The Big White Tent of the NH GOP

Photo from the Union Leader

Former NH State Rep. Robert Forsythe was arrested for assault and domestic violence. We learned about the arrest two months later, on August 26. The NH House Minority Leader had this to say:

“Domestic violence and assault are unacceptable and wrong and have no place in our society,” Hinch said. “Rep. Fosythe is the only person who can put pen to paper, and sign a resignation letter. The people of Boscawen have the right to ask him to resign if they believe he can no longer represent them. They also have the ability to vote for alternative candidates, including write-ins, if they believe they no longer want Rep. Forsythe to represent them in Concord. 

This translates as: domestic violence is bad, but we aren't going to ask him to resign. 

Later that same day, the governor released this statement:

“Sexual and domestic violence will not be tolerated in New Hampshire,” Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. “Robert Forsythe must resign. Immediately."

That didn't even take 24 hours. The very next day, Forsythe resigned. 

On Friday, December 11, we learned that newly sworn in, freshman State Rep. Dawn Johnson was posting material from the neo-nazi website, Daily Stormer, on Facebook and Twitter. It took nearly 4 days for Governor Sununu to rouse himself long enough to make a statement:

 “Regardless of political party, we must condemn anti-Semitism and racism in all forms. These comments are repugnant and appalling,” Sununu said.

Note - he didn't even bring up resignation. It seems that sexual and domestic violence will not be tolerated in NH, but anti-Semitism and racism will. The second thing I notice is the sad attempt at both siderism. "Regardless of political party," is a big, steaming pantload, considering that the neo-nazi call is coming from inside his House. 

Representative Johnson has been quite clear that she has no intention of resigning. She's being represented by newly minted State Rep. Norm Silber, who was just sworn in for his second freshman term in the legislature. 

Let's take a brief side trip into the land of Silber. In 2017, during his first freshman term in the legislature,  he thought it was very amusing to try to defend Brett "kegstand" Kavanaugh from accusations of sexual assault by comparing his actions to playing spin-the-bottle. I wrote about Silber's rudeness to a voter in 2017; Silber Service, Tarnished. In addition to defending his neo-nazi colleague, he's also questioned Dick Hinch's autopsy report. Naturally, Silber and Johnson are both maskholes. 

Getting back to Silber's defense of his neo-nazi colleague -  in a letter to the Laconia Daily Sun, Silber offered up this excuse for Johnson's actions:

The internet can be a very dangerous place for adults as well as children. Just as it is easy for children to be lured into illicit sexual encounters or worse through the internet, so can adults inadvertently fall into terrible situations far beyond their intentions through the internet and email.

How many times have you mistakenly hit the “reply all” key in an email when you only wanted to respond to a single individual? How many times have you inadvertently clicked on a link, thinking it would lead you to one thing when it turned out to be quite different? How many times have we seen posts of fake photos that have been created or altered electronically solely to embarrass someone?

Dawn’s present situation is the second example of someone I know from the Lakes Region who posted or forwarded an internet link to a story that they thought in good faith was legitimate but that turned out to be of an anti-Semitic or racist origin. But I know that neither of those women are anti-Semites, racists, or haters.

That's a big helping of word salad with a side of florid dressing. It's also a bunch of hooey. No one finds themselves at the Daily Stormer by accident. A simple Google search doesn't take you there. As I discovered, you have to know where you're going, or do a deeper search.  

Johnson  posted a conspiracy theory from a neo-nazi website. That theory came with anti-Semitic and racist cartoons.  Silber is focusing on what the media has focused on, the source of the material. Johnson has "apologized" for the source. She has never tried to disavow the content. 

Roger Carroll of the Laconia Sun is the only reporter in the state who acknowledges this: 

Johnson apologized on her Facebook page for the source of the message – the Daily Stormer – but it was not clear that she disavowed the content of the post.

Be sure to read his story - it describes the material that Johnson posted, in great detail. 

Johnson has deleted her Facebook and Twitter accounts. I'm betting she's still plenty busy on Parler. 

To summarize, Johnson isn't going to resign. The Governor, who had no tolerance for domestic violence, has plenty of tolerance for neo-nazis. He's not going to call for her to resign. And when you come right down to it, how can he? This is what the Republican Party is now. These are his people. 

It's up to the rest of us to make them eat this, every single day for the next 2 years. 

A Tutorial for the NH Media on the Meaning of the Word Apology

This was October. Apparently a place opened up in the NH legislature. 

NH State Rep Advocates Burning and Looting

State Representative James Spillane after his arrest for DUI in 2017. (Still wearing his giant NH House name badge.) 



It was only a week ago that a NH House Republican made national news. Last week State Representative Robert Forsyth was charged with felony domestic violence. House Minority Leader Dick Hinch did his best to protect Forsythe, but after the governor called on Forsythe to resign, there was no saving him. Forsythe resigned. 

When NH House Republicans make national news, it's never because they've done something that is a credit to their office or the state. 

This week, a different NH House Republican is making national news. Rep. James Spillane seems to generate a newsworthy event every year. This year, it's about Black Lives Matter. From Josh Rogers at NHPR:

The New Hampshire Department of Justice is investigating Rep. James Spillane over a Facebook post in which the Deerfield lawmaker advocated for burning and looting houses displaying Black Lives Matter signs.

“Public Service Announcement,” Spillane wrote in the post from earlier this week. “If you see a BLM sign on a lawn, it’s the same as having a porch light on at Halloween. You are free to burn and loot that house.” As of Thursday afternoon, the post appears to have been deleted from Spillane’s page.

Predictably, the House Minority Leader defends his wayward lad:

House Minority Leader Dick Hinch says the language in Deerfield Rep. James Spillane’s now-deleted post was inexcusable, but Hinch told WMUR he also trusts Spillane ”meant no harm.”

Last year Spillane made the news for tweeting out a photo of a squirrel he shot with a .50 caliber muzzleloader. As one might expect, the photo was quite gory, and Spillane was quite boastful. 

Dave Solomon at the Union Leader: 

Twitter immediately exploded with outrage that caught the attention of Fish and Game officers, who paid Spillane a visit last week and issued a warning, as reported in Thursday’s New Hampshire Union Leader.

“In light of the warning Rep. Spillane received from the Fish and Game Department due to his recent conduct we felt it was inappropriate for him to remain on the Fish and Game Committee and have removed him from his committee position,” Shurtleff announced in a statement released on Friday afternoon.

The move drew immediate criticism from House Republican leader Rep. Dick Hinch, R-Merrimack.

“Removing Rep. Spillane from the Fish and Game committee for a minor infraction is heavy-handed and I’m disappointed that the Speaker chose to take this action,” he said.

As always, Spillane's first instinct is to behave badly. As always, Dick Hinch's first instinct is to cosset Spillane, and protect him. He wasn't upset with Spillane  - he was upset with the Speaker for taking away Spillane's committee assignment. 

In 2017, Spillane was arrested for DUI. Alyssa Dandrea for the Concord Monitor:

A Deerfield state representative convicted of drunken driving in 2010 is facing new charges in Pembroke.

James Spillane, a third-term Republican legislator, was arrested May 4 and charged with two counts of driving while intoxicated. He also faces open container and yellow line violations.

This wasn't Spillane's first rodeo. His first DUI arrest included strangling his wife and the confiscation of 20 guns from his house. Miscellany Blue .

One wonders why Hinch is so desperate to keep this loose cannon in the House, when he reflects so badly on the legislature and the state. Then one remembers that this kind of thing seldom results in any consequences for House Republicans. Governor Sununu has NOT spoken up to suggest Spillane resign. Domestic violence is bad, but casual racism and violence? No big deal. After all, Hinch trusts that he meant no harm. 

Spillane's second DUI came after a jolly afternoon of drinking with some of his fellow legislators, including the former rape-resentative Robert "Red Pill" Fisher. 

Take Off Your NH House Name Badge Before You Go Drinkin'

Pandering

A year ago, we watched the #MeToo movement begin to unfold. Women, who had been raped, molested, harassed, or perhaps all of the above began to speak truth to power. They began telling their stories in public. The response was sometimes predictable, the usual “why didn’t she speak up before now?” Some of you men learned what women have always known – that speaking out against powerful men can destroy careers, ruin reputations, and lead to harassment and threats. 

It takes a great deal of courage to speak up, to take action against a powerful man. At the beginning of August, NH State Senator Jeff Woodburn was arrested on charges of domestic violence.  Woodburn was the Senate minority leader, a rising star in the Democratic Party; a powerful man. 

There were immediate calls for Woodburn’s resignation. He refused to resign, though he did step down as minority leader. He declared his intention to fight the charges. He deserves his day in court. So does the victim. Disclaimer: I know the victim.

We should honor the concept of “innocent until proven guilty,” or at least strive to. Regrettably, most of us don’t, and that brings us back to “why don’t women come forward?” Since this story broke, a number of NH media outlets, including the Conway Daily Sun have chosen to print the name of the victim. As a result, she has been subject to endless harassment, by phone, by email, in social media and even in mainstream media.

Some of that has come from reporters who really ought to know better. Reporters who ought to be respectful enough to take no for an answer, especially after putting her name out there. Some of it has come from individuals involved with politics in Coos County. Mayor Paul Grenier of Berlin has stated publicly that Woodburn is the “real” victim in this case. This is a shocking public statement from an elected official. Grenier should resign, immediately. In the event of a guilty finding, he’ll wish like hell that he had. 

This is why women don’t come forward - because they will be subject to the kind of harassment that this woman is experiencing. I’m disappointed in the papers that chose not to respect the victim’s privacy. No one should be subjected to public shaming and endless streams of vituperative emails because they chose to press charges against a powerful man. 

Moving on. Tuesday, September 11 is the date of the NH state primary elections. The state elections may not be as sexy as national elections, but they’re more important. The people we send to Concord make decisions that impact our lives every single day. 

This past year, the Republican majority attempted to pass a school voucher bill that would have taken our tax dollars out of the public school system, laundered them through “freedom” accounts, and passed them on to private schools, home schools, or religious schools. This would have caused a huge increase in property taxes, which is why Representative Neal Kurk, Chair of the House Finance Committee, and certainly no pinko liberal, came out against it. The governor and his allies engaged in some tactical legerdemain in the hopes that if the legislature voted on the bill enough times, they’d eventually get the result they wanted. They failed – but nothing bad ever dies. It comes back, year after year. Right to work has been coming back for over 30 years.

The voucher bill will be back. Right to Work will be back. The effort to eliminate child labor laws will be back. The ongoing effort to restrict voting rights will continue. There will be more bills intended to rob women of the right to control their own bodies. NH has some serious problems. We have housing problems, a lack of affordable day care, high energy costs, and infrastructure problems. (Water, roads, bridges, dams, telecom) 

The northern part of the state is treated like an afterthought at every opportunity. Legislators in Concord tend to think that the state stops at Lake Winnipesaukee, and that everything above it must be Canada. The North Country perpetuates that point of view by sending rubber stamp Republicans to Concord, who choose party loyalty over their constituents. 

A recent letter of support for a Congressional candidate in this paper was a rare instance of GOP honesty. He didn’t even attempt to tout the record of the former state senator, or pretend that Sanborn will represent voters. He wants you to vote for a serial harasser so that he can provide access to Trump for Governor Sununu. No pretense, just blatant pandering to power. 

Speaking of access, this is your chance to vote for a governor who isn’t a Trump loyalist. (Loyalty to Trump should be an immediate disqualifier for any candidate.) We hear about the booming NH economy, but it hasn’t migrated north. Why? Ask a pledge taking panderer. Then vote for candidates who will fight for the future of the North Country. 

This was published as an op-ed in the September 7, 2018 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

We Have A Man Problem

When the story of Harvey Weinstein broke, the floodgates opened. All over social media, women were talking about their experiences with sexual harassment, with the #MeToo hashtag making the rounds. Years (decades) of stories and outrage were expressed. After a few days of that, some men began to be very uncomfortable. They began by getting defensive. Some moved on to make accusations that some of the women were surely lying. This is why women don’t come forward. They aren’t believed. 

Every woman has a story of harassment, often beginning in childhood. A family friend or a relative might have groped her as a child. She might have been a teenager who was groped by the father of the children she was babysitting for. It might be the story of a boss with a hands problem, or a violent story of date rape. It might be an experience she had while working in a restaurant. In a business where customers directly pay a worker’s salary, the worker is forced to put up with a great deal of foolishness in order to get  their pay, also known as the tip.

Hot on the heels of revelation after revelation of bad behavior by wealthy, powerful, men came the shooting in Texas. A man went into a church in a small town in Texas and killed 26 people. Devin Kelley’s past was filled with stories of violence and abusive behavior. If anyone had taken any one of the events seriously, he wouldn’t have been able to legally own a gun. He probably wouldn’t have been able to perpetuate a massacre.

There are a few things that mass shooters have in common. Since 1982, all but three of them have been men. Most of them had a history of domestic violence. It’s one of the best predictors of a potential mass shooter, but we don’t really take domestic violence all that seriously here. After all, it’s only women.

Here in NH, in 2014, three state legislators voted against Joshua’s Law, which made domestic violence a specific crime. JR Hoell was worried about “unintended consequences.” The other two were Frank Sapareto and Michael Sylvia. Rep. Sapareto was charged with assaulting his girlfriend’s two children in 2012. In 2017, he’s the Vice Chair of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. As for Sylvia, during discussion of a Belknap County deputy who was accused of raping a woman in custody whom he was transporting, Rep. Sylvia commented, “You know what that tells me, that tells me he had time on his hands.” The real worry shared by all three was that domestic abusers would lose their guns. Because, of course, that  “unintended consequence” would be a real tragedy.

By now we all know the tropes: when a man who has skin color of a somewhat duskier hue starts shooting, he’s a terrorist. When it’s a white guy, he’s a lone wolf with mental health problems. We often discover that that the shooter has anger issues, and even more often that he has a history of domestic violence. The Las Vegas shooter was never charged with domestic violence, but he had been heard in shops being cruel and demeaning to his female partner.

One of the great mythologies of our country is the nuclear family, where mom stayed home and baked cookies for the kids while dad went off to work and brought home the paycheck. The single paycheck family went off the rails a long time ago. It takes both partners working at least one job apiece to keep a family financially afloat. That collides with the other mythology: the macho man. The myth of the hyper masculine man has been growing exponentially, and married into the gun culture family. Now the pervasive myth is that of the gun totin’ patriot with a gun who is going to save the nation (by himself, for he is a rugged individualist!) from gubmint tyranny with his gun.

Gun culture is all around us. In NH, our new governor’s very first order of business was a gun bill. In a state with crumbling infrastructure – his biggest concern was passing a law to allow any halfwit with a gun to carry it concealed. There are too many guns, and too many halfwits – and the halfwits are increasingly armed and angry. Too many of them regard women and children as their property. A woman trying to protect herself and her children by removing them from a violent situation is perceived as taking what is theirs.

We need to change our violent, sexist culture. We need to change our societal definition of manhood and masculinity. Given that so many men can’t even handle listening to the stories of women’s lives, I am not hopeful.

Published as an oped in the November 10 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

Take Off Your NH House Name Badge Before You Go Drinkin'

This is NH State Representative James Spillane. He represents the towns of Deerfield, Candia, and Nottingham. He uses this photo on the NH General Court website. Note the giant badge affixed to his chest - you'll be seeing it again. 

He had a spot of legal trouble in 2010, when he was chair of the Deerfield Town Budget Committee. 

On March 12, 2010, Deerfield police received a call from a resident reporting a driver who drove away after “swerving all over the road” and crashing into his mailbox. As investigators followed tire tracks from the scene of the accident to a house on Swamp Road, a second 911 call came in from a woman at the same address who said her husband had just tried to kill her.

and

Police officers arrested Spillane on the scene and confiscated 20 guns from the house under a provision of state law that authorizes seizure if officers have probable cause to believe an act of domestic violence has occurred. Spillane’s wife declined the officers’ offer to seek a protective order.

 Read the whole story at Miscellany Blue . 

This being NH, and Spillane being a Republican, this did not end his political career. He ran for the NH House in 2014, and is currently serving his third term. 

This is Representative Spillane on May 4, wearing that same giant state rep. badge he's wearing in the photo at the top of the page. This time, though - the photo is a mug shot. 

Spillane was arrested on May 4 for DUI and having an open container. 

NH1 story.
Concord Monitor Story.

A teeensy little no photo story in the NH GOP propaganda arm, known as the Union Leader. It's almost as if they didn't want you to even notice. From the front page of the website:

     

The House was in session on May 4, so obviously Spillane went out drinking at some point during the day, while wearing his giant state rep. badge. (Maybe all that metal pinned on his jacket weighed him down so much he failed the field sobriety test?) 

He posted photos of the after session frivolity on instagram and twitter. Since the story broke, and people started spreading those photos around, he's made his twitter feed private, and made his instagram account inaccessible. Too late. 

Here he is - (before the mugshot)  next to Rape-resentative Robert  Fisher of Red Pill fame. Five Things to Know About GOP Rep. Robert Fisher- Miscellany Blue 

Fisher appears to have been smart enough to remove his House badge. Then again, under the circumstances, he probably didn't want anyone to know who he was, given that he's about as popular as chlamydia right now. 

Pro-tip: Next time, don't go out boozing while wearing your dinner plate sized name tag. 

At least he won't be driving for a while. Oh, and there's this, from the NH Legislative Handbook: 

Hoell Lotta Nonsense

This is one of seven posts on the Facebook page of NH State Representative JR Hoell on the subject of HB 478.

This is HB 478:

Full text of the bill here.

Women don't need  JR Hoell or any of his ilk  to protect us. Women know very well what kind of people are a threat to our safety. They aren't wearing women's clothes. They are dressed as boyfriends, husbands and fathers. They are dressed as athletes, fratboys, teachers, and bosses. They are dressed as politicians - like JR Hoell was the day in 2014 when he voted against a bill making domestic violence a stand alone crime in the state of NH.  WMUR. 

In fact, the men who make the most noise about protecting women are usually the biggest threat to our safety. 

JR Hoell votes against helping women at every opportunity. He votes against increasing the minimum wage. He votes against women having full bodily autonomy, by trying to make their personal medical decisions for them. He's sponsoring a bill to repeal the NH Health Protection Program which has enabled thousands of low wage working women to have access to health care. 

Another of the 7 "protect the wimmins" posts on Hoell's FB page:

This is Hoell's fourth term in the legislature. He hasn't done a damn thing for women so far. We certainly don't need his "help" in regulating our bathrooms. 

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

The Purple Purse Challenge - NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

The NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence is having a fundraiser. It's the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse Challenge.  NHCADSV is the only NH organization participating in the challenge. The scoop: 


The Allstate Foundation is launching The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse Challenge, a fundraising campaign for charities benefiting domestic violence survivors. 

Everything launches on Tuesday, September 2nd at 12:00pm ET and runs through Friday, October 3rd at 11:59:59am ET. 

- The team that raises the most during the Challenge wins a $100,000 donation 

- Second place gets $75,000

- Third gets $50,000 

- Fourth gets $25,000 

- Fifth through Tenth place each get $10,000 

And, there will be weekly Bonus Challenges for charities to win up to another $80,000. 

And, the best part of the Challenge is that even if you don't win any of the grand prize money, you get to keep the money you raise during the campaign. So, so great. 

By donating to NHCADSV between now and October 3, you can help the Coalition raise even more money to do their vital work. The awareness of domestic violence is heightened right now with professional athletes involved in domestic violence cases. 

Most of us know this is a problem. A boyfriend once dislocated my jaw. I've had 3 stalkers, one who stalked me off and on for 10 years. Domestic violence recently re-entered my life in a vivid and personal way. (I'll have more to say about that in the months ahead.) Please help the NH Coalition. They do important work, they lobby against bad legislation and for good legislation - the kind that protects the rights of victims. And lets be clear - both women and men can be victims of DV. 

For more than 35 years, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence has been working to create safe and just communities through advocacy, prevention, and empowerment for anyone affected by sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking.

Domestic violence affects 1 in 4 women, and the number one reason victims remain in relationships with their abusers is that they lack the financial resources to break free. We're taking action to stop financial abuse, but we need your help. The Coalition is the only New Hampshire organization participating in the Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse Challenge and we're using this opportunity to leverage your donations with corporate dollars to fund our economic empowerment work. With your help we could even win $100,000!

The odds are high that you have a friend, a relative, or a neighbor that has been abused. Please donate generously to our  friends at the NH Coalition so that they can continue to help everyone who needs help.