Primary Source: Warren, Buttigieg to campaign in Upper Valley

Two closely watched Democratic presidential candidates will be campaigning in the Upper Valley this week as the focus on the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina intensifies.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., earlier this week met with striking teachers in Chicago and then campaigned in Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa.

On Thursday, she’ll be holding a town hall forum at 1:45 p.m. at the BEMA on the Dartmouth College campus. Later in the day, Warren is slated to head to Newport for a 6:45 p.m. town hall forum at the Newport Opera House.

After attending the funeral service for U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in Baltimore on Friday, Warren will spend the weekend campaigning in South Carolina.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Ind., will be in the Upper Valley on Friday. Buttigieg, who will start his 11th campaign trip to New Hampshire on Thursday, will be holding a discussion on women’s economic empowerment at 10:30 Friday morning at Wheeler Hall on the Colby-Sawyer College campus with U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H.

Warren this week introduced a plan to boost public education, paid for by her proposed annual 2% tax on fortunes worth more than $50 million. She also has called for reforms to the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act to include college campuses and also have it apply to people who are licensed by a state or town to carry a firearm.

That plan has the support of one of Warren’s supporters, state Rep. Mary Jane Mulligan, D-Hanover, a former legal aid lawyer and substitute teacher who backed a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor to carry a firearm onto public school property in New Hampshire. The bill was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

“Students need to feel safe — and unlike Gov. Sununu, Elizabeth knows that the way to do this is not to let guns near our schools. The solution is to pass comprehensive legislation to prevent gun violence, and make sure that all schools have the support staff they need to truly support their students,” Mulligan said in a statement released by the Warren campaign.

Meanwhile, next Thursday, Oct. 31, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will attend a 2 p.m. Rights & Democracy NH forum at Monarch Farms on Jarvis Hill Road in Claremont.

Elsewhere on the campaign front, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign opened a field office in Lebanon this week. The Biden office is at 85 Mechanic St., aka the Rivermill complex.

Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott intends to appoint an independent to fill a vacant Vermont House seat from the Randolph area, his office said this week. That’s because he’s looking to replace former state Rep. Ben Jickling, a young independent who grew up in Brookfield and who resigned this summer to take a job with Epic Systems, a health care software firm based in Wisconsin.

Rather than seeking nominations from Vermont’s county committee of a political party, Scott’s office is encouraging potential successors who plan to serve as an independent to apply to fill out the remainder of Jickling’s term.

“I’ll be looking for someone who is committed to their community, understands the challenges and opportunities ahead of Vermont, and who brings a commonsense and pragmatic perspective that reflects the values of the district,” Scott said in a statement.

Candidates must be a full-time resident of the district, which comprises Braintree, Brookfield, Granville, Randolph and Roxbury, and should send a resume and letter of interest to exe.Appointments@vermont.gov. Applications are due by Nov. 15.

U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, the Michigan lawmaker who left the Republican Party and became an independent this summer after he said the Mueller report showed ample evidence that President Donald Trump should be impeached, had a clear-cut analysis on Ukraine testimony this week.

Amash, a graduate of University of Michigan Law School who was first elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave, said on Twitter that testimony by William Taylor, the former top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, “is devastating evidence that President Trump engaged in both a corrupt act and a quid pro quo.”

Amash also called out as phony Trump’s complaints about the ongoing House inquiry.

“Impeachment in the House is an indictment, not a trial. The Senate conducts the trial. President Trump constantly demands special treatment that is not afforded other Americans. And to liken the constitutional impeachment process to a ‘lynching’ is reprehensible and shameful,” Amash wrote.

Meanwhile, a die-hard Trump supporter in New Hampshire earlier this month switched trains in the New Hampshire 2nd Congressional District GOP primary. State Rep. Al Baldasaro, the Londonderry Republican who years ago embraced the long-discredited claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, is now backing former state Rep. Steve Negron, R-Nashua, in the congressional race.

Baldasaro, who is co-chair of Trump’s 2020 New Hampshire campaign, said Negron is “a man who believes in public service, one who believes that less spending means less taxes. Steve was always there with us fighting on economic issues and veterans issues to help New Hampshire maintain our ‘New Hampshire Advantage.’ ”

Baldasaro in 2018 backed former state Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker, R-Concord, who is again also seeking the seat.

John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.