Change Comes to New Hampshire

NH has survived another election, despite the confusion around the NH Supreme Court decision concerning SB3, which was helpfully intensified by the Secretary of State.  In spite of the incorrect absentee ballots that were sent out, and without even the usual complaining about busloads of out of state voters. I’ve read grousing about how people from Commiechusetts are coming here to destroy NH, but the reality is, that most people who migrate to NH move to Rockingham County, the reddest county in the state. They aren’t coming to Carroll County. There aren’t good paying jobs, and there isn’t any affordable housing. The migrants to Carroll County are primarily in their 50’s and 60’s, coming to live in their second homes and protect their pensions in tax free splendor.

In 2016, the Republicans won control of every part of the NH state government. What did they do with that control? The governor’s first priority was passing a concealed carry bill – because, apparently, guns are more important than anything. After taking a pay increase negotiated by the State Employees Union, he tried to pass right-to-work legislation. The Republicans passed more business tax cuts. They tried to pass a voucher bill that would have dramatically increased property taxes. The governor referred (more than once) to a bill that would have provided family leave for workers as “a vacation.” Caring for a sick family member isn’t exactly a trip to the Bahamas. The Trumpublicans are nothing if not tone deaf. 

On the other hand, the Governor earned a reputation with the media for being “affable,” and “avuncular.” Anywhere a camera was held up and the lens focused, he was there. His party often touted his bold leadership, and I think we can all agree that Sununu did some fine work on the placement of price labels on deli cheese at Market Basket.


In May, he boasted that the state had “more money than we know what to do with.” What did he do with it? Nada. Nil. Nothing. He claims he wants to invest in infrastructure. Meanwhile, we still have hundreds of red listed bridges. We have rest areas on I-95 that are in less than stellar condition. Our parks are years behind in maintenance. We have a serious housing problem, and a very serious school funding problem. We need to build a secure psychiatric hospital that isn’t part of the NH prison system. If Sununu is having trouble coming up with ideas, he should call me.

At least we know that NH will not become a right-to-work-for-less state during the next biennium. NH will not pass a voucher bill. There’s already a bill to make the very questionable voucher program an amendment to the NH Constitution loitering in the queue of upcoming legislation for 2019. 

The legislature will be voting to choose a Secretary of State for the next 2 years. The House will be voting on a new Speaker. The Republicans will be voting for a new minority leader. All of the committee chairs will be different with a Democratic majority. The first year of the biennium is always the year that a budget is crafted. 

I urge all legislators, old and new, to spend some time on the Secretary of State’s website before they vote. I’m an adept researcher, but I had to spend a couple of hours trying to come up with the magic phrases that unlocked candidate financial forms. The magic phrase was different each time, and more difficult if one were trying to access a “Friends of Rep. Jim Jeremy” committee finance report. I was trying to access candidate forms for several different candidates, including Senator Bradley. Wheelabrator, an international solid waste incineration company mysteriously appeared in the biomass bill, which guaranteed them taxpayer subsidies. Bradley was a sponsor of the bill, and a vocal public supporter. It turns out that Wheelabrator generously donated $4,500 to Bradley’s 2018 re-election campaign. I should have been able to access that information easily, but the Secretary of State’s website is not user friendly. In an NHPR discussion with Secretary of State candidates, Gardner commented that the information is there, it’s just hard to find. That just isn’t acceptable. 

Northern Carroll County experienced a blue wave. The entire northern House delegation is now comprised of Democrats. In southern Carroll County, voters inexplicably chose to re-elect the same candidates who voted to dramatically increase their property taxes by attempting to initiate a school voucher program.


We should all take a page from Rep. Karen Umberger who lost her bid for re-election, and graciously wished the winners well. Rep. Umberger and I have disagreed on many issues over the years, but she has been unfailingly polite and willing to listen, which is what we should expect from citizen legislators.

Published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper, November 16, 2018

Be Sure to Ask Them Why

The last voting session of the NH legislature was June 24. That was the day our state representatives and senators voted on the budget and the committee of conference reports. Bills originate in either the House or Senate. They go through committee, get tinkered with and get voted on.  Midway through the session, the bills are swapped over to the other body. The other body may amend that bill, could even go as far as changing the title and text of the original bill completely. After it’s voted on the original body has to concur with the changes made to the bill. If they do not, the bill is sent to a Committee of Conference. The CoC is made up of members of both political parties from the House and Senate. If they can work out a compromise, the CoC report has to be adopted by both bodies. That’s what was happening on June 24.

One of those bills was HB 681. It originated in the House (HB means house bill). It was intended to increase the fee for marriage licenses in the state, with the monies from the increase going to fund the state’s domestic violence grant program that acts as an umbrella organization to distribute funds to domestic violence programs around the state. It passed the House on a roll call vote of 223-146. The Carroll County Representatives that voted for the bill: Buco, Butler, Crawford, McConkey, Nelson, Parker, Schmidt, Ticehurst, and Umberger. Those who voted against funding for domestic violence were Representatives Avellani, Chandler, Comeau, Cordelli, McCarthy, and Wright.

The bill moved over to the Senate, where during the Senate vote, garnered three floor amendments. The first amendment made an appropriation of the princely sum of $160,000 to fund the domestic violent grant program. Thanks Senator Sanborn! The second amendment stipulated that a convicted abuser would pay a $50 fine. The monies from the fine would go to the domestic violence grant program. This eliminated the increase in the marriage license fee. The third floor amendment came from our own Senator Bradley, who added the increase in the marriage license fee back to the bill, so that it would include both the fine and the fee increase. The House did not concur, so a Committee of Conference was requested.

The biggest sticking point seemed to be that the House members of the committee were worried that a low-income convicted abuser wouldn’t be able to pay the fine and might be incarcerated as a result. The amendment was changed to give the judge the discretion to either defer the fine or set up a payment plan as needed. The Sanborn amendment was ditched. The bill includes both the fee increase and the fine.

This Committee of Conference report was voted on June 24. The Senate voted to adopt the report with a voice vote. The House with a roll call vote of 204-144 adopted the report. In Carroll County, Representatives Butler, Chandler, Parker, Schmidt, Ticehurst, and Umberger voted to help fund domestic violence programs in our state. Representatives Avellani, Buco, Comeau, Cordelli, McConkey, McCarthy, Nelson, and Wright voted not to fund domestic violence programs. Representative Crawford was not voting.

I spoke with Representative Buco, who has a good record of supporting domestic violence funding. He voted against the CoC report on HB 681 because he voted against all of the CoC reports. He felt as though he didn’t know enough about what had transpired in any of the committees of conference, so he just voted no on everything.

Representative Comeau is a member of the Free State Project, and all of the Free Staters who were present on June 24 voted against adopting the CoC report. All but one of them voted against the original bill, back in March. The one who did was Elizabeth Edwards. Edwards ran as a Democrat in Manchester, as did fellow Free Stater Amanda Bouldin. Representative Bouldin votes with the GOP, thereby defrauding the people who voted for her.  Edwards is a little more thoughtful. Both Bouldin and Edwards were absent on June 24. Instead of representing their constituents, they were at the annual Free Stater frat party in Lancaster.

Free Staters and their libertea allies hate domestic violence bills, because a conviction means that an abuser will lose his or her firearms. Last year libertea ally JR Hoell voted against the bill that made domestic violence a crime in NH. When I asked why, he mumbled something about unintended consequences. I asked, “Oh, like having their guns taken away?” He ran away. No one was ever as glad to see Josh McElveen of WMUR as Hoell was that day.

The entity known as the House Liberty Alliance, a group originally formed by the Free State Project (though they will deny it) passes out a handout to legislators heading in to the session. The handout is called, “The Gold Standard.” (insert roll-eyes here) It tells the legislator how to vote on selected bills. It’s so much easier than thinking.

As for the rest of the Carroll County Republicans who voted against funding domestic violence programs – I suspect that they’ll tell you that they signed pledges that said NO FEE INCREASES or FINES. Again, taking pledges is so much easier than thinking.

Over the last ten years, domestic violence homicides comprise half of NH murders. Between the years of 2011 and 2013, the numbers dropped to 47%. In the years 2011 -2013, of the victims murdered by their partners, three out of four were women. Forty-two percent of the domestic violence homicides involved a gun. Domestic violence happens to men, women, children, the elderly, and the physically or mentally disabled in our state, regardless of income, race, sexual orientation, age, or gender. It’s estimated that 33.5% of women and 24% of men in our state have experienced a physical assault by an intimate partner.

Half the murders in our state are domestic violence murders, yet a number of our local state legislators don’t want to fund programs to help victims and educate others.

Be sure to ask them why.   

Published as an op-ed in the June 10 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Scott Brown Hides in the Bathroom

Poor Scott Brown. He doesn't really seem to be enjoying life in his new state. Last week he was mocked (by me anyhow) for a UL story (that seems to have disappeared) on how much he likes retail campaigning. The story is gone, but some of it remains on Brown's blog:

When Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown campaigned in the state’s North Country last week, he stopped and knocked on the doors of every Pittsburg house that he saw showing one of his lawn signs.

“They said ‘What are you doing here?’?” Brown recalled in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, noting how much he enjoys the state’s famed retail politics, although he admits he was skeptical until he began this campaign.

I hope someone lets him know that knocking on the doors of supporters is NOT retail politics. It's knocking on the doors of supporters. 

At the end of last week, our new resident was campaigning in Carroll County. A reporter from the UK had some interesting moments with the Brown campaign. 

Paul Lewis in The Guardian: 

I found Brown at a table at a restaurant called Priscilla's, introduced myself as a Guardian reporter and enquired if I could ask him some questions. Brown smiled nervously and replied: "What do you want to ask me about?"

"Hobby Lobby? That would be a start," I said.

“I’m all set," he replied. "We’re enjoying ourselves right now.”

“But you’re standing for Senate. It is routine for journalists to ask you questions and usually the candidates answer.”

“Not without notifying my office."

Brown stood up, walked to the back of the diner, and took shelter in the bathroom. A campaign aide, Jeremy, looked bewildered. He lingered beside me for a few moments, before politely excusing himself – “Nice to meet you” – and joining his boss in the bathroom.

I decided to wait in the parking lot for Team Brown to emerge into the sunlight. Four minutes later, a white SUV swung round and parked next to the steps of the diner. Brown came out with a phone pressed to his ear. "Get in! Get in!" said a campaign worker holding open the car door. Another man asked me to leave. “You’re getting in the face of people that don’t care to talk to you,” he said.

There's more. At a stop in West Ossipee the Brown campaign called the cops. All because Scott Brown didn't want to answer a reporter's questions. 

He's so cowardly that he hid in the bathroom to avoid answering questions, but he thinks he should be our next US Senator?

Tell this wuss to pack his carpetbag and return from whence he came. 







h/t to Peter Sullivan for the Brave Sir Robin reference.

Our Would Be Liberators

Earlier this month, in New Brunswick, a young man named Justin Bourque killed RCMP Constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Dave Ross, and Douglas Larche. He wounded two other Mounties. Justin Bourque was an angry young man, ginned up on conspiracy theories and fears about gun grabbers. (Definition: anyone believing that not every person should have access to firearms is a gun grabber.) One of his Facebook friends is being detained for threatening to kill police.

A few days ago, two police officers having lunch at a pizza place in Las Vegas were gunned down by Jerad and Amanda Miller, who put a swastika and a Gadsden flag on the bodies of the officers, announced the revolution was starting, grabbed their weapons, and went to a nearby Wal-Mart. They killed a man there. Jerad and Amanda were also ginned up on conspiracy theories and gundamentalist fears that the gummint was coming to take their guns away.

These killings happened in two different countries, and the killings were done by people who didn’t know each other. They did, however, have something in common. CopBlock. If you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably seen CopBlock memes; a picture with some message about police violence or authoritarian overreach. CopBlock claims their goal is police accountability. From their website:

We do not “hate cops.” We believe that no one – not even those with badges – has extra rights. The failure to realize and act on that is to our detriment. By focusing the disinfecting light of transparency on public officials we safeguard not just our rights but those of future generations.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? If only we could take these folks at their word.

A regular writer for CopBlock is a guy named Chris Cantwell. Cantwell was kicked out of the Free State Project (in a big public way) for advocating violence, which goes against what the FSP claims to believe. Cantwell, in his capacity as CopBlock administrator had the ability to use the CopBlock twitter account. While Justin Bourque was out killing Mounties, CopBlock sent out a tweet that read, “What the world needs is more people like Justin Bourque not fewer.” The same CopBlock that claims it doesn’t condone violence, the same CopBlock that claims adherence to something called the “Non Aggression Principle.”

Cantwell has lengthy rants on his blog where he waxes on about the reasons to kill cops. It’s not for the faint of heart or stomach. He’s an angry, angry man who doesn’t kill cops because HE doesn’t want to go to jail. He’d like to incite you to do the work for him. He cheered on Justin Bourque. He eulogized the Millers. And when Officer Stephen Arkell was killed in Brentwood, NH last month, Cantwell not only blamed Arkell for getting killed, he celebrated it. 

Justin Bourque had CopBlock memes on his Facebook page. Amanda Miller had a link to a YouTube video from the CopBlock channel that asks, “When is it Okay to Kill a Cop?” with words from an anarchist/Free Stater named Larken Rose. Jason Stam, the friend of Justin Bourque now in custody for threatening cops, posted Chris Cantwell’s CopBlock support for Bourque on his page.

CopBlock was co-founded by Adam Mueller, who calls himself Ademo Freeman and Pete Eyre. Mueller and Eyre are both members of the Free State Project. The Free State Project is the group of libertarians moving to NH with the intent of liberating us by occupying, colonizing, and taking over and dismantling the state government, and threatening secession. They claim to be nonviolent and peaceful. I serve on the board of a peace organization. We don’t have any videos that address when it would be okay to kill cops. That doesn’t fit into the category of peace – at least not as I understand it.

CopBlock has gotten a lot of negative media attention since the recent cop killing incidents took place. On June 11, they posted a notice on the CopBlock site that Cantwell is now a former author, and they pledged their adherence to the non-aggression principle. It was signed by a number of folks affiliated with the site, including co-founder Pete Eyre. It was not signed by Adam Mueller. He sent out a tweet saying that Cantwell “is no longer an admin of the FB page. Gotta be PC, ya know. Otherwise slaves won't like CopBlock.” In other words, they ditched Cantwell so that they can keep on getting well-intended folks to keep posting their memes and sending them money. That’s what they call non-Free Staters, by the way. Slaves.

Many members of the Free State Project will be appearing on ballots around the state this fall. At least one will be on the ballot in Carroll County. Ed Comeau of Brookfield is running for the NH House. Some of you will recognize Ed as the person who tapes a variety of public meetings, including the Carroll County Commissioners. The level of dysfunction we’ve seen in our county government may well have been nurtured by the FSP. Remember, their goal is the destruction of our form of government. What better way to begin than to ensure chaos, obstruction, and gridlock? It’s happening both in Concord and on the county level, engineered by Free Staters and their fellow travelers in the Tea Party and the John Birch Society. Always research your candidates to find out things like: What do they believe in? How do they support themselves financially? What groups are they associated with?

As for CopBlock, don’t be fooled by their attempt at a whitewash. They’ve allowed Cantwell’s rants all this time. The “When is it Okay to Shoot a Cop” video has been up on YouTube for over a year. If no cops had been killed, Cantwell would still be an administrator, and no one would be the wiser. The underbelly of our would-be liberators does not match their public face.

© sbruce 2014  

Published in the June 13 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Crossover

March 27 is Crossover Day in the NH legislature. It’s the day when the House turns over their bills to the Senate, and the Senate returns the favor. This year there was so much delay and obstructionism that there was some doubt as to whether the deadline would actually be met. The House had 2 voting session days throughout the month of March, and the Speaker threatened to add a third session day on March 27.

It is difficult to know what the obstructionist’s goal is in holding everything up. They aren’t doing the People’s business. They aren’t enacting legislation, or doing what is best for the state. They are wasting taxpayer dollars and treating their colleagues with a glaring lack of respect.  They get all caught up in the drama of it; adult sized boys, buzzing around the chamber for whispered consultations and making “secret” signals from the sidelines. These aren’t votes they can win - the goal is just to slow the process down as much as possible. As I’ve said before, this is what you get when you elect people who hate government to BE the government.

There were 13 roll call votes on the March 12 session day. Two of them concerned a mandatory headlight use bill. That bill was debated for 2 hours, even though everyone in the chamber knew it wasn’t going anywhere. The whole process did, at least, amuse the New York Times reporter I was sitting next to. A bill regulating the use of alkaline hydrolysis as a means of disposing of human remains provided a stage for Rep. Jordan Ulery to leap upon and very dramatically describe the process of alkaline hydrolysis to the few legislators who stayed in the chamber.  The same bill had been proposed last year. This wasn’t new information, but when gumming up the works is the goal, no corpse must be left un-described. No one was going to be forced to dispose of a dead person this way unless they wanted to, but the loudest believers in freedom and liberty only seem to do so when its convenient for them. If a free gun came with alkaline hydrolysis, they’d be lining up around the block to throw Granny into the chamber.

There was also a lengthy debate that same day on repealing the death penalty. To the credit of all, that was mostly an intelligent and respectful debate. Most of our Carroll County delegation voted for repeal, and the bill passed the House. By the time you read this, the Senate Judiciary Committee will have had a public hearing on the bill. NH has spent $7 million so far on the death penalty case of Michael Addison, and we’re nowhere near done. The death chamber hasn’t been built. The drugs – Europe won’t sell us the drugs any more, because we’re barbarians. We don’t know what kind of drugs we’ll be using, or how much they’ll cost. Expect the entire shebang to tally up to near $20 million. Remember that, as you drive down East Conway Road. Assuming you return from that voyage be sure to ask Representatives Chandler, Buco, and McConkey where the money’s going to come from to execute that one guy.

Speaking of warm and fuzzy, a truly significant piece of legislation was recently passed and signed into law by the governor. Medicaid expansion will ensure that many low-wage workers in the North Country will have access to health insurance. A report recently issued by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute found that Coos County is the least healthy county in NH. Carroll County wasn’t far behind. In both Coos and Carroll, 17% of the population is uninsured. In both Coos and Carroll 18% of the population engages in excessive drinking. In Coos 18% of the population is in fair or poor health. The ratio of patients to mental health providers is 932:1. There is 7.7% unemployment in Coos, and 23% child poverty. In Carroll County there is 20% child poverty, and 17% of residents have severe housing problems. In Grafton County, 15% of the population is uninsured.

The bill originated in the NH Senate, where our own Senator Jeb Bradley was a supporter. The vote in the House fell largely – but not entirely – along party lines. There were a few Republicans who voted for people over ideology. Not many, but there were a few from the North Country. One of the conservative talking points suggested that “those people” would have no incentive to work if they got “free” health care. Most of us  know how hard people work up here just to stay afloat. Affordable health care isn’t going to pay their rent or put groceries on the table. It may well make the difference between preventative care and expensive “I waited because I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor” kind of care.

Given the dire situation in the North Country, it was depressing (though unsurprising) to learn that our newly minted Executive Councilor, Joe Kenney, voted against approving Medicaid Expansion. In other words, one of his first acts in office was to vote against the best interests of nearly 50% of the population in his district. Ray Burton would not have voted that way, but then, Ray was often described as the “champion of the north country,” a sobriquet that will never be applied to Joe Kenney.

Everyone should spend a session day at the State House to witness the full spectacle. The General Court website has streaming audio on session days, which I encourage folks to listen to, but it is not the same as being there to see all of the sideline drama. I’m pleased to report that no one from the Carroll County delegation is a major player in Obstructionist Theater, but all of you really should go see your representatives in action. It might well change the way you vote in November.

NH County Health Rankings

© sbruce 2014  

Published in the 4-4-14 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper