Longtime state rep Cliff Newton tosses hat into ring for county commissioner slot

State Rep. Cliff Newton files his candidacy for election to the Strafford County Board of Commissioners on June 5. (Courtesy photo/Joe Pitre)

ROCHESTER - One of the severest critics of the Strafford County Commissioners is hoping he'll be elected to the board in November, a feat that no Republican has achieved in decades.
Cliff Newton, a lifetime resident of Rochester and five-term New Hampshire state rep, said he made the decision to run because "I'm not happy with the lack of transparency of the county and having to fight to get information out of them."
Newton's ire grew over the past several years as the Strafford County Board of Commissioners led by George Maglaras, D-Dover, sought to steamroll a "Taj Mahal" nursing home at a cost of some $200 million.
"They (the board) failed by not getting a consensus for a new nursing home," he said. "There was also a failure for commissioner to reach across the aisle in a nonpartisan way. We currently have one leader (on the board) and two followers."
One of the most dire examples of nondisclosure is that the commissioners knew in April 2022 that they could build a new nursing for $45 million, added Newton, who would never have stood even a chance of winning if not for the passage of HB75, which aligned the way the county elects its commissioners with the rest of the state's counties.
Prior to this year, commissioners were elected by an at-large vote, and with the county having a wide margin of Democrats overall, no Republican could win.

Even with the passage of the bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu, Maglaras and the other commissioners are seeking to overturn HB75 in the courts.

Newton, whose family has resided in Strafford County for five generations, is a retired mechanic, who many know for his photos from the good ole days in Rochester and Gonic on his Strafford County Sunshine Facebook page.
He says his years as a mechanic prepared him well for a new career in politics.
"I know how much folks like to find a good mechanic they can trust," he said. "And I like to fix things that are broken, and be someone they can trust."