For Eric Pauer, a former board member of the Hollis Brookline Cooperative School District, school board elections are already deeply rooted in party politics. So, why not make it official?

“While officially they’re nonpartisan, underneath they really are partisan in a lot of ways,” said Pauer, who is now president of the School District Governance Association of New Hampshire. “A lot of the local education policy choices and budgeting choices are driven by partisan beliefs because that’s where people come from. They have those biases and they have those beliefs.”

Pauer, a Republican, testified in support of House Bill 356, which would allow local communities to adopt partisan school district elections by a town vote. His wife, Rep. Diane Pauer, is a co-sponsor on the bill.

Rep. Mark Vallone, a Democrat from Epping, urged the Election Law Committee to leave that option “off the table.” He argued that town and school issues are often considered nonpartisan and should be kept that way. A former teacher and elementary school principal, he warned that dividing elections by political party could increase polarization in communities.

“If you think about the level of partisanship and the intensity of the vitriol that is going on right now, do we really want to introduce more partisanship in our state?” Vallone asked the House Election Law Committee.

Vallone and Pauer, who were the only people to testify in person on the bill, had differing views on how the change would impact participation. Pauer said a partisan process would better inform voters and increase election turnout by putting the “D” or “R” next to a candidate’s name on the ballot.

“Most voters have a general idea – even if they don’t know who the candidate is – they have a general idea what a Republican means, what a Democrat means, and they find this information useful in making their decision,” Pauer said.

If school boards become partisan, Pauer said, members from each party could hold private caucuses to discuss issues and negotiate with the other side. In the election process, the bill would also let local party committees hold caucuses to nominate candidates. Caucuses are limited to registered members of a party.

Though candidates could still technically run as Independents, Vallone worried the process could discourage people from running for public office, not wanting to get involved in the “whirlwind” of party politics.

“I like town politics in part because it doesn’t matter what you are,” Vallone said. “If you go and you look at the Epping Budget Committee, you’d be hard-pressed to guess who was what, and that’s a great thing in this day and age in 2025.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmath erly@cmonitor.com.