Chris Sununu

Family

Sununu, one of eight siblings, was raised in Salem, New Hampshire. He is the son of Nancy (Hayes) and former Governor of New Hampshire and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu. His father's ancestors were Lebanese and Palestinian and came to the United States around the start of the 20th century. They belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church^[1] Chris Sununu was sworn in with a Greek Orthodox New Testament belonging to his family.^[2] His father was born in Havana, Cuba; however, most of the last two generations of Sununus were born in the United States.^[3] His mother's ancestors include immigrants from Ireland, as well as Scotland and England.^[3]

Education

• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Fairfax County, Virginia, graduated 1993
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering, graduated 1998

Engineering

From 1998 to 2006, Sununu worked as an environmental engineer designing systems and solutions for cleaning up waste sites. He specialized in soil and groundwater remediation, wastewater treatment plants, and landfill designs.

Business

• In 2010, Sununu led a group of investors in the buyout of Waterville Valley Resort where he works as Chief Executive Officer. Waterville Valley employs over 700 people in the North Country. Sununu is currently leading an aggressive expansion effort of the ski resort in cooperation with the United States Forest Service. The resort offers downhill skiing, Nordic skiing, golf, tennis, mountain biking, a year-round ice arena and conference center services.

• From 2006 to 2010, Sununu was an owner and director of Sununu Enterprises, a family business and strategic consulting group located in Exeter, NH. He focused much of his time on local, national and international real estate development, venture technologies and business acquisitions.

10-Year Highway Plan

On December 16, 2015, the Governor's Advisory Commission on the Intermodal Transportation (GACIT) presented the 10-Year Plan for 2017-2026 to the Governor of State New Hampshire.^[4] Executive Counselor Sununu, as a voting member of GACIT, helped develop the blueprint which "aggressively addressed financial constraint, assuming federal funding of about $160 million per year."^[5]

Ward Bird

In 2010, Sununu joined the other four Executive Council members in voting unanimously to release Ward Bird from his mandatory three to six-year prison sentence for threatening another person with a gun. The council voted to grant a full pardon to the Moultonborough farmer, who was convicted of brandishing a gun at a woman who trespassed on his posted property in 2008. But Lynch, who has never granted a pardon during his tenure in the Corner Office, vetoed the measure, saying the judicial system had given Bird's case a thorough review and he would not undermine that. The council then immediately voted to commute his sentence, and Lynch let that vote stand.^[6]

Home Help NH

Sununu at a 2016 gubernatorial candidate forum steered by former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. and former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

In 2011, The New Hampshire Executive Council worked with the New Hampshire Attorney General and Banking Department to approve and create Home Help NH. The group assists citizens placed in financial distress and, in some cases, taken advantage of by big banks during the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Managed Medicaid

In 2011, Sununu led a series of public hearings to review proposals for Managed Medicaid, a program to help New Hampshire Medicaid recipients to coordinate their health care.^[7] It also helps Medicaid recipients with chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, obesity, and mental illness. Through this program, Medicaid recipients have wellness and prevention programs as a part of their Medicaid benefit.

In 2014, a 300-page, $292 million amendment to the state's Medicaid program came before the Executive Council only two hours before the scheduled vote. Republicans Joseph Kenney and Sununu urged the governor and other Democrats present not to vote for a contract that had not yet been read, but lost the vote 3-2, along party lines.^[8]

Elections

Tenure

Sununu was sworn in as Governor for a two-year term on January 5, 2017.

In November 2017, Sununu said that he opposed efforts to make voter requirements stricter by barring New Hampshire residents who were "domiciled" from voting.^[9] However, in July 2018, Sununu reversed his position and signed a bill barring New Hampshire residents who were "domiciled" from voting.^[10] Establishing a "residency" rather than a "domicile" can be costly and time-consuming, and is likely to deter students, a Democratic-leaning constituency, from voting.^[11]

In June 2018, Sununu vetoed a measure to repeal the death penalty.^[12][13][14]

Issues

Sununu is a moderate Republican.^[15] He is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.^[16] He is in favor of tax cuts, but takes liberal positions on some social issues.