EDITOR’S NOTE: The Telegraph has asked each of the candidates for the city’s 27 seats in the New Hampshire House, three in each of the nine wards, to provide a brief description of their candidacy and ideas for the Legislature.

REPUBLICANS

Donald Whalen

Whalen was born in New York City, raised in Connecticut and moved to Nashua in 2003. He has more than a dozen years of experience in the information technology field solving customer problems through the use of software and technology.

He works for a startup software company helping customers enable their end users to be more successful using mobile software and participates with the following organizations: Knights of Columbus, Americares, Habitat for Humanity and Cub Scouts. He spent two weeks in Mississippi helping families rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

I am running for office because I believe in preserving the freedom and liberties we currently enjoy by living in New Hampshire.

I believe in no sales tax. I believe in no income tax. I believe in no new taxes. I believe in responsible government spending. I believe in supporting small businesses by removing barriers to start and run a small business in New Hampshire – which, in turn, will help create jobs and more opportunity.

I believe we need to support our military veterans. I believe in educational choice. I believe in smaller government. I believe in your personal freedoms and liberties.

I am asking for your support, and if I am elected, I will represent the people of Nashua and work hard to do what is right for Nashua and for the people of New Hampshire.

Edith Hogan

Hogan is an incumbent lawmaker. She could not be reached for a profile.

Timothy Twombly

The 73-year-old Twombly has been a resident of Nashua for more than four decades. He is retired after 32 years with Sanders/BAE Systems and also served four years in the U.S. Army Security Agency. He has served in the New Hampshire House for four years, is president of the Maplewood Cemetery Improvement Association, the vice president of Rivier Institute for Senior Education and a member of the local American Legion.

We need to continue fighting the opioid drug crisis by providing more treatment facilities rather than incarceration when appropriate, supporting law enforcement, and supporting drug and mental health courts.

I have served on the House Finance Committee for two terms. I am running to jump-start our economy and create good-paying jobs. When our young people graduate from school and discover that we don’t have the jobs they dreamed of, they are leaving our state in search of opportunities elsewhere. I want them to find those opportunities here.

I support excellent educational opportunities with more teacher flexibility and local decision-making. We must provide our youth with the education and skills necessary for them to qualify for our 21st-century jobs. This includes our community colleges, as well as our universities. Our children and grandchildren deserve to have the same opportunities that we have had.

This can be done without sales taxes and income taxes. I will not support tax increases. I believe you should keep your hard-earned money and spend it or save it as appropriate for your family.

I will support passenger rail for Nashua and Manchester. The DOT said the state’s economy receives its biggest impact by going to Manchester. It is not popular outside our region, so there is a lot of work to be done to show that it benefits the rest of the state, as well.

I would appreciate your vote on Nov. 8.

DEMOCRATS

Catherine Sofikitis

A retired registered nurse, Sofikitis has lived in Nashua for 30 years. She is married and has one son and a rescued Newfoundland dog.

There are many reasons I decided to run for state representative from Ward 7.

We must do better. We must finally come up with a stable, equitable source for school funding. These children are our future and are deserving of our finest work across party lines to solve this issue. The opioid crisis in our state is one of our most important issues. We all have a stake in seeing its eradication. We must decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, ban fracking, increase the use of renewable resources such as solar, wind and hydro, but no pipelines.

We must expand passenger rail into New Hampshire. We must do everything in our power to protect our water. We need to find remediation for the contaminated wells in Merrimack and Amherst with PFOA.

We must get big money out of politics. We must protect and expand Social Security, understanding that it is not an entitlement, but an insurance plan funded by each employee throughout their working years.

We must believe that the people of New Hampshire come first and that partisan bickering has no place in politics. We must all do everything in our power to turn down the temperature of hate.

Francis A. Arias

Could not be reached for a profile.

Allison Nutting

The 25-year-old Nashua native is an office manager and has interned at several political organizations, including the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance, Planned Parenthood and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign in 2012.

I am running for state representative because I love my city and my state. I want to live in a community with good roads, good schools and a healthy environment. I want to live in a place where people feel safe and people can get the help they need. I want to live in a world where we live more like friends and less like enemies. If you want some of the same things I want, and someone who will listen to you, I would appreciate it if you voted for me.