Newmarket restaurant owner joins the NH race for governor
Photo courtesy of Jon Kiper
*Disclaimer: our articles remain impartial and do not endorse any specific candidate or political party
By Emeri Jacobs
Newmarket restaurant owner and Exeter native Jon Kiper launched his campaign for New Hampshire governor late last year. Kiper is the third democrat on the primary ticket alongside New Hampshire Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.
Kiper said he was motivated to run in this election cycle after seeing that Gubernatorial Candidate Cinde Warmington was a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma. “I have lived in New Hampshire my whole life, so I have seen the opioid epidemic happen,” Kiper said. “I graduated from Exeter High School in 2001 and of my graduating class around five to ten percent is either in prison, rehab, or is dead because of opioids.”
In 2016, Kiper started a substance abuse prevention group in Newmarket to address overdoses in the area. “I learned that 80 percent of people that are addicted to heroin got addicted because they were first addicted to OxyContin prescribed by a doctor,” Kiper said. “I also learned that Purdue Pharma targeted New Hampshire because it had relaxed prescription drug laws which allowed doctors to write bigger prescriptions than they could in other states.” Warmington, being one of Purdue’s lobbyists had a hand in creating this environment Kiper says.
In addition to the opioid issues, Kiper points to housing affordability as a critical issue. He is concerned about high property taxes and limited access to affordable housing. Addressing housing problems in New Hampshire would be among his top priorities as governor.
“I am not one of the political elites,” Kiper said. “I know the issues because I am living them not because I have been told about them. The motivation for me to address the housing problem will be so much higher than the people around me because they own their houses, I live in a 740 square foot apartment above my restaurant.”
Kiper cites low pay for New Hampshire legislators as the root of many of the state’s problems. He found that nearly 80 percent of New Hampshire’s representatives are either rich, retired, or both which, Kiper says, makes them disconnected from the issues that matter to Granite Staters.
“The representatives are hearing about the issues, but they are not the ones who cannot find apartments or buy houses. It is one thing when you hear about the issues, but it is a lot different when you are living with them,” Kiper said. “95 percent of the legislature owns houses. Most of them are so old that they probably paid of their houses two decades ago or more and haven’t worried about the cost of a house in a long time.”
If elected governor, Kiper would like to see the legalization of state-regulated cannabis which he plans to use to fund housing initiatives. Kiper thinks that the revenue that cannabis could bring to the state would be transformative for housing insecurity and affordability.
Kiper would also like to see New Hampshire join states and municipalities in the lawsuit against Exxon Mobil. He recognizes the impact of climate change and thinks that because Exxon Mobile was aware of the negative impact fossil fuels have on the climate, they should be held financially accountable. This issue he says is not one he thinks the other candidates would be willing to take on but is important to him.
As a gun owner, Kiper does not want to take guns away from New Hampshire residents, but instead wants to prioritize creating responsible gun owners. As governor Kiper would look into implementing more background checks, raising the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21, and increasing education on gun safety.
Kiper finds flaws in the way that the Democratic Party addresses the issue of guns.
“I think that democrats need to think about the way we talk about guns because every time a democrat is elected president, we break the record gun sales,” Kiper said. “Every time a governor or senator says that we should ban assault weapons, we break the record for the sale of assault weapons. If the democrat’s goal is to have less guns out there, they are doing it wrong.”
Other issues Kiper hopes to address are boosting apprenticeship and trade programs so more people can go into the trades, moving some powers from municipality level to county level to lower taxes, investing more in public education, protecting abortion rights, and to start a serious discussion around proposing a constitutional amendment to pay the New Hampshire State Representatives more money.
