Jackie Cilley officially entered the governor’s race Tuesday as a defiant Democratic candidate, offering what she called “bold leadership rather than simplistic pledges.”

Cilley, 60, told a large crowd of supporters at the Manchester YWCA that she won’t pledge to veto a broad-based tax.

“And, I won’t play pledge politics with the future of our state. Pledge politics is not leadership,” said Cilley whose vow won her a standing ovation from the partisan faithful. “In fact, if one takes enough pledges, they never have to think about anything again. Our citizens deserve to be heard regardless of the issue.”

With this, Cilley sets herself apart from her better-known primary rival, former Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan of Exeter, who took the anti-tax pledge – as have Republican contenders Ovide Lamontagne of Manchester and Kevin Smith of Litchfield.

Unlike Hassan, Cilley, while in the Senate, voted against both a mandatory seat belt law and a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars. Like Hassan, however, Cilley declined to take questions from the media after her announcement Tuesday.

Cilley’s speech traced her upbringings from a third-floor, walk up tenement in the North Country city of Berlin and saluted her grandfather, Elwood Currier, a paper millworker who didn’t even drive a car.

“So, here is my commitment to you: to give you bold leadership rather than simplistic pledges; to give you candor and plain talk rather than sound bites; and to work tirelessly in the interest of the citizens of New Hampshire in a way that Elwood Currier would be proud of,” Cilley said.

Cilley is the first college graduate in her family. She earned an MBA and taught economics at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business for 20 years.

Cilley served two years in the House and four years in the Senate from Barrington before losing her seat to Rochester Republican Fenton Groen in 2010.

Throughout her remarks, Cilley hammered the Republican leadership who voters chose in the last election to lead the state most vigorously on cuts to education

“Today, politicians in Concord are doing everything in their power to dilute our public education and destroy the very reason we are attractive to new businesses,” Cilley said.

“From attempts to eliminate kindergarten to allowing students to drop out at 16 years to reducing funding that provides alternative educational paths to graduation and on to slashing 50 percent of the funding for our university system – all these actions will result in New Hampshire’s students being unable to compete for the jobs of the future.”

Several times, Cilley made her criticism of GOP policies a call to arms for this election.

“So, I ask you again, is this what New Hampshire really stands for? Is this good enough for our citizens? Can we do better than this?” Cilley asked rhetorically.

Cilley said she would be a bipartisan governor but promised not to compromise on her principles.

“Compromise is only effective when it is built on a foundation of honesty, of facts and objective information, and when the results lead to better outcomes for our citizens,” Cilley said. “There is no credible ability to negotiate between a myth and a fact. There is no halfway point between a lie and the truth. And, there’s no compromise when it comes to the welfare of our citizens.”

Republican State Chairman Wayne MacDonald said the voters will come to view Cilley and Hassan as identical tax-and-spend liberals.

“I’m confident that the Republican Party will retake the governor’s office in November because there’s a sharp contrast between the two sides,” MacDonald said. “The party of Jackie Cilley and Maggie Hassan wants to return New Hampshire to the fiscally irresponsible path of taxes, spending and government, while our party wants to continue its fight to rein in government growth and establish an environment that creates jobs.”

Kevin Landrigan can reached at 321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com; also check out Kevin Landrigan (@KLandrigan) on Twitter and don’t forget The Telegraph’s new, interactive live feed at www.nashuatelegraph.com/topics/livefeed.

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