E15: Rep. Tom Oppel

Today, Tom and I did a Substack Live, which we turned into a podcast. We go back more than 20 years, and Tom (who is in his first term as a New Hampshire state legislator representing a Grafton County district in the Upper Valley) has truly done it all: He's been a teacher, then a journalist, then a high-level political communications operative in state and national races, then eventually a partner in one of the country's most prominent Democratic consulting firms, then the Chief of Staff for the Secretary of the Navy during the Obama administration, and now an elected official.Today, we discussed the big recent news of the agreement between Senate Republicans and eight Senate Democrats to re-open the government, and the reasons behind the near-universally negative reaction on the part of Democratic activists. What should the Democratic message be entering 2026 at the state and national level, and how does this Senate development impact our ability to deliver that message?We also discuss Tom's recent efforts to bring the need for additional revenue to pay for the State's constitutional responsibility to fund more of public education back to the forefront. He proposed bringing back a bill killed in 2025 for the second year of the legislative session, and although his effort was denied by the GOP-led Rules Committee, he has a lot to say about the topic.Finally, we talk some sports at the end, as often happens. He's one of the bigger hockey fans I know, and the role of youth hockey in his family's lives is both sweet - and will ring true for so many of us who drove our daughters and sons to practices and games for years.To learn more, visit www.SteveMarchand.com.