Manchester business owners endorse Joyce Craig, slam Kelly Ayotte’s “fearmongering lies” in new letter

A group of Manchester small business owners are publicly throwing their support behind Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig, in a letter released by her campaign today, praising her economic record as mayor of the city of Manchester, while pushing back against what they call a campaign of “fearmongering lies” by her opponent, Republican Kelly Ayotte.

The business owners’ letter paints a picture of Craig as a champion for small businesses during her time as mayor, crediting her with attracting “hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment” and creating “thousands of good-paying jobs” in the city.

Their claim is supported by the business owners’ assertion that Craig helped Manchester become “the only municipality in the entire country to earn the Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge,” which brought in $44 million and is expected to create nearly 10,000 new jobs in the region.

The letter goes on to praise Craig’s work to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the owners stating that Craig “ensured our small businesses got the support we needed to stay afloat, and that we had the resources we needed to not only recover after, but to flourish.” They specifically mention her work establishing a Small Business Grant program that provided assistance to over 100 local businesses.

RELATED: Kelly Ayotte forced to apologize, pull misleading ad after attempt to exploit 2015 murder

The business owners also take direct aim at the narrative Ayotte has created around Manchester in service of attack ads on her opponent.

The letter states that “the ads that have taken over the airwaves during this campaign don’t tell the real story of our city and how Joyce Craig worked every day to make our community stronger.” 

The business owners go further to claim that Ayotte’s campaign tactics are actually harming their businesses: “In fact, those very ads have hurt our businesses, as their fearmongering lies turn away customers.” 

New Hampshire Republicans have long used the city as a punching bag campaign after campaign.

The letter comes on the same day the Ayotte campaign hosted a round-table attacking Craig.

AmplifyNH, a statewide public policy advocacy organization and communication hub that has been engaging in accountability work against Ayotte also released a statement slamming Ayotte and fact-checking her often misleading claims on the city to the benefit of her campaign.

The release states that Ayotte, like former President Donald Trump, has been “campaigning through fear mongering and division” by “trashing the Manchester community.” It characterizes her campaign as being built on “fear and lying” and lacking “integrity and credibility.”

“Kelly Ayotte’s campaign of fear and lying is a disservice to the people of New Hampshire. Her willingness to exploit tragedy for political gain, coupled with her blatant disregard for facts, demonstrates a shocking lack of integrity and credibility,” said Ryan Mahoney, AmplifyNH’s Executive Director

The release also fact checks Ayotte, saying she “falsely claims Joyce Craig has overseen an uptick in crime,” when in fact “Joyce Craig reduced Manchester violent crime, outpacing Sununu” and that Ayotte “was forced to pull a callous campaign ad that falsely linked Joyce Craig to the unsolved murder of Denise Roberts in Manchester in 2015,” a crime that occurred before Craig was mayor, referring to Ayotte’s recent ad crisis.