VOTE PATRICK LONG FOR WARD 7 STATE REPRESENTATIVE ON NOVEMBER 5!

I’m a Manchester homeowner, an Iraq War veteran, and a small business owner (a lawyer). I have served in municipal government previously. I am currently an alternate on the Manchester Heritage Commission, was on Manchester’s Personnel Appeals Board from 2022-2023, and from 2007-2010 I was on a town finance committee in Massachusetts. 

My ties to the city go back many years, even before I lived here. From 2008-2014 I was in NH Army National Guard units based in Manchester’s Canal Street armory (first the 3643rd Brigade Support Battalion, and then the 372nd Signal Company after I got a promotion). From 2010-2011 I deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn. I could have had a safer assignment in Kuwait, where most of my unit went, but I volunteered to go with another unit to serve on a gun truck escorting convoys into Iraq instead. Having spent a lot of time here for National Guard duties, I knew Manchester was a great place to live and that’s why I chose it when it was time to buy a home. 

Among other issues, I want to protect access to reproductive health care, ensure Manchester receives our fair share of state education funding so that we can have the schools Manchester's kids deserve, and work on finding solutions to homelessness, housing affordability, and addiction. I will work hard to represent ALL of Ward 7, regardless of political affiliation, gender, race, religion, etc. 

I am pro-choice and would support the introduction of state laws to protect reproductive freedom--abortion, IVF, and other reproductive health care. These are medical choices that should be made by the people affected by them in consultation with their doctor, not by politicians. As a lawyer, I find it extremely concerning that the Supreme Court chose to overturn 50 years of settled law to take away the right to choose, and I have to ask what other rights we think we have that politicians may soon be able to take away. The Dobbs decision was not just about reproductive freedom--it unleashed the government to attack freedom anywhere and any time that a court can be convinced that the state's rights are more important than your rights. I would also look for other opportunities to change or clarify state law to protect other constitutional rights that runaway judges may otherwise take away in the future, such as birth control or interracial marriage. 

I serve on the boards of two community organizations working on these challenges. I don’t know what all the answers are here, and I would like to hear your ideas. But to start we need to build more affordable housing, and help people get the treatment they need for substance abuse and mental health issues, so they will stay off the streets. I will work to ensure that everyone who wants to buy or rent a home in Manchester is able to afford it. Opioid users who want to quit need to be able to get into detox immediately, and users of any drug need to be able to get into rehab right away when they are ready to quit, so they don’t change their minds. In my law practice, I work with a lot of people who have mental health or substance abuse issues, and my experience is that it is important to be humane about meeting their needs, while also demanding accountability for harmful behavior. 

No, I am not related to Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long, but we were once in an Ink Link article together, along with his sister Patricia and a cat named Pat Long, as a fundraiser for the Manchester Animal Shelter. Here's all of us together!