stays in London and Paris.

The effect: Beard is a seasoned businessman who knows his way around a good contract, and a bad one, he says.

“I’d be looking for the danger signals,” he said. “The clauses that might come back to bite the agency.”

Beard’s political views lean conservative. He supports business tax cuts and the passage of right to work legislation in New Hampshire, though neither area would come under the purview of the Council.

He’s in favor of boosted vocational training for education, and opposed to the Common Core national education standards.

He also an environmentalist, he says. In Lempster he chaired the Conservation Commission, helping the town conserve 600 acres of forrested land. And he’s championed “a real energy plan” that lowers energy costs and “protects our brilliant environment.”

But while many of those priorities might be difficult to usher in from a position of the Council, which acts more as a board of directors and approves contracts and nominees, they aren’t the overarching reason Beard is interested. The true draw to Beard is the ability to serve constituents and give their problems a bigger voice.

“I would feel very responsible for knowing my district when it comes to the businesses, especially small businesses, in this climate,” he said. “And trying to find ways if they’re in trouble of helping them get back on their feet.”

The same principle applies to families, he said.

When Beard first ran for the seat in 2018, against Andru Volinsky, he made a point of exploring the issues on the ground, including by doing ride-alongs with fire and police departments to assess the impact of the opioid crisis. It’s not enough to make him an expert, but it’s grounded him and given him the perspective necessary to hold state officias to account.

Above all, Beard says he’s running as a different candidate than what the Council has attracted in the recent past.

“I don’t view this as a “political” type office,” Beard said. “I think we leave politics at the door when we walk into the Executive Council. We’re there to serve the state … and the needs that the Executive Council is responsible for.”


Stewart Levenson

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Stewart Levenson

These days, Stewart Levenson doesn’t need many introductions. The long-time Veterans Affairs physician and official is best known for his actions as a group: acting as one of several whistleblowers at the Manchester VA hospital who detailed significant lapses in hygiene and patient care in 2017. The concerns set off a media firestorm, a federal investigation, and infusion of new funding to attempt to fix the years-long problems.

If you haven’t heard of him from that, perhaps you’ll remember Levenson’s 2018 bid for U.S. Congress, in which the Hopkinton Republican attempted to unseat Democratic Rep. Ann Kuster, a representative that he says didn’t fully take the VA crisis seriously.

Levenson was never previously politically involved. After a difficult childhood in New York City, he spent years working in rough and tumble emergency rooms in New York, until a stabbing. Eventually, Levenson and his wife, who has since passed away, would find their way to New Hampshire, through Dartmouth. But it was within VA in which Levenson’s career really began to climb.

Now, four years into a political venture he could never have predicted, Levenson is looking at the next opportunity to apply what he says are uniquely suited skills. In the Executive Council, he argues, he’s found his match.

The job responsibilities might seem somewhat less consequential than those of a U.S. Congressman, but Levenson disagrees. “It may show how dull I am, but I find it very exciting,” Levenson says, laughing. “I love the deliberative process.”

As the medical director of the VA New England system, Levenson was adept finding cost-saving measures – it was a built-in prerequisite, Levenson says. It also meant working with hospitals associated with Harvard, Yale and Brown, and going toe to toe with doctors and officials with much deeper knowledge.

“It’s the same way with the Executive Council,” he said. ‘You’re dealing with interesting topics, approving a contract that could either be money well spent or lead to a waste of money that will result in an increase in taxes.”

To Levenson, a Republican running for a Democratically-run body, the gridlock between the Council and the governor is a casualty of partisan intransigence, which he alone can bridge. As a pro-choice Republican who actively supports the state’s Medicaid expansion program, Levenson is comfortable bucking some of the traditional mores of his own party, he says.

Still, when it comes to many of Gov. Chris Sununu’s positions, Levenson stands in agreement. He argues that a slate of recent nominees that have not been approved by the Council has been eminently qualified. And he supports Sununu’s decision not to bring forward a new Supreme Court nominee until Democrats on the council change their criteria for approving judicial nominees – a position the governor has held for a year.

“It was Harry Truman who said if you keep getting banged on the head often enough, you’ll know who’s banging you on the head,” Levenson said.

Meanwhile, Levenson says he brings advantages that other candidates don’t, in either party.

“The fact that the lawyers are saying they know more about health care than someone such as myself is laughable,” he said. He added: “Voters will vote for me because I’m a doctor and a physician leader at a time where we need health care experience on the Council.”


GSNC 2 ColorThese articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org

 

About this Author

Ethan DeWitt

ReporterNH Bulletin

Ethan DeWitt is the New Hampshire Bulletin’s education reporter. Previously, he worked as the New Hampshire State House reporter for the Concord Monitor, covering the state, the Legislature, and the New Hampshire presidential primary. A Westmoreland native, Ethan started his career as the politics and health care reporter at the Keene Sentinel. Ethan DeWitt is a reporter for New Hampshire Bulletin.

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