Executive Council: New Hampshire's Powerful, Little-Known Office

Originally published in Seacoastonline.

Ask ten Granite Staters what the Executive Council does, and you'll be lucky to get two solid answers. Yet the five people who sit on that Council hold more direct influence over your daily life than almost anyone else in Concord. Each Councilor represents one district representing one fifth of the state. As a candidate for the Executive Council in District 3, I want you to understand exactly what you're voting for—because this office matters far more than its low profile suggests.

Start with the money.

Nearly every state contract worth more than $10,000 must come before the Council for a yes or no vote. That covers health services, veterans' programs, water infrastructure, school safety grants, and hundreds of other agreements every year. It also approves or rejects federal money—our taxpayer money paid to Washington that is supposed to come back to provide services in NH.

• The Council rejected $27 million in COVID vaccine funding.

• The Council has rejected federal money for five years in a row for family planning services that serve 10,000 women and men in District 3.

• This year the Council rejected $1.2 million for early childhood education training for teachers on learning disabilities—kids with special needs.

The money goes back to Washington and out to another state. When this happens, we often miss out on matching federal grants. That’s why New Hampshire is a donor state for the rest of the nation – we pay more in taxes and get less back – because the Council sends it back.

The Council reviews and approves the spending of a major share of the billions the Legislature appropriates. Three votes—that's all it takes to approve or block billions of your tax dollars. A simple majority decides. Right now, with four Republicans and one Democrat sitting on the Council, many votes have come down to rubber stamping decisions made by our Republican governor based on political ideology—not what is best for Granite Staters.

Next, the people who run your government.

The governor cannot seat a single judge in New Hampshire without the Council's approval—not on the Circuit Court, not on the Superior Court, and not on the Supreme Court. The same goes for the Attorney General, the commissioners the heads of departments such as Health and Human Services, Education, and Transportation, and hundreds of appointees to boards and commissions. When you elect an Executive Councilor, you are choosing who gets a say in every judge who may someday hear your case and every official who runs the agencies you depend on.

The Executive Council oversees the Ten Year Road Plan.

This includes holding public hearings across New Hampshire to decide which roads and bridges get fixed and when. If you've ever wondered why one bridge gets rebuilt while another waits, the answer often runs through the Executive Council. This July, Governor Ayotte vetoed the whole plan. That means (driving on) bumpy roads and dangerous intersections because now we have no road plan.

The Council also serves, in a very real sense, as your eyes and ears in Concord. Every meeting is open to the public, and every department head must be ready to answer hard questions from the Council about how they're spending your money. Your Councilor should be available to every constituent in their district to talk about issues and share their opinion about items on the agenda.

Why does New Hampshire have this unusual body?

Because we've never trusted concentrated power. The Council traces its roots to 1679 when the Executive Council was formed to serve as a check on the governor who had been appointed by King Charles II. When the framers wrote our constitution in 1784, they kept it deliberately—a citizen check on the governor. No other state in the United State gives an elected council this kind of authority. It is a distinctly New Hampshire answer to a timeless question: who watches the people in charge?

Here's what that means for you as a voter. The governor gets the headlines, but the Council does the daily work of keeping state government honest, transparent, and accountable to the taxpayers. A good councilor reads every contract, asks the uncomfortable questions, and remembers that the money on the table belongs to you. A disengaged one simply rubber-stamps whatever comes across the desk and lets a political agenda reject federal money.

That's the choice on your ballot. This seat should be held by someone who treats it as the watchdog role our constitution intended—not an agent of a political party but an advocate for you, your family and neighbors. In New Hampshire, we can do both: care about our people and keep an eye on the bottom line to make sure your tax dollars are used to meet the needs of your family and communities across the district and the state.

So, when you reach the Executive Council line on your ballot this fall (just below the Governor), don't skip it. That vote decides who guards your money, who ensures the services you need are available at the right price, who sit as judges in our courts, and who answers to you every day. In New Hampshire, we don't just elect a governor. We elect the people who hold the governor accountable. Make that vote count.