Conway Daily Sun Interviews Ben Colbath, Ellin Leonard and David Paige

Conway Democratic State Rep Candidates

Interview: Mark Guerringue (Conway Daily Sun) with David Paige, Ben Colbath and Ellin Leonard Published: Oct 26, 2026 | Length: about 50 min See entire video interview here.

Introductions

[0:13] Mark Guerringue: Greetings. Mark Guerringue here, publisher of The Sun. Today we have a full house of Democratic candidates for our state House. On this side is David Paige, who's running for his third term. Ben Colbath is running for his first term and has been chair of the planning board, among other things. And Ellin Leonard, you're running for your first term, correct? And you've been on the budget committee and the library board. So you all have municipal experience.

Just to remind people, in Conway we have three exclusive representatives. Most districts are spread across different towns, but we have three, so there are three Democrats here. The Republicans are Karen Umberger, Bob Nelson and Gregory Corrigan. We haven't heard much from him. Why don't we start with you introducing yourselves and saying why you're running? Ellin, you're first.

[1:31] Ellin Leonard: I'm very concerned about the downshifting of taxes onto our towns and cities. I'm concerned about the Free State Project, to be perfectly blunt. And I'm very concerned about public education and the shifting of state funds to support religious and private schools, particularly when there really aren't any private schools or other kinds of schools around here, in the rural places.

[2:12] Mark Guerringue: We'll get to those major issues. Ben, why are you running? You need more things to do.

[2:21] Ben Colbath: Being involved with the planning board all these years, I've seen a lot of issues that come from the state level that we are or aren't allowed to address, and that's frustrating. I've been down to Concord to testify on a couple of bills that David sponsored, and that experience was really frustrating. Those bills would have helped taxpayers in our community. I'm concerned about the imbalance we're in the middle of when it comes to taxation and property taxes, and it seems like sensible solutions are being ignored in Concord.

I hope that going down there as a freshman, I can impart my voice and my experience and speak to the real-world issues I see here in Conway. That would help the citizens of Conway, and it would also help their constituents in whatever districts they serve, on whatever committees. I'm willing to learn, and if I can help move the needle a little bit, that would be great. In your first year you can't expect too much, but I'm going to try.

[3:50] Mark Guerringue: David, you've already learned everything down there, right?

[3:53] David Paige: I think there's always more to learn. I'm running for the same reasons I ran four years ago. The valley is getting harder and harder for people to envision a life in, especially young families and working families, but also seniors trying to age in place. I've worked on housing and child care, the two policy areas where I've focused over the last four years, and I've been happy to make a lot of bipartisan progress in the minority. I'm hopeful we can flip the chamber and have a majority, and then we can get even more done.

I'm proud of what's gotten done. We passed the bill for local control over charitable gaming, so folks all over the state now get to decide whether they'll host a casino. I got a lot of housing and child care bills through. The more you get done, the more you know, and the more effective you can be. I want to keep representing the people of Conway and getting things done for the people who live here.

The state-mandated tax cap on the ballot

[5:07] Mark Guerringue: Let's start with maybe the sexiest issue, if you can call taxation sexy: the tax cap that's going to be on the Conway ballot. If 60% of voters pass it, it caps the school budget and SAU administrative costs. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't people have a place to start?

[5:37] Ben Colbath: Part of my opinion isn't so much for or against it. It's the process, how it's being rolled out. We already have the ability in Conway to put that on the warrant. We did, and we voted it down. As a planner, the local control issue frustrates me. This is the state getting around that by putting it in a big blanket block on the ballot for the whole state and saying you have to vote for it or not, when the community already came together, I think twice, and said no thank you, it's not for us.

That's frustrating in the Live Free or Die state, when the state starts telling towns what they can or can't do. As a planning board member I have a lot of frustrations about that, because there are other areas where state blanket rules overlap too.

[6:49] Ellin Leonard: I was on the budget committee, and we voted on it twice and voted it down twice. The budget committee right now is pretty divided, 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats, but when I was on it there were more Republicans than Democrats, not way off-kilter, and we still voted no. The hearings before we actually vote in April are kind of practice voting. That's my sense of it, because it doesn't really mean anything. It's a chance to ask questions of the committee members.

[7:43] Mark Guerringue: We haven't reported yet on the budget committee voting against this tax cap. Why did they vote that way?

[7:51] Ellin Leonard: This is just my sense, and I'm not going to swear on a Bible about it. I believe the people who attend those meetings are activists, and that would probably include me, by the way. We had voted no on our own, but it was not the official vote. The official vote happens when we're doing the actual work. And do I think the way we fund public education in New Hampshire is the best system? No, I don't.

[9:05] David Paige: I think it's a due diligence question, and the comments about process are spot on. The way this should work is that the school board hears the budget and makes a recommendation, which we see on the warrant. The budget committee reviews it, and we see that on the warrant too. Then there's a deliberative session where people can talk about it. So there's a public process breakdown in how this is being done.

The SAU organized a hearing, which I think is tonight or soon. In some communities, like Londonderry, the superintendent has already said how they will handle it if this passes. That's what the people of Conway deserve to see before they vote: what will this actually mean? None of us are happy about what's happening to our property taxes, and that's part of why I've been fighting for solutions. But the drivers are health insurance and the cost of heating our buildings, costs that are outpacing general inflation. So what gets cut from our schools if it passes? People deserve to hear that through a public process before they vote.

[10:31] Mark Guerringue: Fair enough. It gets complicated, too. It only limits administrative increases on the SAU to 6%, which raises a question: if Conway supports it and Bartlett doesn't, how does that work?

Income and sales taxes

[10:46] Mark Guerringue: Speaking of taxation, the Republicans always say Democrats want to enact an income and sales tax. I'll ask all of you whether you support either, but first, David Paige: is that true? Are there bills proposed for an income tax or a sales tax?

[11:10] David Paige: There is a bill, and it's not going to go anywhere. Representative Read from Newmarket filed it. She's a very far-left Democrat, as is her community. I'm not surprised she filed it, but that doesn't mean it has any chance. On the other side of the aisle, every two years there's a bill about seceding from the union. We Democrats love to talk about that one, and we also know it's not going to pass. It's a fringe position that a handful of people subscribe to.

It's the same with an income tax. Last session we voted on an amendment that would have allowed a progressive income tax. I can't remember the exact number of Democrats who supported it, but it was somewhere around 10 out of 400. Are there a few Democrats arguing for it? Yes. Is it ever going to happen? No. Am I ever going to support it? No.

[12:33] Mark Guerringue: What about a sales tax? If you take out food and a few other necessities, you buy stuff and pay a little extra.

[12:55] David Paige: Not a broad-based sales tax. The first thing I'd say is that we've already shown we can budget responsibly without it. In the showdown over this last biennial budget, Democrats presented our own budget, the Better Budget Amendment, and fought for it on the floor. It funds our essential programs without an income tax or a sales tax, and without things I objected to, like repealing the interest and dividends tax, which is tens of millions of dollars. The pragmatic piece is political too. We know people don't want it, and as the people's representatives we're here to serve their preferences.

[13:48] Mark Guerringue: Ben, any interest in a broad-based tax? You'll probably say no. And what about the interest and dividends tax?

[14:02] Ben Colbath: That's not one I've looked into enough to speak about eloquently. I will say that in all the door-knocking I've done leading up to the election, nobody has said, "Will you please introduce a sales tax or an income tax?" We represent the people who vote for us, and it's not something I have any interest in voting on.

[14:41] Mark Guerringue: Ellin?

[14:43] Ellin Leonard: I am vehemently opposed to a sales tax, ever. An income tax I'd consider under the right circumstances, but I believe I represent people and have to respect what they want. That's how I want to be represented. I'm against a sales tax because it would hurt all the border towns in the entire state, dramatically. It would hurt a lot of businesses. And a sales tax is regressive, since people at the bottom pay the biggest share of their income.

[15:32] Mark Guerringue: So you'd consider an income tax? Would you join the Newmarket representative and sponsor one?

[15:40] Ellin Leonard: I would never sponsor it. I'm saying what David said: under the right circumstances, with lots of guardrails, and if my community thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't say exactly that to be clear, but over the long run an income tax is way more fair. But we don't want it, so I would never vote for it. The argument against any of those broad-based taxes is that other states have them and spending basically just goes up.

Vouchers and Education Freedom Accounts

[16:21] Mark Guerringue: You talked at the beginning about public education. What's wrong with what's going on in Concord? Republicans say the voucher system gives people a choice, so people who couldn't afford it can homeschool or send their kids to private schools.

[16:48] Ellin Leonard: It would be okay if there were guardrails, if the schools had to do testing and validation the way public schools do. And if there were hard evidence that outcomes were better, that would be a different story. But there are no rules. The company from New York that supposedly supervises everything is taking a lot of money, and there's virtually no accountability. So I am rigorously opposed.

[17:32] Mark Guerringue: Ben, conceptually, what's wrong with it?

[17:35] Ben Colbath: That's not one of the issues I said I was going to Concord to address, but I do have an opinion. I'm a big supporter of public education. I raised my kids here in the valley, and they all went through public schools. I have sons with IEPs, which took extra work with the school system and the educators, and it was a very successful experience. A big part of public education is being involved and part of the process.

I don't think the voucher program is balanced. Removing any income limit on eligibility was not the right choice, and I think there are conflicts with the state constitution. When money is taken out of that fund, it's taken away from public education. To use an extreme example, if one child takes horseback riding lessons, it benefits only that one child. The same dollar spent in public schools benefits more children. That matters especially if we're trying to keep property taxes down, because our dollar has to go as far as it can, whether at the grocery store or the State House. This is a really good way for dollars not to go very far at all.

[19:16] Mark Guerringue: David, the Republicans say the money, about $50 million a year now, isn't affecting state funding for local public schools.

[19:32] David Paige: I think that's a little disingenuous. It's money from the education trust fund, and that money could be going to support public education. It's a choice being made to spend it a different way. And $50 million is what it is today, but it ratchets up every time the cap is hit. It's projected to be a $100 million expenditure by 2030. That doesn't solve all our problems, but it's a lot of money. We had a $50 million cut to DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) this year. We're making conscious choices about how to spend the public's dollars, and I don't think this is the right way.

Ben and Ellin are both right that there's an accountability problem, and it goes deeper than whether the money is working for those kids. The third-party organization the state hired to administer the program won't even share its data with us. A partial audit uncovered all kinds of issues and misuse of dollars. If we were ever to consider something like this, we'd need a cap, eligibility limits so it goes to people who need it and not wealthy families, and state administration so we can track whether it's delivering results.

[21:21] Mark Guerringue: I think the New York company was getting 10% of it, but now it's less.

[21:29] David Paige: Probably, because the dollars are getting so big. With the elimination of the eligibility cap, we're seeing, as you'd expect, a greater proportion of families of means taking advantage. And why wouldn't you? If your child is in a Catholic school, which is wonderful, whatever your educational choice is, I support you. But when your school hands you paperwork asking whether you want $5,000 toward tuition, of course you'll say yes. Every kid coming through the doors of these private and religious schools is being encouraged to do this, and that's not an efficient or wise use of public education dollars.

[22:33] Mark Guerringue: I was brought up in Berlin, and about a third of my friends went to parochial school. Their parents were mill workers. If the rest of us had had to pay for their Catholic schools, there would have been an insurrection up there. Those Catholics are tough, though.

Housing

[22:45] Mark Guerringue: Ben, you're bailiwick is working on housing, so you must have a specific interest. You're an expert in housing because of the planning board.

[22:52] Ben Colbath: I wouldn't say I'm an expert. David has worked really hard on it. But I have an interest, and it's very frustrating. Were you at the housing coalition's breakfast the other morning, Mark? Shame on you.

[23:15] Mark Guerringue: We have people who actually go there. I knew the story. It's going to be, "It really sucks, and there's not much we can do about it."

[23:23] Ben Colbath: Except that the reason it sucks so badly is that every vote from the Republican House and Senate is cutting money from all of these programs. The data wasn't new to me, but I think it was new to a lot of people in the room. On every metric, funding is being reduced, and the question becomes how little can we fund and still have it be okay.

[23:46] Mark Guerringue: You're talking about specific aid from the state, like Section 8 housing?

[24:01] Ben Colbath: For affordable housing, and for projects like the one we were trying to get going in North Conway, where the old condos were behind the North Conway Grand Hotel by Settlers Green. Ryan O'Connor did really amazing work transferring development rights to another piece of property we could preserve right next to the North South Road, to keep that green, and then using that density on this other property so we could have three buildings of roughly 30 to 35 units each. It was large enough that it wouldn't be crammed in, and it was going to be funded through New Hampshire Housing. We got it all approved and did a lot of work, only to find at the state level there was no funding, because there's so little available.

[24:56] Mark Guerringue: David, how much funding has been cut?

[25:01] David Paige: A lot. For the affordable housing fund, $5 million is carved out of the real estate transfer tax by statute, so that's protected. Beyond that $5 million, there were zero dollars allocated into that fund in this budget cycle. Zero. We did have ARPA money at one point, so that's worth keeping in perspective. But New Hampshire Housing had $25 million in shovel-ready projects it was ready to fund, which could be turning into housing on the market within a year or two. So that's a $20 million gap.

That $20 million might sound like not much, but it's one piece of the capital stack, spread across a lot of projects. It's what lets them be built so that the result is an apartment a regular working person can afford. It's our most critical proven housing program in the state, and we're shortchanging ourselves. When we spend this way we also leverage federal dollars, so we're leaving money on the table.

[27:06] Mark Guerringue: If you had your way, how much should it be funded?

[27:15] David Paige: Poll after poll says the number one issue in New Hampshire is housing, and yet when you look at the pie chart of state spending, you can't even see the sliver that goes to housing. Our budget priorities are totally misaligned with what people are feeling and the problems they want us to solve. If New Hampshire Housing comes to us and says it's confident it can spend $25 million to get more affordable housing into our communities, and I'm looking at $100 million for education freedom accounts, it's ludicrous to me that we're not listening to the people. So I'd say let's spend the $25 million.

[28:14] Mark Guerringue: Ellin, I assume you support that. Philosophically, how much should the state be involved in housing? We just talked about not wanting the state telling us what to do with the tax cap, but the state has already passed things like the Schedule 6 road rules and ADU allowances. How much do we leave to private development and the market? That's what conservatives would say: the state shouldn't be providing all this assistance.

[28:59] Ellin Leonard: I have three key people in my life who are architects, and all of them have built private homes. I've been told very bluntly that no architects, not even large firms, are going to get involved in lower-income housing, because there's no profit in it. They're motivated by getting the biggest bang for the buck. A good friend of mine builds fancy custom homes, and he said, "Why would I do something where I'll make a few thousand when I can make a lot of money building a nice home?" So it's never going to come from that direction, according to people who know this world.

For our own self-interest, we're an aging community. Conway may have the oldest average age of any place in New Hampshire, though don't hold me to that. People of means are going to need staff to help them in every conceivable way. If we want those people to live here, and if we want families with one or two kids so we have children in our public schools, we have to have somewhere for them to live. And I believe owning your own home, as opposed to renting, is the best investment any young person can make. Buy a junk car, because there's no added value in a car. Don't buy fancy coffee. Take every dime you have and buy a house, because that guarantees how you'll live later in life.

[31:15] Mark Guerringue: Can't argue with that advice. I'm living my own.

[31:21] Ben Colbath: I think it's a little disingenuous to compare funding housing in New Hampshire to the tax cap vote. You're comparing apples to avocados.

[31:31] Mark Guerringue: I'm just saying state-mandated versus state-funded.

[31:35] Ben Colbath: We already have the ability to do the tax cap locally. Comparing that to putting money into a fund that anybody can apply to if they meet the criteria, to actually provide housing, which we all said is the number one issue facing New Hampshire, is a stretch. I've been watching a lot of interviews and debates, and everybody says, "If I get in, I'm going to fund housing." Well, half of these people are incumbents who just voted against funding housing. It's convenient that now the midterm is here, all of a sudden they want to fund housing. The narrative keeps switching to benefit themselves. On one hand they say $50 million for the education freedom accounts doesn't sound like a lot, but then a $20 million difference in affordable housing is a huge number and they ask how we'd ever come up with it. We were just told $50 million isn't a lot of money. It's enough to drive a person insane when you're just trying to do what's right for your community.

The planning board's role and municipal infrastructure

[32:50] Mark Guerringue: So you have the state, the private market, and then the Conway planning board. This is a little off topic, but related: take a project like the Ledgewood extension, with 50 units up on Ledgewood. The planning board is giving pushback because the developer wants 50 approved, and a couple of members said, "Let's just approve 25." What role does a planning board have in encouraging housing?

(Brief crosstalk clarifying the project: Steve Johnson is the former landowner, and a separate developer would buy only if he can maximize the unit count.)

[33:52] Ben Colbath: I know we're getting in the weeds. We run by rules and guidelines. We have our zoning ordinance, with specifications for projects of a certain size and density. Take the Moore property [?] in Center Conway as an example: hundreds of acres, great piece of property. A developer says, "I want to maximize it and put a thousand houses in there because it can take that with water and sewer." We say, "Okay, are you going to put the water and sewer in? Because it doesn't have it now." They say, "No, but if there's water and sewer there, I can put those houses in." Well, if you don't have the infrastructure in place to support it, how in good conscience can you approve that? And by the way, the Conway planning board is the best planning board.

[34:57] David Paige: I want to jump in on infrastructure, because that's a state connection too. Infrastructure is enormously expensive. If we want to solve the housing crisis from a state lens, not just looking at Conway, how we pay for municipal infrastructure is a big part of the problem. Another area where we saw our budget cut down to zero dollars was municipal infrastructure grants through the Housing Champions program.

That program has two pieces, and I feel differently about them. One is production grants, which essentially reward communities for how much housing they've produced. I'm less wedded to that part. The other is this: if your community has made zoning changes on the ground to make it easier for housing to get built, the state comes along behind you with grants for municipal infrastructure extensions and improvements. That's really smart policymaking. It's a great example of a local-state partnership that works. It's not telling the community exactly what to do. It's saying, go change your zoning and make these changes where you want housing, and we'll come alongside you and help fund the infrastructure. I regret that it was cut to zero dollars in this budget.

The emergency services surcharge (lodging fee)

[36:38] Mark Guerringue: What other major state-related issues are out there for you? We've done the tax cap, vouchers and housing.

[36:47] Ben Colbath: Going back to when I mentioned testifying on bills in Concord, one of them, which is conveniently being talked about now during this election cycle, is the Emergency Services Surcharge Act. It would have been $2, up to $3, a night on every hotel room or lodging stay in a municipality that approved it. It wasn't going to be forced on every town by the state. It was local control. And it would bring back some money from the influxes of population we have here. If your town approved it, you also had to pre-approve a number. You couldn't just say it would be a million dollars a night. It was up to $3, and you had to designate the number on the warrant article. We picked $2 here in Conway, and that money would go straight toward emergency services budgeting, whether fire and ambulance or the police station.

Because of the peaks in population in this area, we can't just hire a police officer from June to September, and then again in December and maybe a week in February. That's not how it works. We have to have one on staff all the time, with all the benefits, payroll taxes, workers' comp and every other cost that comes with hiring somebody. A couple of years back we could have gotten about $900,000 from Conway alone. Everybody knows the frustration with the rooms and meals tax, how much we bring in here and how it's divided up in the state.

When I was down there testifying, the Republicans said, "Well, that's a tax. This is tax-free New Hampshire." And I said, sir, it's not a tax, it's a fee. You can choose not to come here. I looked at the table and said, not a single person here is going to cancel a seven-night vacation over $14, because that's what it would have been. If you go anywhere else in this country and look at your receipt from staying somewhere, there are local taxes on it, and it doesn't deter people. They want to play the boogeyman and say it will scare tourism away. But now, during this election cycle, they say they'll get down there and get it passed, even though every single one of them opposed it before. It's frustrating how much they talk out of both sides of their mouths, when we could have had this done years ago and it would have benefited so many.

[39:48] Mark Guerringue: Then we clearly need more hotels.

[39:53] Mark Guerringue: I recently interviewed Joe Kenny, and he said that through enabling legislation, it has a much better route to get passed this year. Any insight into that?

[40:09] David Paige: That's how we presented it. The last two times it was presented, I think it was Rep. Woodcock or Rep. Buco who brought it the first time, and I brought it the second time. Both iterations were enabling, a local option.

[40:25] Mark Guerringue: What does enabling mean?

[40:32] David Paige: It means the state isn't mandating that every town levy the fee. We'd have a vote to say, yes, we want to adopt this as the town of Conway, and Bartlett might decide no. That's how enabling legislation works, and that's how we've brought it in the past. To Ben's point, I'm not sure what's different now other than that people know it's popular.

[41:01] Mark Guerringue: There are only so many tourist communities, so you're outnumbered. But do you see a better chance of it passing? It seems obvious it's not a tax. A little education would go a long way.

[41:17] David Paige: I think it has a good chance, and the odds improve greatly if we flip the House. That's the reality of it.

Politics: the House, the governor and the Free State Project

[41:28] Mark Guerringue: Let's talk politics for a minute. We only have a couple of minutes left. What's the House breakdown?

[41:36] David Paige: There are about 11 independents in there. We're around 170 Democrats, a little bit over that, so we're in a pretty deep minority, around 172 to 230.

[41:51] Mark Guerringue: So you have to get a swing of 30 votes or more.

[41:55] David Paige: But only two years prior to the last election, it was a one-seat difference. We have really wild fluctuations in the New Hampshire House. Part of that is that the House districts, unlike the Senate districts, are very difficult to gerrymander because they're so small. So independent swing voters can move a district one way or the other in a given cycle, whereas the Senate is much harder to move because those districts have been drawn very intentionally.

[42:34] Mark Guerringue: Everybody's predicting a blue wave of some sort. Do you have a sense of how much it will affect the House races? Conway was represented by three Democrats, Tom Buco and Steve Woodcock, who retired, opening a way for you. So Conway isn't going to add any Democratic reps to the ledger.

[42:59] David Paige: In my other hat as Carroll County Democrats chair, I'm always trying to talk people down off the blue wave talk. Not because I don't want it, but because we have to work for it. Just because people are upset with Trump doesn't mean they'll necessarily vote blue down ballot unless we get out there and explain why we deserve their vote. I'm taking nothing for granted. I'm hopeful. This is the most hopeful I've been in the three elections I've run in that we'll be able to take the chamber, but I'm telling everybody, don't take it for granted. Get out there and talk.

[43:40] Mark Guerringue: Do you think there's a real chance you could flip the House?

[43:42] David Paige: I do.

[43:43] Mark Guerringue: I'll ask all of you about Governor Ayotte. She has fought against some of the more fringy stuff the right has proposed. Ben?

[43:55] Ben Colbath: She has. I jokingly call Kelly New Hampshire's biggest tourist, because the most I ever hear about her is her going to this ski mountain or that one, or visiting this brewery and that brewery. I'd appreciate it if she spent more time working in Concord. The size of the House and Senate in New Hampshire makes it difficult to get a lot of meaningful legislation passed in a year, and I think with the right leadership in Concord there could be a more cohesive and focused approach. It seems like the new norm is constantly campaigning while you're in office. When I vote for a governor, I want them in Concord working, pressuring the House and the Senate, getting things moved forward. Take from that what you want.

[45:11] Mark Guerringue: Ellin, what do you think about the governor? And how important is the Free State movement in the legislature? Both sides have fringe elements, so I'm not just picking on the Republicans.

[45:22] Ellin Leonard: Powerfully important. Theoretically they're Republicans, but they're a completely different philosophy from traditional Republicans. I come from Alton Bay. Nobody's a Democrat in Alton. Belknap County is probably the most Republican county in the whole state. But those Republicans have a little more common sense about school stuff specifically. I think the Free Staters really want no taxes, and they want everything to be private business, from fire departments to, you can't make this stuff up, police. If you can't afford to pay for it, you don't have it. I'm not for that for sure.

In terms of how things are right now in Concord, we have a five-member Supreme Court, and they're all Republican appointees. Historically, no matter who the governor was, it was a balance, and balance is important to me. I'm not anti-Republican, but I am anti-Free State.

Editor's note: the original transcript says "nine-person," but the New Hampshire Supreme Court has five justices; this is flagged as a likely misstatement or transcription error.

[47:09] Mark Guerringue: David, is the Free State influence getting more or less in the legislature?

[47:15] David Paige: I think this election might help decide that. After the last election, their influence grew for sure, because there are more members in the House and the Republican majority leader represents the movement. If we flip the House, I think it could serve as a rebuke that emboldens the more traditional Republicans who remain in the chamber to contest leadership on their side, which would be a really positive development. It's not necessarily positive for us electorally if Republicans start doing things more like they used to and tack back to the center. But it would be good for New Hampshire if Republican leadership started rejecting some of these more extreme philosophies.

[48:10] Mark Guerringue: I think we're out of time.

[48:12] Ben Colbath: Can I make one comment? You didn't ask me about the Free State question. I certainly don't appreciate the contingent currently in Concord that is encouraging the assassination of elected Democrats via Twitter. I think that's absolutely deplorable, and how long it took for that to be condemned by that same group of people was a little disappointing.

Closing statements

[48:44] Mark Guerringue: Everybody gets a last comment. Ellin, in a nutshell, why should we vote for you?

[48:55] Ellin Leonard: I think my experience on the budget committee is very helpful. I was on it for seven years, and they'd tell you I hardly ever said anything, because a lot of people say things just to hear themselves say them. But when I did say something, they all paid attention and mostly agreed.

[49:19] Mark Guerringue: That's a pretty good endorsement. Ben?

[49:22] Ben Colbath: If somebody wants to vote for me, I'd certainly appreciate that. There are a lot of good people on the ballot for Conway for the House. I'm not going in with any kind of agenda. I'm willing to learn. My track record on the planning board shows how much I listen to the community, and I'm just trying to make the best decisions for Conway. That's what I'll keep trying to do.

[49:50] David Paige: I'd be honored if folks would vote for me again. You gain knowledge as you go, and you become more effective as you go. I feel I've gotten a few things done for Conway voters over the last four years, and I want to keep delivering. I'll be able to do that more and more as I understand how to make things happen down there.

[50:14] Mark: Thank you all, David, Ben and Ellin. Good luck, and we'll see you Tuesday.