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 .

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

Secretary of State's Diverse Duties

Speaker 2 1:07

. 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 .

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

From Cape Cod to California

Speaker 1 3:45

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 .

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

Family Life and Parenting

Speaker 3 9:04

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 ?

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

Travel Dreams and Hawaii Adventures

Speaker 3 15:40

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 .

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

Path from Legislature to Deputy Secretary

Speaker 3 26:04

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 .

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

Life in Littleton and Future Plans

Speaker 3 35:48

.

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 .