Cecil Abels III • Democrat • Small business owner, Rochester NH
Doing everything right but it’s still not enough? I’m living that squeeze too, and I think we can fix it.
Cecil Abels III • Democrat • Small business owner, Rochester NH
Doing everything right but it’s still not enough? I’m living that squeeze too, and I think we can fix it.
Occasional updates from the campaign, no spam.
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This isn’t a full list of everything I’ve got a position on, just the five topics that come up most when I’m out talking with folks in the district.
Property taxes just keep climbing. Rochester’s rate went from $14.85 to $15.30 this year. Strafford’s went from $19.76 to $20.96. That’s not a one-year blip, it’s the trend, and it’s squeezing families and seniors on fixed incomes right out of the towns they’ve lived in for decades. My first-term priority is real property tax relief, so folks can stay put.
Every dollar the state doesn’t put toward public schools, or spends without real accountability for results, is a dollar your town has to make up on its own. That gap shows up on your property tax bill, not a line item in Concord. I want the state funding public education honestly, before it asks local budgets to cover the difference.
Rural hospitals and the people who work in them are under real strain right now, staffing, costs, consolidation. District 6 isn’t insulated from any of it. My starting point: decisions made in Concord shouldn’t leave rural families further from the care they need.
New demand on the grid shouldn’t get paid for with higher bills for everyday ratepayers. I want growth that pays its own way, not costs quietly passed down to families and small businesses through their electric bill.
MrSippy has never taken a special tax deal, and I don’t think it should have to compete against businesses that did. I want a level playing field, accountable, capped incentives instead of open-ended giveaways, so small businesses aren’t squeezed out by whoever can afford the tax lawyers.
Cecil Abels III runs MrSippy BBQ in Rochester, five days a week, standing over a smoker before sunrise, meeting a payroll, watching every invoice for propane and paper goods creep up a little more each month. He knows what it feels like when costs keep climbing and nobody explains why, because he lives it too.
He studied to teach at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy before he ever ran a kitchen, and he still carries that with him, the patience to explain something twice, and the habit of meeting people where they actually are.
He grew up outdoors right here in District 6, hiking and biking Blue Job, swimming Bow Lake, fishing the Isinglass, and wants to keep it that way for the next generation.
He’s not a career politician. He was recruited by the NH Senate Democratic Caucus to run, because what this seat needs isn’t another insider, it’s somebody who actually runs something and knows what it costs. Cecil said yes.
Ask him a policy question he doesn’t know the answer to yet, and he’ll tell you the truth: “I don’t know yet, but give me a week and I’ll find out.” That’s not a weakness. It’s the same skill that took MrSippy from one smoker to a fifteen-person crew: figure out what you don’t know, go find the people who do, and get it done.
Early dollars go the furthest, signs, mailers, and gas money for six towns’ worth of doors. Every contribution helps, no matter the size.
Donate via ActBlueDoors, signs, phone calls, or a table at the town fair, there’s a job for everybody. Tell us how you’d like to pitch in and we’ll be in touch.
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