The open hostility between leading Democratic contenders comes at a key moment in the race, as more voters prepare to make their final selections ahead of the Sept. 10 primary. The attack lines in these ads preview those that either Craig or Warmington will likely face as the Democratic nominee ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.
The Republican Governors Association released an ad Wednesday to amplify recent comments the two Democrats have made about each other.
”Warmington and Craig: Wrong for New Hampshire. Just take their word for it,” the RGA ad says.
Warmington said at a press conference Tuesday that Craig’s attack created “a really difficult situation” for the Democratic Party.
“It is disheartening that she has chosen to go down this path and divide us,” Warmington said, adding that Democrats need to prepare to beat former US senator Kelly Ayotte, who appears to be on track to win the Republican nomination for governor.
Polls suggest Ayotte has a commanding lead over former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse in the GOP primary. Results released Aug. 22 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed her ahead by 44 percentage points, while just 13 percent of likely GOP primary voters were undecided.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic primary, Craig was leading Warmington by 9 percentage points, with 23 percent of likely Democratic primary voters undecided, per the UNH poll.
The outcome of the Democratic primary could be influenced also by the presence of an underdog. Newmarket business owner Jon Kiper was the preferred candidate for 8 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the UNH poll.
Kiper said he expected Warmington to drop out of the race after news reports last summer resurfaced records from her time as a lobbyist in 2002 when she told New Hampshire lawmakers OxyContin was “a miracle drug” with “very few side effects.”
“As I saw her support not erode, I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy,’” Kiper said Sunday. Regardless of whether he surpasses her in the election, he said he sees value in ensuring she doesn’t win the Democratic nomination.
“There’s no way she’s going to win a general election,” Kiper said. “I don’t think there’s any way a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma is ever going to get past the people of New Hampshire.”
Warmington reported earning $16,995 from Purdue Pharma in 2002, according to lobbyist disclosure forms obtained by The Boston Globe.
Warmington’s supporters have come to her defense. She was joined at Tuesday’s press conference by advocates, a physician, and community members who vouched for her track record of promoting treatment and policy solutions.
Jodi K. Newell, a Democratic state representative from Keene whose fiancé died of an opiate overdose, said Warmington has been “a champion” for families grappling with the harms of substance misuse.
“Cinde has spent decades working alongside substance use disorder advocates like me, serving on boards of treatment centers, fighting for communities to have greater access to prevention and harm reduction tools, and working to bring medication-assisted treatment to New Hampshire,” Newell said.
The founding partners of Shaheen & Gordon, the law firm that employed Warmington when she lobbied for Purdue Pharma, said in a joint statement Monday they were “shocked and disappointed” by Craig’s “misleading attack” and called for her campaign to take it off the air.
William H. Shaheen and Steven M. Gordon, along with managing partner D. Michael Noonan, said they have worked with Warmington for decades and know she is trustworthy and has spent her career fighting for more accessible health care.
“For anyone to suggest that we knew of Purdue Pharma’s lies more than two decades ago is patently false and personally offensive,” they said.
While certain details about Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing tactics — which have been blamed for contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis — came to light through years of ongoing litigation, warning signs about OxyContin’s addictive risks were raised well before Warmington testified in Concord on behalf of the painkiller’s manufacturer.
News coverage about OxyContin abuse began in 2000 and drew so much attention that some researchers cited concerns the media hype may actually have boosted the drug’s popularity. By May 2001, US Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told members of Congress that authorities had seen an increase in OxyContin abuse in numerous states.
“This is a very, very dangerous drug,” he said at the time.
Warmington testified in April 2002 before a New Hampshire Senate committee. While acknowledging real potential for misuse, she told lawmakers OxyContin “has been abused … in the press.” She argued unsuccessfully against a requirement for patients to have tried three other medications before they could be given an OxyContin prescription.
“My argument was that we should let doctors decide what the best medication is for their patients, not insurance companies,” Warmington said Tuesday.
Concerns about opioid money and Warmington’s candidacy go beyond her lobbying work for Purdue Pharma. Craig’s ad says Warmington also “worked for a disgraced pain clinic that made millions hooking people on opioids” and now has “taken tens of thousands of dollars from the opioid industry to fund her political career.”
The ad cites news reports about how Warmington represented Dr. Michael J. O’Connell of Barrington and his network of clinics. O’Connell died in November.
When asked Tuesday about her work for some of the state’s most prolific opioid prescribers, Warmington said she represented hundreds of health care providers over the course of two decades as an attorney, but her focus was on business and regulatory matters, not clinical practices.
“The cardiologists that I represented probably prescribed the most cardiology drugs, and the oncologists that I represented probably prescribed the most oncology drugs, and the pain care providers probably prescribed the most pain drugs — so that doesn’t surprise me,” she said.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice notified the campaigns on Monday that Craig’s attack ad hadn’t fully complied with the disclaimer requirements under state law. The ad had included text saying it was paid for by Craig’s campaign, but it was missing an audio disclaimer. The audio disclaimer has since been added.
In her retort to Craig’s ad, Warmington echoed a sentiment that Ayotte has been promoting with a TV ad that accuses the leading Democratic candidate of having turned Manchester into “Craigville,” a city plagued by drugs, violent crime, and homelessness.
Craig’s campaign, which released a new ad Wednesday touting her record as mayor, pushed back.
“I can stand by my record, and Granite Staters know I’ll always fight for them,” Craig said, citing data that shows violent crime in Manchester fell by about 40 percent on her watch, while she worked to improve public safety, reduce opioid overdoses, and break ground on more affordable housing.
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 23:00:00
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