Erin Hennessey: The Quiet Power Behind Democracy's Paperwork

Anything But Politics is a groundbreaking new podcast that is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers. Co-hosted by former journalist and media expert Tiffany Eddy and seasoned lobbyist and ex-politico Tom Prasol, this video podcast dives into the personal lives, passions, and pivotal experiences of notable figures, offering a refreshing and intimate look at who they are beyond the public eye.

Transcript

Meeting Deputy Secretary Hennessey

Speaker 1 0:04

Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy.

Speaker 2 0:06

And I'm Tom Prezal.

Speaker 1 0:07

And we are so pleased to be bringing you another episode of Anything but Politics. Where we interview different political figures and people involved in politics about their personal lives and really not about their political positions.

Speaker 2 0:20

Yeah, and today we're being joined by somebody who's held multiple positions in state government, including three terms six years in the New Hampshire House, one term two years in the New Hampshire Senate and is currently since 2022, the Deputy Secretary of State for the state of New Hampshire, erin Hennessey.

Speaker 1 0:40

Thanks for having me. Yay, thanks for coming on. And so, Tom, I think you wanted to maybe break rules.

Speaker 2 0:46

Yeah, I want to break the rules. It's Monday. It was a long weekend Because you are a rule breaker.

Secretary of State's Diverse Duties

Speaker 2 0:50

I am a rule breaker, but you know, what I want to do is I want to venture a tad into government. Right, and by doing that, I think, with the Secretary of State's office. Most people associate it with elections. Right, and you run the elections and all that good stuff, but there's so much more to the office. So I was wondering if you could just take a minute tell people what is involved in the Secretary of State's office, what areas fall under your purview. Just a little gist for the listeners.

Speaker 3 1:18

Sure. So the Secretary of State is elected every two years by the legislature. So the House and the Senate meet and 424 votes you get the most of them. You are secretary of state. The treasurer is also elected and this is in the New Hampshire constitution. And also in the New Hampshire constitution the secretary shall pick his deputy. So I am the deputy, I'm the backup person. Hopefully nothing ever happens to our secretary of state. So. But we are.

Speaker 3 1:44

But we are in charge of elections. The Secretary is the chief election official for the state. But we also have Corporations Division, which does all of the business registries for the state. We do notaries and justices of the peace, we do apostilles. So if you have a notarized document that has to go abroad, we will do that right in our office at the statehouse. We also are in charge of securities and security regulation for the state. We have the archives and records management. So we have really nice historical documents for the state of New Hampshire, as well as a giant warehouse for maintaining documents for every other state agency until they need to be destroyed.

Speaker 3 2:26

We also have Division of Vital Records, so one of the main records for people in the state of New Hampshire is their birth certificate. Deaths, marriages, divorces, annulments, those types of things, and then probably a few other things that I'm not thinking about right now. That's a huge, huge responsibility. It's a lot of different departments and it's very interesting.

Speaker 1 2:48

I had no idea. I really had no idea that you guys were that involved in so many different things. I know I have to always file my annual report for you know Tiffany Eddy Media, and go on the website, Do April 1st.

Speaker 3 3:04

I've already taken care of this year, so I'm good and you're also in charge of all the lobbyists and our registrations Lobbyist registrations and those will be coming online soon.

Speaker 2 3:13

Looking forward to that.

From Cape Cod to California

Speaker 1 3:15

Oh, that's awesome. I remember, like I have fond memories of you know not to talk about the former Secretary of State but back in my days as a reporter, going up and talking to Bill Gardner and Bill Gardner is an institution and preserved the New Hampshire primary and is such a wonderful historian but you could go up there and end up in a conversation with Bill for like two hours and he would show you all of these different pictures and have all these incredible, incredible stories I mean talk about like just a vault of information.

Speaker 3 3:47

Yes, yes, he remembers everything. Very interesting.

Speaker 2 3:51

Great, well, okay. So that's enough of the rule breaking, let's get back to the script. All right. So, uh, secretary Hennessy, um, you know you are not originally from New Hampshire. I believe you're from down by the Cape.

Speaker 3 4:05

Is that correct? Yeah, I'm not from here. I'm a Flatlander. Yes, I was born in Centerville, massachusetts, which is a little tiny village in Barnstable, oh, yep. And then moved to South Florida from there, so, really flat, came back up to Massachusetts for school and then out to California and then back to New Hampshire, my permanent home. Which school? So I went to Boston College oh, I've heard of that, yep, yep.

Speaker 2 4:29

So between the Cape and then Florida and then San Diego. So you love sharks, right?

Speaker 1 4:35

He's been dying to ask this question. Yeah, I mean, you're just following sharks around the world.

Speaker 3 4:41

I don't mind sharks if I can see them in a tank or like a nurse shark that's at the bottom when you're snorkeling. Yeah, that's not okay, but I only like to swim in water that I can see through.

Speaker 1 4:53

No, so like a pool, not San Diego.

Speaker 3 4:55

Not the Cape usually.

Speaker 2 4:57

I was in San Diego a couple years ago and this is just my ignorance. This was my first time over on the West Coast, but I was like I went running into the ocean and I was like this is cold, it's very cold.

Speaker 3 5:07

I thought this was going to be warm. Yeah, most people wear wetsuits out there. Even though it's very south, it's really cold yeah.

Speaker 2 5:14

And there are sharks. There are sharks everywhere, yes, and they eat people. Well especially guys named Tom.

Speaker 3 5:21

That's my rumor is that I would get eaten too.

Speaker 2 5:23

Oh yeah, it's a rational fear. It's a healthy fear. I have a healthy respect for the ocean. I love it. The salt water is great. It helps with the tan. But, you know, just be mindful of your surroundings. Yeah, but so okay. So you grew up down the Cape until you were around like 11. Yeah, I moved my yeah.

Speaker 3 5:40

I moved. My dad was a meat cutter at Stop and Shop, my mom was an in-home daycare person for mostly teachers' kids. Then we moved to be by my mom's parents in South Florida and it was like a culture shock, you know, going from a really small village school to a giant middle school. So it took a little bit of adjusting but made some great friends. I still have friends today that I met when I was that age. And what part of South Florida Coral Springs it's in the northwest corner of Broward County.

Speaker 1 6:11

Nice. If you're a Florida person, you know Broward County. My parents live down in Florida, so I'm always curious, and so then you moved back to New Hampshire from Florida.

Speaker 3 6:22

Well, I moved from Florida, I went to Boston College. Okay, yep.

Speaker 2 6:28

What made you choose BC?

Speaker 3 6:31

I was choosing between. I wanted to be an accountant. I didn't actually know what an accountant did. I loved math and so I was like, oh well, accounting that sounds mathy, you know.

Speaker 2 6:40

So I wanted to be an accountant. It's very mathy you know.

Speaker 3 6:48

So, um, I wanted to be very mathy and I, um, I was choosing between Emory, which is in Atlanta, georgia, and Boston College, and BC had a football team and Emory didn't, wasn't really a sportsy school, so I chose BC yeah, so you like sports. I do like. I like watching sports yeah, and when I was younger, I could play them, but not so much well played.

Speaker 2 7:04

Now, what did you play in high school?

Speaker 3 7:06

Basketball and volleyball for a little bit, and then I was on the track and field team. I was a thrower and a triple jumper. But, I wasn't good at triple jump, but nobody ever did the triple jump.

Speaker 2 7:17

Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:17

So I would come in like third place.

Speaker 2 7:19

That's good. So what do you mean? You're a thrower. Are we talking shot? Put discus javelin.

Speaker 3 7:24

At the time we didn't have javelin. We had shot put and discus in my high school and so I was pretty good at shot put. I would place, but I was really good at discus until I got to the county championships and then I think one of the girls I threw against was in the Olympics.

Speaker 1 7:43

Oh, I mean, that's a good example. That's fair right when you say discus like shot put, like I can visualize like okay, you're throwing that thing, but discus, is it more like a frisbee or A heavy one.

Speaker 3 7:53

It comes in a different direction than a frisbee, so you make a big circle. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 8:00

And then I was looking that you actually I'm probably jumping ahead a little bit, but we're talking sports At one point you actually worked for Callaway Golf, oh yeah, so we're probably getting ahead of your timeline there, but I want to talk about golf. We're almost in golf season.

Speaker 2 8:15

It is almost golf season.

Speaker 1 8:16

Players were just wrapping up, so Callaway Golf, that's so exciting. Are you an amazing golfer?

Speaker 3 8:25

No, I'm not. So I moved, lived in Boston for three years as an accountant in a public accounting firm but worked in the post-merger and acquisition world, where you fix problems for companies after they merge. My husband and I weren't married at the time, but we had a lot of friends that were moving out to San Diego and my college roommate was too. So we went out and it's like well, where's you know, let's see what it's like. It's really nice in San Diego.

Speaker 2 8:50

It is nice. It's like the same weather every day, right, oh yeah.

Family Life and Parenting

Speaker 3 8:53

Like 72, which is my jam, and there's no humidity, there's no mosquitoes, it's. We had a lot of friends moving out there, so we decided to quit our jobs and move out there and I think my parents were a little nervous. But I found a job within a week as an internal auditor for Callaway Golf and I did take up golf at that point.

Speaker 2 9:14

Okay. Yeah, did you get a discount on clubs?

Speaker 3 9:17

Yes, got a discount on clubs. Got them fitted to me so I was probably 25 at that point. No-transcript.

Speaker 2 9:30

Same clubs or have you replaced those? The same clubs?

Speaker 3 9:33

Oh, the technology's gotten better.

Speaker 2 9:34

You might want to look into it.

Speaker 3 9:36

I've gotten different drivers, but my irons are good.

Speaker 1 9:38

Are they the same? Yeah, that's funny. I still have my irons from when I was like 15 years old and can hit them pretty well. So I don't know, with the irons, if that makes a difference.

Speaker 3 9:53

I want to back up a little bit. Married yet, so moved in with my, my college roommate, and my husband moved in with his high school friends from Littleton and um so is that how you guys met?

Speaker 1 10:04

Like, what's the?

Speaker 3 10:04

Oh, we met we met as interns at Pricewaterhouse so at that time it was one of the big six accounting firms and there's so many like accounting firms in Boston. It's they like draw from all the area schools. So we both went to BC but I didn't know him.

Speaker 2 10:21

It's a big school.

Speaker 3 10:23

Yeah, but we're both accounting majors.

Speaker 2 10:24

It's a big department.

Speaker 3 10:27

So we met that summer. We started dating at the end of the summer and that's how I met him. So we spent a year together at BC. Both worked in the same accounting firm different divisions so that worked out well.

Speaker 2 10:39

Now Pricewaterhouse. Now. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but don't they do the auditing? For, like the Grammys and the Oscars, did you ever work on any of those?

Speaker 3 10:47

So no, but that's what my mom said when I told her who I was going to work for. So she, my mom, she passed away last year, but she, it was pretty funny. I don't think she ever knew what I did. So I said, oh yeah, I'm going to intern for it. At the time it was Pricewaterhouse, now it's PricewaterhouseCoopers and she's like, oh, they do the Oscars. I don't think I'm going to work on that account, but yeah, they do.

Speaker 2 11:10

They do oh, so they do Okay they did.

Speaker 3 11:12

I don't know if they still do.

Speaker 1 11:13

Yeah, yeah, they used to say it, I think, during the ceremony, like you know, calculated by Pricewaterhouse.

Speaker 2 11:19

Yeah, we don't blame them for the whole moonlight fiasco. That one year Risk La La Land, but no, that's great. So you were there. Then you moved to California. You got married.

Speaker 3 11:30

Yeah, we got married when we were out in California, came back east to get married in southern Massachusetts, where my dad's family's from, and we had our daughter out in San Diego, took a little bit of time off, then went back and did some. I worked in like internal audit consulting for a little bit and was able to work part time, which was great, and then decided California is very expensive and if one of us ever lost our jobs we would have a difficult time keeping up with our expenses. We're never able to buy a house when we were out there because they kept going up like 30%. So this is in 2001, 2003 to we left in 2007. 2008, the housing market crashed there, so we would have been able to buy something that point. But I'm never regret having moved to New Hampshire.

Speaker 1 12:22

So and so what brought you, like, all the way from there here, and, and you know, obviously you haven't regretted it, so it was it was a good thing. But what's the, what's the, the driving force and kind of the differences like, as a mom, you know, new Hampshire is probably a pretty, you know, wholesome place to raise kids.

Speaker 3 12:38

Yeah, and that's what. So I visited New Hampshire a lot because my husband is from Littleton, his dad's from Littleton. So I actually went to Littleton with another college roommate before I met my husband, because she's from St Johnsbury, vermont. So I'd been to Littleton, I'd been to the store where my son now works for that company, so you know, so I loved it there. It was so cute.

Speaker 3 13:02

And then met my husband and visited his family and his friends up there and I just always loved it there. You know, you, you, your kids can play outside, they can ride their bikes. You know, like normal kids, like I did growing up Now they wear helmets. But yeah, I just loved it there. So San Diego was I love the weather, had a lot of nice friends there, but it's so like congested and you don't have a bunch of yard space to run around in if you're lucky enough to have a yard. And then our family, my family, my dad's family, was all in Massachusetts. I had two sisters in Connecticut at that point and a sister in Massachusetts. I still have two sisters in Connecticut, but the Massachusetts one moved to Idaho.

Speaker 3 13:46

So just a lot of family still in New England area, so we were flying back a lot. I think by the time my daughter was a year and a half when we flew. When I flew with her to move to New Hampshire that was her sixth time making the journey from San Diego. I wish I was into points.

Speaker 2 14:05

So your husband's from Littleton originally. So you guys moved back here. And then, what do you, what do you do and what is he doing?

Speaker 3 14:13

So he at that time, and still he works for Littleton Coin Company, which is one of the largest coin collecting businesses in the world. I think it's a great company. It's in Littleton, new Hampshire, great employees.

Speaker 2 14:26

Employee-owned right.

Speaker 3 14:27

Employee-owned, which is great yeah. The former owner. It was a family-owned business. The former president, his dad, had started it. Stampin' Coin Now just the coins are in Littleton. One of the brothers took the stamps to New York and it's a great business, great. And he started out as the chief financial officer. I believe no, the marketing in the marketing department Became the chief financial officer and he is the president now.

Speaker 2 14:51

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 14:52

But what did I do? I had another kid, yeah. So, um, are you guys coin collectors? While we're on, I'm not a coin collector, I like cool ones and I like with. When my kids were little, I loved doing the maps like the state quarters. So there's a lot of cool things to do with kids, but uh, you know I'll look at things but I'm not.

Speaker 1 15:14

I don't spend a lot of time trying to collect them, but and so explain just a tiny bit, like I know, and I think it's been featured on, on, on, maybe, New Hampshire Chronicle but what? What is like this, this coin company, like? What makes them so famous?

Travel Dreams and Hawaii Adventures

Speaker 3 15:29

Um, I well, I think it's. I think stamps and coins like have been something cool to collect and because they age and you know there's more every year, no more pennies now, but it's just an interesting thing to find an interesting thing, and then I forget the year. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 15:50

John.

Speaker 3 15:50

I should know this. My husband's name is John. You know, like there's silver, a certain silver amount in each of the coins. But as of a certain year that silver was cut back because silver started getting expensive and it wasn't worth the amount that was in the coin.

Speaker 2 16:10

So if you find an old coin that has silver in it or is full silver, it's worth a lot more than just the stamped value of the coin. Especially, I mean I think gold and silver right now are through the roof because of the market volatility. So I mean I think gold and silver right now are through the roof because of the market volatility, so I mean coins can be worth a lot of money.

Speaker 3 16:19

Yeah, yep, so yeah, it's just an interesting hobby because you know people love to look through pocket change.

Speaker 1 16:25

Yeah, no, it is. It's always really fun, and when you find something that's a little bit different, yeah, it's exciting. Yeah, it is so. Two kids, two kids, two kids, yep, pride and joy of your life, yes, or put gray hairs on your head.

Speaker 3 16:37

Yes, yeah, no. I mean I think any parent is like parenting is difficult, but I love them. They're very funny in different ways. My daughter has a very dry sense of humor and delivery and it's perfect, and my son is just funny all the time. I don't know how to explain him, but my daughter's a freshman at Case Western in Cleveland, ohio. She wanted to go someplace warm and then found Case Western and I'm like it's not going to be warm there it's going to be really windy, but she loves it there.

Speaker 3 17:07

She's a nursing major. She wants to be a nurse practitioner.

Speaker 2 17:11

Is she a cheerleader too?

Speaker 3 17:12

She made the cheer team that's awesome. Yeah, she's a cheerleader too. She made the cheer team. That's awesome. Yeah, she loves it. She's got a great group of nursing friends and cheer friends and her roommate worked out wonderfully. So you know she had a great. She's a freshman. And then my son just started looking at schools. He's a junior so he wants to go to a big sports school.

Speaker 1 17:28

Oh, my goodness, that's so funny because I have a son, also a junior, and he wants to go to a D1 football school. Oh, but does he play football? No, he just wants to. Well, he does, excuse me, he does play football, but he's not going to be playing D1 football, okay.

Speaker 3 17:43

Yeah, so we don't even have a football team at Littleton High School, but same with my son. So he just looked at Auburn and Tennessee. He loved Auburn. He's going out to look at Utah because he loves to ski too. He'll look at UNH, I don't know. There's probably UC Boulder, I think, is on his list.

Speaker 1 18:02

So he's looking at you know, far away from mom, but I remember looking at UC Boulder with my daughter. So my, you and I have kids of similar age, so my daughter is probably a year older than yours. But we went out to look at UC Boulder and I remember like the campus was so beautiful and the woman giving us a tour was like and the Rolling Stones played right here on the green, and one of the moms and I looked at each other and she was like I want to go here and I was like I know me too, like why can't we go back?

Speaker 3 18:31

yeah, yeah, I definitely had that reaction to some of the schools that I toured with my daughter. So, yeah, so he's fun, he works, he loves skiing, so when he goes to look at Utah he's going to ski with my husband.

Speaker 1 18:44

I don't ski anymore, so and where does he ski up there, like up in the Luton area?

Speaker 3 18:49

He skis either at Bretton Woods or at Cannon.

Speaker 1 18:52

Okay, yeah, yeah, both good Canon can be tough. But you have a question, I've got one, but I don't want to jump on you. Yeah, no, please.

Speaker 2 18:59

Well. So I have a question because I know when we were talking earlier, you were talking about game nights and like game nights, I think are fun for everybody. But I know you and your daughter are currently learning a game. Yes, but what's your favorite game?

Speaker 3 19:13

Ooh.

Speaker 2 19:15

Like Trivial Pursuit Monopoly.

Speaker 3 19:16

Oh, I hate Monopoly Jenga. My husband is so good at Monopoly and it takes so long and he just draws out my pain. So like sometimes I'm crying at the end. I'm like I hate this game. I don't know. I just my family and I play a lot of cards. Like we went on a vacation after my daughter graduated high school and we played like Rummy and Phase 10. And so anything like you can sit around a table and have conversation at the same time that you're playing, I just love that.

Speaker 2 19:47

I'm a big fan of categories because you can kind of lobby your way to get multiple points in that Right, like Mickey Mouse. Oh that's two points right?

Speaker 3 19:56

Yeah, maybe Cards Against Humanity with my friends. Yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 1 20:01

Spoken like a true lobbyist. Yeah, well you know, and then I was talking to you a little bit before about so you and your daughter just took up Mahjong.

Speaker 3 20:08

Oh, yes, yeah. So I got a gift card for Christmas from Amazon and I chose to use it to get a Mahjong set. I don't even know if I'm saying it correctly, but I've seen it on Instagram and my mom played it when she was probably my age, and it seems like one of those same types of things where you can sit around a table with your friends and play. So we played two rounds and I'm not an expert yet, but next time I see it I'll let you know how it's going.

Speaker 1 20:32

Yeah, I'm curious. I think I want to try to take it up as well. Yeah, it's fun. My mother's addicted to it.

Speaker 3 20:37

Yeah yeah, I was telling my father-in-law and he's like oh yeah, all my friends are playing.

Speaker 2 20:43

So is it a card game? I'm not too familiar.

Speaker 3 20:53

It's like a card game but you or something, but it's on little pictures.

Speaker 2 20:59

Like dominoes Kind of.

Speaker 3 21:02

I think they're it's, you know. Yeah, if you they were face down, they would look like dominoes. Okay, okay, yeah, okay, that's fair yeah yeah, so again, not an expert at it, still learning.

Speaker 1 21:12

But still, that's great that you keep doing that. So what else, like what else you know, it gets you like excited about you know life.

Speaker 3 21:20

Oh, you're a traveler, right yeah, I love to travel um I wish that's the place you've traveled oh well, one of my favorite vacations.

Speaker 3 21:29

So I have like family vacations or husband vacations, but family vacations, um, during covid times, you know that dark period in everybody's life. Travel was wicked cheap at that time, and so I booked a trip to Hawaii using Marriott points and very inexpensive flights, because nobody else was traveling at the time. And then Hawaii also had like huge restrictions where you had to, like, show your ID and your COVID card to get into a restaurant. So, um, I booked it like 11 months in advance and by the time the time came to take the trip, it was I wouldn't have been able to afford it. So that was awesome. We did six nights and um Maui and six nights at the big Island. It was just wonderful.

Speaker 2 22:12

So I, two years ago, my wife and I went to Maui. It was probably one of my favorite places right the um. I thought Wailea was beautiful. We went to Haleakala, the road to Hana, um, I absolutely loved it. But we went right after the fire, oh, and it was like one of those things where I called them and said, um, hey, I'm not coming. Um, and they were like why we weren't affected, I'm not coming, and they were like why we weren't affected. I'm like your governor said they don't want us to come and they're like, yeah, we're not going to refund you. And I said I'll see you in a week. But the island was quiet, but everybody there was so happy that we were there because, you know, tourism is a huge part of their economy.

Speaker 3 22:50

But I love, I'd love to go to the big island, so maybe we should talk later about it. And I love now. I'd love to go to the big island, so maybe we should talk later. And I love the ocean there, like you can see everything, and it was just beautiful. So I didn't.

Speaker 2 22:58

There are sharks.

Speaker 3 22:59

Yeah, but you could see them coming.

Speaker 1 23:01

What's up with you and sharks?

Speaker 2 23:03

today they eat people, Tiffany.

Speaker 1 23:04

I'm aware of that, but I mean.

Speaker 3 23:11

They say they don't like the taste, of't need to go there, don't go in the water, yeah Well, no, but it's good for the tan. The bigger thing I was concerned about there were the sea urchins, because I didn't want to step on one, oh yeah. Yeah, so, and they were everywhere.

Speaker 2 23:21

All right, so you loved Maui. That was a family vacation.

Speaker 3 23:23

Yeah, that was a family vacation. Husband vacation, so it's like we were some of the youngest people. This was you weren't Carnival. No, this was like in Europe. We did like a Mediterranean cruise and it was absolutely wonderful, like we would walk in from walking all over Europe for the day. It didn't matter where we were and the bartender would be like John, would you like your?

Speaker 1 23:51

martini.

Speaker 3 23:52

Aaron, would you like your old fashioned? I'm like yes, yes, I would it was very nice.

Speaker 1 23:56

Oh, that sounds nice, so we're in the Mediterranean.

Speaker 2 24:00

So you've been to. You know, obviously you traveled a lot for work in the United States, yeah, um, but then you've also obviously been overseas, so you don't have a specific place where you know you win Powerball tomorrow.

Speaker 3 24:13

No one will ever know if I win Powerball.

Speaker 2 24:15

There'll be signs no there'll be.

Speaker 3 24:16

Well, maybe, but you know Maybe just a couple I already have a plan, you know you get the lawyer that puts it into the trust and you know whatever.

Speaker 1 24:25

So you've done that whole fantasy that we all do Like. Okay, if I won, this would be what I would do, yeah.

Speaker 3 24:30

Oh, I would love to travel. I would love to go. One of my shows that I can watch before I go to bed because it doesn't keep me up is Below Deck. I call it McDonald's for my brain, because it really is. It's like mindless.

Speaker 2 24:43

It's good reality TV, but I would love to get one of those like rent it.

Speaker 1 24:56

I don't need to buy one, but like for a few weeks and have like a crew cater to me on this giant luxury yacht, me and my friends, and go wherever we want. Okay, if you do, if you should win, I'm totally available to go out and do that and we can keep a secret.

Speaker 2 25:02

Yeah, and as long as there are no sharks, Tom is totally on the sharks. Oh yeah, I'm not going in that water, Not off a boat. No, I need to touch the sandy floor.

Speaker 1 25:12

He needs a pool.

Speaker 2 25:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:14

Yeah so that's probably what I would do, and maybe even go to a place I haven't been before.

Speaker 1 25:18

On the boat. Well, okay, so we will know, because all of a sudden, aaron Hennessey will be not available and off on a boat. Yeah, but you won't know, because I won't post pictures. That's always a smart idea.

Speaker 3 25:28

But you'd keep your job yeah we'll see that's the sign Now.

Speaker 2 25:33

that's the sign.

Speaker 1 25:35

Now, we're grateful that you're on this podcast, which is you know video For those who are listening. You can also watch it on YouTube, but this isn't your first time, as far as I know, being on a very famous, well-watched broadcast.

Path from Legislature to Deputy Secretary

Speaker 3 25:53

Oh yeah, I told Tom about this. Yeah, so when I lived in San Diego, I went with my sister and a friend up to the Ellen DeGeneres show. So you get tickets in advance and they put you on these long benches outside the studio and then somebody comes around and like ask questions, and then they, based on your reaction to the questions, they pick you out of the benches to do like a game or something. Oh, get out out of the benches to do like a game or something. Oh, get out.

Speaker 3 26:20

So I was on Ellen DeGeneres and they were doing beanbag musical chairs, okay, and I won. And I won a trip to Universal Studios. But I lived in San Diego and this was the Universal Studios in Florida and it was like a three-day trip. And I have a nine-month-old and I'm like, yeah, I can't take that. So they let me keep my bean bag instead, which is really cool, you know, ultimately my kids loved it and popped it. But, um, I think I got like, instead of going to universal studios, they gave me a TiVo, which I don't even know.

Speaker 3 26:51

I took it out of the box but found somebody to give that to. But that was fun, it was really fun.

Speaker 2 27:02

Um, you probably won't find it, cause this is before like um DVR.

Speaker 3 27:04

You know you had to have everything's out there.

Speaker 2 27:05

It may be, it is, but yeah, oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 27:06

I'd love to see that.

Speaker 2 27:06

Like 90210 on YouTube, so I'm sure we could find it but I love.

Speaker 3 27:11

I love games that like nobody gets to practice in advance because I'm really competitive, but if somebody, once you get to practice, I'm not going to be the best one in the room, so you know. But that initial like nobody knew what we were going to do, you've got the heart.

Speaker 1 27:27

And so you didn't know what the game was at all. They just say, this is what you're going to do, and you're like, yep, I'm game. Oh no, I just I said yes, I'm game before.

Speaker 3 27:34

Yeah, yeah, I yeah, anything they wanted I was going to do you said competition, sign me up.

Speaker 1 27:39

And then you dominated.

Speaker 3 27:40

Yeah Well, I you know, the women I was doing it against were very nice, so ultimately, in the end they let all of them go, so I thought that was really nice. So there was one of the women her husband had just passed away and so she was on a trip to like you know but it was.

Speaker 2 27:56

It was a nice experience you should have gone on prices, right.

Speaker 3 28:00

My husband went on prices right no way yeah, um he did he get picked? He didn't, but he was, um, in the first row behind the contestants so he was on the whole time. He, almost he. He thinks they were gonna get picked because you have to, like, come in and like, show your spirit and wear your college shirt. So him and his friend went and they both wore Boston College shirts and were screaming and yelling, so they got in the first row but they didn't get picked.

Speaker 2 28:24

I've been watching a lot of Price is Right at night recently and I just feel like it's so much easier.

Speaker 3 28:30

To watch it.

Speaker 2 28:31

Well, to win, yeah, they're just giving away cars and Mercedes, and they gave away a Cybertruck and all these things. Everybody's winning.

Speaker 3 28:42

Is that good? It's good advertising.

Speaker 2 28:46

It's great advertising, but I don't know if it's sustainable. It's almost like they need an accountant or an auditor.

Speaker 1 28:51

So do you know what Price is Right rules? If I was to say, you know, make a bet with you and say, okay, I think it's going to be, you know, 30, and you're like, no, tiffany, it's prices right Rules to you means what? To me, yeah, to me you bet $1.

Speaker 2 29:04

If I think it's going to be lower than what you think, I give myself a dollar. So I've got all that wiggle room. So, without the actual price, without going over, right, yes, okay, does that make sense? Yeah, I know it was a random turnover there, but no, I appreciate it. So I want to talk about just something real quick, which is what got you interested in politics, because obviously you were not probably not interested in politics or government really at all, based on your background and maybe your upbringing, but you know three termsterm state house member and then in the Senate. Like what? What sparked your interest in this?

Speaker 3 29:41

So I never, um, yes, you were right, I never saw myself in politics Like, even to this day I still don't see myself in politics. But, um, when my kids were old enough, where they were in elementary school full time, um, I wanted to find something where I could volunteer a little bit more. And I was talking to my state farm agent, who was a state rep at the time, and he was telling me about being a state rep, like well, that sounds super interesting. So I came down and shadowed him for a day and I thought, well, I can do that. I had no idea what I was getting into. Everyone, all the reps you meet when they're running versus when they like like a few months later.

Speaker 3 30:19

Um, they're like, yeah, they didn't tell me the time commitment or whatever yeah but I thought it was just so interesting and, um, when I was in the house, you, you really focus on what you know. You're in that one committee and you try and help, like the 3,500 of your constituents that you have for your house seat. Unless you're in a big um flotarial district, then it's going to be a lot more Um, and I was on public works and highways and I loved that committee. Everyone was so nice.

Speaker 2 30:45

Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:45

Yeah, it was like, um, there there was, of the 20 of us, there was 12 from my party and eight from the other, but I was the only female in my party on the committee, so the other party people would take me out to lunch with them and it was a great experience.

Speaker 2 31:02

And there's a lot of bipartisan work that comes out of it, especially that committee.

Speaker 3 31:05

Yeah, that committee, it was just great. Anybody thinking about being a stay rep? I say go for Public Works and Highway. It was a great committee and it's a great beginning budget committee. But so my last four years I was on finance committee.

Speaker 2 31:18

That's a big committee and a big commitment?

Speaker 3 31:21

Yes, especially when you've got an hour and a half commute each way. So I enjoyed that work and again, everybody was really nice, but it was just a lot more intense.

Speaker 2 31:33

And I think that's when we first met was when you were on finance. I remember those long budget days and turning into nights, but I remember you'd have, you know, you brought the kids with you and they'd sit in the back and with me and uh, but yeah, I remember sitting there and I was like, oh, I haven't met. You know represent Hennessy. And I looked up the bio and I was like Calloway, let me see if I can get some cheap clubs.

Speaker 3 31:56

But you're like I don't work there anymore. I remember I was sitting in the committee room and you just popped your head in the door and you're like Callaway golf. I'm like, uh, hello, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 32:07

So he's still talking about. I mean, he didn't want to say anything, but he was still hoping.

Speaker 3 32:14

My husband is a great golfer, my son's a great golfer, my daughter doesn't like golf. But when I first got the job at Callaway, they were having a warehouse sale like that weekend and so I was telling my husband I'm like, yeah, I can bring somebody. He's like, well, who are you going to bring? I'm like, well, we were dating for years. At that point I'm like, well, why wouldn't I bring you? Who else would you think I'd bring? We just moved to San Diego, um, and it was. I don't think they had it. I worked there for just, uh, just about three years. They didn't have it again while I was there. So he was like it was like a candy store. It's like kids running around Chudders up in Littleton.

Speaker 2 32:49

Yeah, If you hear about them having another one just let me know.

Speaker 3 32:52

I'll use some points and fly out there.

Speaker 2 32:54

But so you went from the House and then you had the opportunity and you ran for the Senate and spent a full term there and you know you were and you are a rising star right in the party. But what made you decide you wanted to move over to the Secretary of State's office?

Speaker 3 33:16

Great question.

Speaker 2 33:18

So when I was in the Senate, I only ask great questions.

Speaker 3 33:20

Yeah, I have noticed that, so when I was in the Senate, it was the Zoom Senate.

Speaker 2 33:25

Yes, do you remember those? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 33:28

And so you are. There's no breaks, because you don't like you know, you don't have to walk to any meetings or whatever. So you have have you had meetings back to back to back and there was a lot of. I feel like there was a lot of issues at that time because people were very stressed out and they were concerned about funding for things and getting vaccines and we're not having vaccines. So it was my senate position and I was on the finance committee, ways and means committee and education committee. So I had a really full workload and I loved. Part of my job as being a legislator is I love to go to the meetings to help, like to meet the people, because you don't know what their issue are until you meet them. So I had Senate District 1, which is about a quarter of the state at that time. Oh wow.

Speaker 2 34:11

It's like half now, right, I don't know what it is now, but you also need to like then go to Concord.

Speaker 3 34:32

So it was, I was working like 60 to 80 hours a week doing this stuff. My family, I rarely saw them. And then I realized if I were to run again, my daughter would be in college, dave Scanlon, and he asked if I could be his deputy. And at first I thought I had done something wrong with my campaign finance reports. Now I know the AG's office would be calling me if I had done something wrong and not the Secretary of State's office. But yeah, so he asked me and I was like you know, I talked to him maybe three times before Nice guy. I talked to him maybe three times before Nice guy. So I had to find out. Well, what does the secretary of state's office do you know, other than the, the election stuff and the campaign finance stuff?

Speaker 2 35:04

So that's how I went from Senate to Do you know what made him reach out to you?

Speaker 3 35:09

Well, he I mean he told me is because I have the CPA accounting background, because I have the CPA accounting background and he wanted that for the office. But another big thing is, as you probably know, is that kids are really expensive, and so my daughter was going to leave for college and that's expensive, and as a senator I got paid $100 a year, so it would have been nice to have a little bit more income for the family.

Speaker 2 35:34

And it was a Zoom session. You weren't even getting the mileage.

Life in Littleton and Future Plans

Speaker 3 35:37

Yeah, that's true. And then, like I sat down with my family and I was like you know, this came up. I told them all about that, blah blah, blah, blah blah and I'll be home more.

Speaker 1 35:48

And they're like you should have started with that you know, yeah, so it worked out well for my family. And do you commute every like back and forth to Littleton? I?

Speaker 3 35:57

commute like about three days a week. I occasionally work from home and occasionally I'll stay down here too. So as I get older it's more difficult to do the three-hour round trip.

Speaker 1 36:09

That's a lot of driving.

Speaker 3 36:10

A beautiful drive. Oh it's lovely. And, like every time I turn this one corner I think it's mile marker, like 97, and you see the Franconi notch for the first time. It's just so beautiful. That is gorgeous. It's different every time.

Speaker 1 36:23

And Littleton too. Like Littleton, I think, I feel like is really grown as a community. I mean it's flourishing. There's so much vibrancy or vitality there now I feel like that.

Speaker 3 36:35

It's exciting vibrancy or vitality there now I feel like that it's exciting, yeah, and when we first moved there I was like my husband and I were like we really need like a pizza beer place and then Schilling's reopened up and there's I mean there's just great shops in town and you know, wonderful Like just a really close community to my daughter. I would see on Instagram walking the village bookstore's dog. The nice woman that runs, claire, runs the village bookstore. My daughter would go down with her friend in the sixth grade and they would walk her dog, bring the dog back to the bookstore. It's just a cute little place.

Speaker 2 37:12

Quintessential New.

Speaker 3 37:13

Hampshire.

Speaker 1 37:15

It's lovely little place, quintessential, new Hampshire. Yeah, it's lovely. So any any other future plans for travel or um I don't know, running for something else that we should know about Um running for something else no, no plans for that.

Speaker 3 37:28

And travel, Um. My goal is right now is to learn enough about points and miles, um, and credit cards to get free flights to Europe and back for after my son graduates high school. So if you know that I'm going to Europe with my family, it's either because I learned the points and miles thing or I won the lottery.

Speaker 2 37:49

But you'll never know which one.

Speaker 1 37:51

I'll tell you it's points and miles. Well, we hope, if you do happen to win the lottery, that maybe you'll come back, you know, and just talk to us a little bit about your travels, sure, and all the sharks you saw.

Speaker 3 38:04

You and sharks today, man, I know, I know it's like I do want to swim with a whale shark, though that's on my bucket list of things to do.

Speaker 1 38:10

Oh, those are beautiful yeah.

Speaker 2 38:11

They're big.

Speaker 3 38:12

Yeah, they're giant yeah.

Speaker 2 38:14

Often mistaken for a great white.

Speaker 3 38:17

Oh really.

Speaker 2 38:17

Yeah, I mean I've seen the videos. I'm kind of obsessed in case you haven't noticed, but it's the fin. You've got to make sure you know which one's the whale and which one's the great white.

Speaker 3 38:25

Well, I would have somebody a tour person take me to find one to then swim with it.

Speaker 2 38:30

Oh, I think that's a great idea.

Speaker 1 38:32

I have swum with sharks.

Speaker 2 38:34

We're going to have to have a long conversation about that In South Africa.

Speaker 1 38:37

It's not that scary In a cage, yeah, no.

Speaker 3 38:40

I was in the cage. Oh, that's scary. I would still be scared if I was in the cage. It was an intense.

Speaker 1 38:45

Yeah, I know Jaws kind of changed everyone's lives because you can't go in the water now and not think about what's lurking around underneath you.

Speaker 3 38:52

Yeah, even in you know, like knee deep water jinx.

Speaker 1 39:00

Anyway, aaron Hennessy, deputy secretary of state, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us and sharing part of your life, which is fascinating, and even though Tom's bummed that he's not getting free golf where today, I'm going to learn about how to get free points and miles. And he it gave him an excuse to talk about sharks. So thank you.

Speaker 3 39:20

Won't be the last time. Thanks for having me. This was fun.

Speaker 1 39:23

Awesome, and thank you for joining us for this episode of Anything.

Speaker 2 39:27

But Politics.

Speaker 1 39:28

And we're really looking forward to seeing you soon. We've got some other great guests lined up and a lot more coming.

Speaker 2 39:35

Yeah, see you next time.

Speaker 3 39:36

See ya.