The first time I didn’t meet Dan Innis was unsurprising. In 2014 he ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s Eastern District and I live in the Western District. His campaign called for privatizing social security. It attracted big checks but few votes.

The second time I didn’t meet Dan Innis was more surprising. I worked as a nonpartisan staffer for legislative commissions in 2017. Dan had won election to the State Senate representing the Seacoast. 

A commission was established to investigate a suspiciously large number of children in Seacoast towns dying of cancer and the concern that contaminants from burned military waste were leaching into the groundwater. As the area State Senator, Dan was appointed. He never showed up. 

Scared parents, scientists, and doctors testified to a nameplate marked “Sen. Innis” and the empty chair behind it, meeting after meeting, for more than a year. He did not win reelection.

The third time I didn’t meet Dan Innis, he was running to be my State Senator. I hadn’t moved but he had. Soon after new Senate districts were proposed in 2022, Dan bought a farm and some goats nearby. 

Ads saying he was a farmer who shared our values ran in the papers. After winning, he voted against reproductive rights and to abolish taxes on stock dividends paid by extremely wealthy people. 

I’m unsure how many local people he knows. Scanning his donor list, not many. I’m ready to continue not meeting Dan Innis. His opponent Stu Green has my vote.

David Bates
Andover