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April 24. 2012 6:39PM
Manchester's Donna Soucy announces candidacy for state Senate
MANCHESTER _ Calling herself a “bi-partisan problem-solver,” Democratic Manchester school board member and former alderman Donna Soucy said today she is a candidate for the open District 18 state Senate seat.
Soucy becomes the first Democrat and second candidate to seek the seat being vacated by first-term Republican Sen. Tom DeBlois, who is running for the Executive Council seat being vacated by Raymond Wieczorek.
Senate District 18 comprises Manchester Wards 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and the town of Litchfield.
Republican state Rep. George Lambert of Litchfield has told the state Republican Party that he is a candidate for the seat.
Soucy said she want to “return common sense leadership” to the State House.
“Instead of focusing on what matters most to New Hampshire families - a sound economy, quality jobs and educational opportunities - this Legislature has focused on the Tea Party agenda of dismantling public education, cutting funding for higher education in half, attacking workers, denying women access to basic healthcare, putting law enforcement in harm's way and obliterating consumer protections,” Soucy said.
Soucy is a Manchester native is currently serving in her fourth term on the Manchester School Board. She previously served three terms as a state representative, from 1991 through 1996, and two terms as a Manchester alderman, from 1993 through 1997. She was the first woman chair of the Manchester Fire Commission and in 2002 was elected to the Manchester Charter Commission.
Soucy has worked in city, county and state government, including four years as the chief of staff to former state Senate President and Senate Democratic Leader Sylvia Larsen.
A graduate of Trinity High School, Saint Anselm College and Franklin Pierce Law Center, she is also a former interim executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and currently serves as the party's chief financial officer, a post she said she will leave in a few weeks.
In an interview, Soucy said she was prompted to run by the current Republican legislative leadership's “extreme agenda and the total disregard for people participating in the process. This is not the New Hampshire Legislature that I once served in.”
Soucy said, “There are too many important issues to address instead of this extreme ideology and lack of dialogue.”
Although she is running for the Senate, she criticized House speaker Bill O'Brien.
“In this Legislature, it's the Bill O'Brien way or the highway and that's not the state I grew up in,” Soucy said.
Soucy said she opposes an income or sales tax for the state and wants to focus on “continuing job creation and the economy throughout the state, but particularly in the Manchester-Litchfield area.” She cited the new airport access road and “the potential for rail if we had new Legislature and an Executive Council open to the idea.”
Soucy also said access to health care “is key to a lot of people and it has always been the New Hampshire way to respect privacy in health care decisions, whether it's a Republican or Democratic Legislature.”
She said GOP attempts to have the state “take over the Medicare system” through an inter-state compact “is a flagarant disregard for the elderly and people who expect security in their lives. It's putting that in jeopardy and creating more unease and uncertainty.”
Soucy said she will support education at the state and local levels and work to ensure that Manchester and Litchfield receive “their fair shares” of state education funding.”
Soucy is expected to be a key player on the Democratic side as her party looks to cut into or erase a 19-5 Republican majority in the Senate.
Soucy becomes the first Democrat and second candidate to seek the seat being vacated by first-term Republican Sen. Tom DeBlois, who is running for the Executive Council seat being vacated by Raymond Wieczorek.
Senate District 18 comprises Manchester Wards 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and the town of Litchfield.
Republican state Rep. George Lambert of Litchfield has told the state Republican Party that he is a candidate for the seat.
Soucy said she want to “return common sense leadership” to the State House.
“Instead of focusing on what matters most to New Hampshire families - a sound economy, quality jobs and educational opportunities - this Legislature has focused on the Tea Party agenda of dismantling public education, cutting funding for higher education in half, attacking workers, denying women access to basic healthcare, putting law enforcement in harm's way and obliterating consumer protections,” Soucy said.
Soucy is a Manchester native is currently serving in her fourth term on the Manchester School Board. She previously served three terms as a state representative, from 1991 through 1996, and two terms as a Manchester alderman, from 1993 through 1997. She was the first woman chair of the Manchester Fire Commission and in 2002 was elected to the Manchester Charter Commission.
Soucy has worked in city, county and state government, including four years as the chief of staff to former state Senate President and Senate Democratic Leader Sylvia Larsen.
A graduate of Trinity High School, Saint Anselm College and Franklin Pierce Law Center, she is also a former interim executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and currently serves as the party's chief financial officer, a post she said she will leave in a few weeks.
In an interview, Soucy said she was prompted to run by the current Republican legislative leadership's “extreme agenda and the total disregard for people participating in the process. This is not the New Hampshire Legislature that I once served in.”
Soucy said, “There are too many important issues to address instead of this extreme ideology and lack of dialogue.”
Although she is running for the Senate, she criticized House speaker Bill O'Brien.
“In this Legislature, it's the Bill O'Brien way or the highway and that's not the state I grew up in,” Soucy said.
Soucy said she opposes an income or sales tax for the state and wants to focus on “continuing job creation and the economy throughout the state, but particularly in the Manchester-Litchfield area.” She cited the new airport access road and “the potential for rail if we had new Legislature and an Executive Council open to the idea.”
Soucy also said access to health care “is key to a lot of people and it has always been the New Hampshire way to respect privacy in health care decisions, whether it's a Republican or Democratic Legislature.”
She said GOP attempts to have the state “take over the Medicare system” through an inter-state compact “is a flagarant disregard for the elderly and people who expect security in their lives. It's putting that in jeopardy and creating more unease and uncertainty.”
Soucy said she will support education at the state and local levels and work to ensure that Manchester and Litchfield receive “their fair shares” of state education funding.”
Soucy is expected to be a key player on the Democratic side as her party looks to cut into or erase a 19-5 Republican majority in the Senate.
