MANCHESTER, NH – Crissy Kantor arrived at City Hall Monday afternoon ready to sign on the dotted line. Although she has for many years run the successful Chill Spa on Hanover Street, this will be Kantor’s first time running for public office.
She couldn’t be more excited.
“When I heard Sebastian was stepping down that’s when I thought, you know, it’s time; it’s time for me to get more involved and give back,” Kantor said, after officially registering as the first candidate in line to replace Sebastian Sharonov for Ward 6 Alderman.
A special election for Ward 6 voters is set for May 9. The filing period, which opened Monday, closes Feb. 24.
Kantor was flanked Monday by several fellow city Republicans and business owners who came out to show their support – Alderman At-Large Joe Levasseur, State Rep. Ross Berry, Brittany LeClear Ping, Jay Ruais, Jon DiPietro, Norri Oberlander, and Michele Richard, as well as one of her two daughters, Sawyer Newton, her two grandchildren, and her longtime bestie, Caitlin Plumpton.
Kantor says she’s all about connecting the community and wants to work together toward solutions for what she sees as the biggest issues on the minds of Ward 6 residents: drugs and crime.
“I haven’t spoken to everyone, yet, but I know that so many people are concerned about the drug issue and the crime. You know, we really can’t come downtown. I’m a single mom, a single grandmom and I don’t want to be coming down here to be harassed. It’s scary right now and with all that’s going on, I think that’s the No. 1 issue,” Kantor said. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and with the decline in things, with everything that’s going on – the crime the drugs – it affects us all.”
Her plan between now and the special election will be to meet and greet her neighbors, and listen. Despite her conservative leanings, she says she will work hard to represent all points of view.
“I’m going to be going door-to-door, an old-fashioned grassroots campaign,” Kantor said. “And the key thing is I’m not about labels. I’m about ripping off the labels and connecting and working together with everyone, and finding solutions.”
Born in Nashua, Kantor grew up in Manchester, attending Beech Street, Webster and Hillside schools before graduating from Central. And although her parents divorced when she was 14, she believes she has had the best of both worlds – loving parents – and step-parents.
“My mom and dad were working people from the beginning, they opened up Murray’s Auto Parts way back in the day on the corner of Exit 1 – so I’m a junkyard girl,” says Kantor. “We got our hands dirty and worked on cars. I grew up with those hometown values of hard work.”
Her mom, Linda, married Master Jong Soo Lee, who founded and operated Lee’s Martial Arts on Maple Street.
“He and my mother, they were on the ground with kids, transforming kids’ lives after school and giving back. So in my world, there were two different kinds of businesses, the salvage business – for which my dad won a lifetime achievement award from the EPA, and my mom and step-dad, who did so much for local kids,” Kantor says.
Her father Jeffrey Kantor, passed away from prostate cancer in 2015 which inspired her to establish Chill Cares, a non-profit arm of her personal care and beauty business that raises money and awareness around prostate cancer.
In addition to being owner and operator of Chill Spa, Kantor hosts a show on health and wellbeing, Chill & Heal show, on radio station WFEA.
Family is at the heart of things for Kantor, who only lets go of her tiny granddaughter long enough to sign the candidate paperwork. After mugging for the camera, she scoops the little one back up and cradles her on her hip as she talks about wanting to make the world a little bit kinder and gentler for the next generation.
“I think the sadness I have as a mom, and as a grandmother, with where the country has gone and the divide between us – so many of us have our heads in the sand because we don’t want to deal with it. It’s too much. And the divide is awful,” Kantor says. “And I’m like, ‘no, we need to come together and talk about these tough issues and find solutions.’ So, for me, when I see my grandbabies and I’m concerned for their future and for all children’s future, that’s why I’m like, ‘this is it.’ I want to do something to help.”
Kantor wants to assure voters in Ward 6 that she’s not going anywhere, and is committed to rolling up her sleeves if elected.
“I’ve owned my property since 1997, so I’m definitely a committed Manchester girl,” she says. “I love our city and I’m not going anywhere – period.”
