Executive Council

New Hampshire's Executive Council has approved a new leader of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and a new state supreme court justice.

Sarah Stewart was confirmed as department commissioner on Wednesday. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said she has what it takes to drive the department forward into the future by supporting and growing the state's creative economy while protecting forest, lands, and waterways. Stewart works for a small business she started called B-Fresh Consulting.

The New Hampshire Executive Council occupies a somewhat nebulous position in New Hampshire state government: They meet and vote in the State House, but they aren’t legislators; they’re part of the executive branch, but they aren’t a state agency.

In a scenario that was reminiscent of his earlier rise as Speaker of the House, Republican Shawn Jasper narrowly squeaked through as New Hampshire’s new agriculture commissioner — thanks to support from the opposite party.

When Jasper was elected Speaker in 2014, House Democrats joined with a handful of Republicans to secure his nomination. On Wednesday, the Executive Council's two Democrats also joined with one Republican to confirm Jasper as agriculture commissioner.

The Executive Council approved contracts Wednesday with 10 separate reproductive health providers and community health centers across the state.

Colonel David Mikolaities has been confirmed as the next leader of the New Hampshire National Guard, after facing questions over his role in construction contracts awarded to his brother.

Governor Sununu's pick to lead the state labor department went before the Executive Council for a confirmation hearing Wednesday.

By the end of this week, New Hampshire will — technically — have had three different governors in the span of just a few days.

Governor-Elect Chris Sununu will be sworn into his new role Thursday afternoon, becoming the country’s youngest sitting governor and the first Republican to lead New Hampshire in 12 years. (Former Gov. Craig Benson, whose term ended in 2005, was the last Republican in the corner office.)

Control of the New Hampshire Senate in January is up for grabs after primary voters cast ballots for their party’s nominees yesterday. The results provided some clarity to general election races that will define many of the state's political and policy debates over the next two years.  

Executive Councilors approved two contracts Wednesday that provide the state with more funding to address the opioid crisis.

About $3 million dollars will go into medical training, medication-assisted treatment, and information about substance use disorder.

Councilor Chris Pappas says he thinks these contracts will have an immediate impact in the state’s ability to handle the drug crisis.

“Make sure we get people the treatment they need; make sure that medications are available for people so they can get well and get over their substance use disorder,” he said.

The Executive Council this week will take up the issue of state funding for Planned Parenthood, a vote that could have political implications in the race for governor.

Republican Chris Sununu and Democrat Colin Van Ostern sit on the five-member panel that will take up the $549,000 contract for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England at a meeting Wednesday.

Sununu and Van Ostern are among the slate of candidates looking to replace outgoing Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan.

Former New Hampshire Public Defender Dorothy Graham has taken a job with the New England office of the Federal Public Defender. Graham, who was nominated by Gov. Maggie Hassan last year to serve as a judge on the state Superior Court, saw her hopes for the bench scuttled after a conservative website accused her of a “history of trying to get child rapists off on technicalities.”

Read Emily Corwin's story about Graham's nomination and rejection.

The state’s Executive Council met Friday to discuss the appointment of state Senator Jerry Little to the position of banking commissioner by Governor Maggie Hassan.

Little, a Republican from Weare, previously spent 20 years as a lobbyist for New Hampshire’s banking industry, and he faced skeptical questions based on that record from Democratic councilor Colin Van Ostern.

 Governor Hassan has nominated Manchester Attorney David Ruoff as Superior Court justice, after three Republican councilors blocked the confirmation Manchester attorney, Dorothy Graham.

Chris Sununu, who is running for Governor, argued Graham’s twenty years as a Public Defender made her unqualified to be a judge.  The councilors stood by their decision despite vocal pushback from the legal community.

Executive Councilors chose not to reconsider the nomination of a judicial appointee whose rejection drew scrutiny from New Hampshire’s legal community.

Councilors had voted 3-2 at a meeting earlier this month to reject the nomination of long-time public defender Dorothy Graham to the Superior Court bench.

All three Republican councilors voted against confirming Graham. Councilor Joe Kenney said he couldn’t confirm an attorney who defended child sex offenders.

Concord attorney and Democratic activist Andru Volinsky  is running for the Executive Council.

The Executive Council confirmed the appointments of three new judges Wednesday, including two to the Superior Court.

The council unanimously confirmed New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission Chairman Amy Ignatius as one of the new additions to the Superior Court bench.

The council also confirmed two other judicial appointments: Manchester attorney Andrew Schulman to the Superior Court and Senior Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Gorman to the Circuit Court.

Governor Maggie Hassan says she’s pleased with the confirmations.

Republican Joe Kenney and Democrat Mike Cryans will face off in a special election March 11 to replace longtime District 1 Executive Councilor Ray Burton, who died in November.

A retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps, Kenney spent 14 years as a state legislator, in both the House and the Senate. He was the Republican nominee for governor in 2008 and lost to Democrat John Lynch. Kenney won a three-way Republican primary in January.

Michael Cryans, a Grafton County Commissioner, plans to run for the Executive Council seat left empty by the death of Ray Burton.

Cryans is a Democrat and Littleton native who for sixteen years has been a county commissioner, serving alongside  Burton, a Republican.

In 1996 Cryans ran against Burton for executive council and lost.

But last year, in the race for county commissioner, Burton endorsed Cryans over a Republican challenger.