Jim Cole AP PHOTO/JIM COLE
PORTSMOUTH (AP) — Longtime New Hampshire legislator Martha Fuller Clark announced Thursday that she is retiring from office and won’t seek re-election this year, saying it’s time for “a new generation of political leaders” to fill her seat.
Fuller Clark, a state senator, was first elected to that chamber in 2004. The Democrat lost to a Republican in 2010. She was elected in 2012 to a newly redrawn district representing Portsmouth and other Seacoast communities. Before the Senate, she was a member of the House for 12 years.
She said in a statement that the closing of Seacoast businesses because of the coronavirus has devastated the economy, and the education system has been disrupted.
“It is clear that the next two years will be an extremely difficult but potentially exciting time in Concord as the legislature must struggle to come to terms with the challenge of finding new ways to address how we will all live, work and play as a result of the changes brought about by the Covid crisis and our weakened economy,” she said. “The dramatic and sudden decline in state revenues will certainly present real challenges over the next biennium.”
Earlier this year, Fuller Clark and her husband tested positive for the virus but both recovered.
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