NASHUA – Democratic candidate for governor Colin Van Ostern remembers his time sitting in a college financial-aid office during his senior year at college so well that he says he can recall the exact smell of the room two decades later.

It’s difficult to forget when there is $30,000 in ballooning college debt, he said.

His student loans ran out completely in his final year in school, forcing Van Ostern to charge five figures of debt on his credit card.

"Because it was basically that or drop out of school," he said during an Aug. 16 interview with The Telegraph’s editorial board.

College costs in New Hampshire have almost doubled since his graduation.

The presumptive front-runner on the Democratic side, Van Ostern now touts his three-year-old business venture known as College for America at Southern New Hampshire University that has made higher education more affordable. His vision of a debt-free college education is a goal of his in the governor’s office.

He said the nonprofit, fully accredited College for America in the past year has enrolled 4,600 new students – as many as the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth combined – and roughly 70 percent are the first in their family to go to college. The majority left without debt through low administrative costs and direct partnerships with employers.

"We also fund our university system 50th out of 50 states, and it’s an investment that we need to be making if we care about bringing and keeping young people and young families here, which I think that we do," he said.

"I think there is also a shared belief in the business community that if we can do a better job of keeping young people and young families in New Hampshire post-graduation, then it is worth some investment and state support to keeping those costs down."

His plans include expanding degree pathways between the university system, community college system and technical education schools as a low-cost option.

But Van Ostern said his campaign about more than just getting New Hampshire students a better loan rate, he said. It is about giving everyone in the state more economic opportunities, starting with full-day public kindergarten – something he estimates would cost about $11 million to $12 million and could be funded with a 10-cent increase on cigarettes – and expanded Medicaid.

"You have a field of candidates in front of you, but I know I am the one candidate who has been part of the progress that we are making, who have been involved in making those tough leadership decisions about how to make that progress," he said.

"I want to be judged on the success that we are having, and if you believe our state should keep moving forward, I think that you have one candidate who have been part of that progress and who offers that opportunity."

Van Ostern, a father of two who lives in Concord, first ran for the state’s five-member Executive Council four years ago. He sought the position, he said, to restore funding to the Planned Parenthood agencies across the state and to ensure the Capitol Corridor Rail Study did not fly under the radar.

A longtime advocate of Planned Parenthood, Van Ostern has made women’s health issues a focus point of his campaign. He was recently endorsed by the Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund.

Van Ostern and fellow Democratic Executive Councilor Chris Pappas fought to retain the agency’s services, but the three Republicans turned down the state contracts. While this decision has since been reversed, Van Ostern said about 3,000 fewer women and families received care when the funding was shut off.

"We’re not that big of a state – that’s a big impact. And a city like Manchester where they have a health center, there were 1,000 fewer women there who got birth control and cancer screenings," he said. "And by the way, teen pregnancy rates are up in Manchester."

As an executive councilor, he backed commuter rail expansion into Manchester and Nashua from Massachusetts, tying economic progress in the Granite State to knocking down borders with Greater Boston.

"I think the easier we make it to get between the two, the better it is for the New Hampshire economy," he said.

He called out the Republican gubernatorial candidates who questioned how to pay for passenger rail, saying their skepticism is thinly veiled ideological opposition. And while he admits a commuter line could cost between $3 million and $4 million from the general fund, he said the project would bring $140 million from the federal government to pay for it before the rail expansion starts generating more economic activity here.

"I believe that whether or not commuter rail gets to Nashua and Manchester will depend on whether or not we win this race," he said. "The truth is when I ran for office four years ago, I ran specifically because the capitol corridor rail study … funding had been blocked.

"We got that funding restored, we got that economic feasibility study done … and I know that by making that a central issue in the race, we’ll give voters the chance to weigh in on whether or not this is important to them and whether or not they want to see our state moving forward."

Rail expansion and lowering student debt will lead to a strong workforce in New Hampshire, which Van Ostern called the "best investment" in the state. And improving the labor market includes making the health coverage expansion permanent.

Since the implementation of Medicaid expansion, Van Ostern said hospitals have reported 27 percent fewer uninsured visits to emergency rooms in the state and a return of $600 million in federal money for health care coverage.

"So I’ve said I think we need to keep that permanent, and that will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of our own federal taxes that we send to Washington and keep them coming back to here in New Hampshire," he said.

Regarding casinos, Van Ostern said he is not morally against the idea but noted the fractured market given the expansion of gambling across New England. On marijuana, he recommends the pursuit of sound medical policy that reflects "good science" while joining other states in the region by decriminalizing small amounts of the drug.

Van Ostern is running against five other Democrats – including former Portsmouth mayor Steve Marchand and onetime Deputy Secretary of State Mark Connolly – for the party’s nomination and the right to take on the Republican candidate in November.

The state primary is Sept. 13.

Chris Garofolo can be reached at 594-6465, cgarofolo@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_Chris.