EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the seventh in an occasional series of stories based on meetings between The Telegraph editorial board and candidates running for federal and state offices in the Nov. 6 general election.

NASHUA – After a two-year hiatus from the state Senate, District 13 candidate Bette Lasky hopes to correct what she calls the “backwards slide” brought on by the current Legislature.

“What I’ve seen over the last two years has been distressing to me,” Lasky said. “I do think that this Legislature has lost its focus. I think to have come in, certainly trying to create jobs, is very admirable, but for whatever reason I think their priorities became shifted and they didn’t show that.”

Lasky, who has served as state representative from 1998-2008 and state Senator from 2008-2010, hopes to reclaim the seat she lost to Republican Sen. Gary Lambert in 2010 – the first time it went Republican in decades.

To do so, she’ll need to beat Rep. Joe Krasucki, R-Nashua, who voted for some of the reforms that Lasky hopes to help repeal.

“Voter ID, for one, that’s the main one that comes to mind obviously because elections are upon us,” Lasky told The Telegraph’s editorial board Thursday. “I think it’s a solution in search of a problem. But I have no problem, if they want to have everybody’s picture taken as they go to vote and have it on record that way it does not cost any voter anything, it does not make it a burden on the voter to have an ID taken, I’m all for it.”

A bill Krasucki co-sponsored that requires parental notification before abortions can be performed on minors Lasky agrees with, at least on principle.

“Notification, yes,” said Lasky, who is pro-choice. “But again, to make a young person to have to go in front of a judge or a third party that makes it more onerous on them to do what they need to do for their health reasons, or for whatever reasons, I’m against that. So it would clearly depend on the bill as far as that goes.”

Lasky served as part of a Democratic majority during her term in the state Senate.

Lasky said she could work with Republicans if elected in November, citing times she worked on bipartisan bills or voted against her party on certain issues.

As senator, she supported gaming in New Hampshire and worked with Republicans on rail and education funding bills, which she considers nonpartisan issues.

“I have voted against my party on business issues,” Lasky said, pointing to her vote for an income tax during her time in the House. “That’s the biggest one that comes to mind. I clearly part with many of them on that.”

Currently, Lasky opposes income and sales taxes in New Hampshire.

“I have come to realize that’s it’s not where the people of this state want to be,” Lasky said. “We’ve been able to meet our needs without it. I think that we can look to other revenue sources such as gambling for it. I don’t believe the people of this state are ready for it.”

There may be time to look at income or sales taxes down the road, she added, and for that reason, there should be no constitutional amendment banning them.

“How can you say 10 years, five years – and certainly not 50 years – down the road whether income taxes would be the right thing for this state?” Lasky said. “I think to tie any future generation’s hands in that way is a mistake.”

Lasky has advocated generating revenue through expanded gambling in New Hampshire, and would consider possibly two locations for it in the state: at Rockingham Park in Salem or Green Mountain in Hudson.

“We need to regulate it well,” Lasky said. “I think we can. “I think it would produce jobs … it would be contingent on people in any community wanting it.”

And beyond spurring job growth and economic stimulation, Lasky hopes to bring more of a balance to Concord.

“I’ve known many of the bills that either Speaker O’Brien or the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature fought through have been ALEC bills, which is an outside organization and seems to have a very far-right bend,” Lasky said, referring to the American Legislative Exchange Council. “I don’t believe that the mandate that they thought to have gotten, and seemed to have gotten in ‘10, is what the voters bargained for.”

At least, so far, the tone of this state Senate election has been different than the “mind games” she dealt with two years ago, Lasky said.

The former Nashua City Planning Board member says her family was pushed to the point, two years ago, that days before the last election, Lasky’s husband, optometrist Dr. Elliot Lasky, made headlines when spotted yanking “Bette Lasky: Higher Taxes” signs from a public right-of-way.

“I didn’t know, I was somewhere else,” Lasky explained. “I think he knew immediately … ‘I probably shouldn’t have done this.’ He reacted out of a difficult election, out of concern for me, and that’s what he does.”

There won’t be any of that this time around, she added, and so far, the race environment has been different.

“I don’t think the seat is as hotly contested as it was, which may have something to do with it,” Lasky said. “I’m still gun shy about what the last three weeks may bring on in terms of outside money. I’ve been in politics for a while, I can deal with the ugly pictures and all that stuff … But when it becomes more personal and your family gets involved it’s difficult, but that has not so far happened and hopefully we will go through the election unscathed.”

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelegraph.com. Also follow Gill on Twitter (@Telegraph_MAG).