Tara Reardon may have prevailed in a contentious three-way state Senate primary in the heavily Democratic Concord area, but a key test for her candidacy, and her potential first term, is still ahead.

On Monday, the state Legislative Ethics Committee will consider a request from one of Reardon’s opponents, Rebecca McWilliams, asking it to determine whether Reardon, now likely to serve in the Senate, would have to recuse herself from certain legislation under a new conflict of interest law. The committee had the ability to weigh in on that question — which flared tensions on the trail — before Tuesday’s primary, but chose to wait. 

Without a clear answer, voters selected Reardon by a close margin. She topped McWilliams, currently a state representative, by less than five percentage points, a slim victory given her high-profile endorsements. Her campaign spending and fundraising also more than doubled that of McWilliams. 

“I'm very proud of our team, so that's something,” McWilliams said Wednesday. “But, moving forward, we still have some unanswered questions.”

Reardon did not respond to a request for comment for this story but has previously emphasized that she looked into the new law, HB 1388, and was confident it would not require her to recuse herself in the Senate.

Within the last two weeks, Reardon and fellow candidate Angela Brennan issued opposing arguments about whether the now-nominee would be able to vote on legislation related to clients of her spouse Jim Bouley, who is a partner at a lobbying firm in the statehouse and is the former Concord mayor. Brennan, who also did not respond to a request for comment, issued a mailed ad saying it would be “illegal” for Reardon to represent her constituents under the new law. Reardon filed a complaint about the ad with the Attorney General, which was dismissed.

Around the same time, McWilliams requested the Legislative Ethics Committee to issue a ruling.

She also criticized both her opponents for their claims to voters about what the new law would mean when the question hadn’t been officially settled. The committee will take up McWilliams’ request on Monday.

Speaking with her supporters Tuesday night, the three-term state representative was disappointed with the race’s outcome, but also said she was proud of the campaign they had run, one focused on her advocacy on environmental issues, housing access and childcare affordability and not, even in the final weeks, on her opponents.

“It was a clean campaign, and it was an environmentally clean campaign,” she said. “We worked really hard all summer to get the word out about Casella and about PFAs… Until the last week and a half, when everything kind of came to a head.”

Depending on how the Legislative Ethics Committee applies the new law, it could have significant consequences for many New Hampshire lawmakers, those with similar circumstances to Reardon and others. 

Even though the outcome is settled in her race, McWilliams still wants the committee to provide more clarity to voters and legislators about what the new conflict of interest law will actually mean in practice. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the committee has yet to update the ethics guidelines to align with its requirements.

“We need rules before spring,” she said. “It's a different era. People aren't just going to recuse themselves because they know it’s the right thing to do.”