In this morning’s Union Leader, former Congressman and New Hampshire Senate President Jeb Bradley highlighted that while Governor Ayotte continues to deliver for all of New Hampshire, Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington still refuses to come clean about her disqualifying record:
Jeb Bradley: Ayotte delivers results, Warmington offers excuses
Kelly Ayotte has earned a second term based on her record alone! But, it’s also time for Cinde Warmington and the Democrats to come clean about Warmington’s long history of working for the opioid industry and bad actors like Purdue Pharma.
In a recent op-ed (“Before you judge Warmington on Purdue, look at Ayotte’s own pharma money,” Aug. 7), former Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan conveniently left out quite a bit of information about Warmington’s record.
Worried about Warmington pushing Purdue Pharma’s lies and calling OxyContin a “miracle drug” with “few side effects” — Sullivan thinks voters should move on. She claims Warmington’s work for the opioid industry ended “almost 25 years ago.”
Unfortunately, the facts tell a different story, and until recently, Sullivan said so herself.
For more than a decade, Warmington was the registered agent for Dr. Michael O’Connell and his PainCare clinic network, which gained notoriety for its role in worsening the opioid crisis in New Hampshire when a provider was convicted of accepting illegal kickbacks for prescribing opioids.
Warmington continued representing PainCare and its interests for years — including representing O’Connell after he surrendered his medical license, helping negotiate a settlement for a doctor tied to the scandal, advocating against legislation that would prevent doctors with revoked licenses from owning a medical practice, and even meeting with NHPR to defend PainCare’s public image.
After Warmington fought for PainCare and its founder for years, O’Connell returned the favor by donating $49,000 to her political campaigns.
During the 2024 Democratic primary, Joyce Craig described Warmington as a business agent for “a notorious pill mill in Somersworth that pushed pills into all of our communities.” Now, Craig refuses to endorse Warmington while Kathy Sullivan embraces her excuses and misrepresentations.
Sullivan also repeats Warmington’s claim that “no one knew” about Purdue Pharma’s lies or the dangers of OxyContin. Recently on WMUR’s CloseUp, Adam Sexton confronted Warmington with evidence to the contrary. At the same hearing where Warmington called OxyContin a miracle drug, New Hampshire State Police and then Health and Human Services Commissioner Don Shumway were sounding the alarm about the dangers of opioids.
Sexton also pressed Warmington on her work for O’Connell. Her response was that PainCare was just “one of hundreds of doctors” she represented. O’Connell is not just some doctor. Warmington brushing it off as just another client shows how little she regrets the work.
Ironically, Kathy Sullivan herself called out this exact defense during Warmington’s failed 2024 campaign for governor. These are Sullivan’s own words on social media: “One of the defenses from Cinde’s campaign is that the opioid problem wasn’t known when Cinde lobbied for Purdue Pharma. That just is not correct. Cinde testified Oxy was a miracle drug in April, 2002, several months after that congressional hearing. That is also a fact.”
The facts haven’t changed since Sullivan’s tweet. The only thing that has changed is that New Hampshire Democrats couldn’t recruit a better candidate than an opioid lobbyist to challenge Governor Kelly Ayotte. Now, they’re parroting the same excuses Sullivan herself once called out.
Remember that it was Sullivan who said “suck it up buttercup” after President Joe Biden’s 2024 debate disaster. Voters aren’t forgetting that excuse either.
The opioid crisis has devastated our state, yet Cinde Warmington still refuses to take responsibility for her work for the opioid industry. Instead of being honest with New Hampshire voters, she continues to double down on excuses and misrepresentations about her record. When someone can excuse away and misrepresent so often and so easily about something this serious, that should terrify every Granite Stater.
While Warmington doubles down on defending her disqualifying record, Governor Kelly Ayotte continues to show why she has earned another term in the corner office. With record per-student funding for education, large increases of funding for cities and towns, a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in our schools, fixing lenient bail laws that allowed violent offenders back on the streets — New Hampshire once again ranks #1 for public safety — and the most ambitious housing legislation in state history, Kelly Ayotte has delivered a successful first term.
Also critical to the Granite State’s future, Kelly will continue to oppose an income tax or a new state homeowner tax on top of local property taxes.
Voters should look at their records: Governor Ayotte’s numerous successes vs Warmington’s lobbying for a disgraced opioid manufacturer. The choice is easy: Kelly Ayotte in 2026.
