State House Dome: Ayotte's record fundraising includes big bundler with a past

Dec. 10—THERE IS NO ARGUING that former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte's record campaign fundraising helps her status as the early favorite to replace Gov. Chris Sununu in 2024.

No one, however, should be surprised by the $2.74 million haul.

Ayotte is a proven fundraising workhorse. She raised nearly $3.8 million in the final six months of 2015, the year before she narrowly lost reelection to then-Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.

Since leaving the Senate, Ayotte has joined the corporate boards of BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Bloom Energy, Blackstone Group, News Corp., Boston Properties and Blink Health, as well as the advisory boards of Microsoft, Chubb Insurance and Cirtronics.

The Sunday News has confirmed she has another defense industry supporter with a controversial past.

Lawrence Costa's name doesn't show up on her most recent campaign finance report, yet he's financially connected to these limited liability companies that each gave Ayotte $15,000 in donations, the maximum allowed for the pre-campaign, primary and general election:

—International Management, Inc.

—409 Franklin Pierce Highway, LLC

—308 Person Street, LLC

—447 Upton Road, LLC

—"125 Wingaersheek, LLC"

—208 Main Street, LLC

—Worldwide Language Resources LLC

—International Management, Inc.

—Mill Pond View LLC

Costa's daughter Anastasia and her husband, Kyle Galuski, a police officer in Cambridge making $135,000 a year, also gave $15,000 each.

All told, that's $165,000 — or 6% of Ayotte's total.

In 2013, Costa and his firm, Worldwide Language Resources Inc., agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to the U.S. Defense Department for its use of "untested linguists" in overseas combat zones and other military venues.

The Maine-based company used untested linguists in two federal contracts though they were required to take exams and prove their proficiency before the federal government could be billed for the services.

The U.S. Justice Department contended that in some cases the firm inflated its bills or charged for services that it didn't provide at all.

Ayotte Campaign Manager John Corbett was dismissive.

"This is a baseless and pathetic attack from the Democrats, who are panicking because Kelly Ayotte single-handedly raised more than both of their failing candidates," Corbett said.

It comes as no surprise that Ryan Mahoney, executive director of Amplify NH, the Super PAC dedicated to opposing Ayotte for governor, thought otherwise.

"Continuing a troubling pattern, Kelly Ayotte took more than ten times the legal donation limit from Lawrence Costa, his family and businesses — one of which was fined for providing substandard services to U.S. troops in a combat zone," Mahoney said.

Ayotte's campaign did nothing illegal in taking this money.

For decades, candidates in both major political parties have been taking advantage of this gaping LLC loophole, which allows them to accept massive amounts from a single person who controls multiple businesses.

Tipping the balance sheet

Every candidate tries his or her level best to make their campaign finance balance sheet look as good as possible.

With the first reports from those running for governor, it's all about projecting the biggest number raised and showing a healthy surplus in the war chest.

Some examples of that creative math:

—Democratic candidate for governor and outgoing Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig raised $1.26 million, more than her main rival, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington of Concord, and reported a $300,000 advantage in cash on hand.

But Craig's campaign did not report any salary or benefits paid to Craig Brown, who has been her campaign manager since at least last July. Legally, this would mean Brown has been serving in a volunteer capacity that whole time.

—Warmington announced she had raised $1.05 million, but not all of that was for the race for governor. Previous campaign finance reports revealed that before entering this race, Warmington had already taken about $160,000 to run for a third term on the Executive Council before Sununu declared last June that he would not run again. Warmington also loaned her campaign $150,000.

—Republican candidate Chuck Morse reported raising $902,000. But more than a quarter of that — $247,675 — was from the campaign balance he had from his runs for state Senate. Morse and his wife, Susan, donated $36,500 to his campaign, and relatives gave him another $15,000.

—Ayotte raised the most but also collected the biggest sum of money she cannot spend if she loses the GOP primary. More than 80 max donors contributed $414,500 to her general election campaign — if there is one.

Ayotte backers hit back

Several prominent Ayotte supporters did not take kindly to Morse campaign manager Maya Harvey's comments that Ayotte's fundraising reflected a "Washington-style" campaign that will not succeed in 2024.

House Deputy Majority Leader Fred Doucette, R-Salem, said it wasn't a good look.

"Fundraising or Grassroot support? On either account Kelly has a 3-fold advantage and is the strongest in the race on both accounts running a grassroots NH campaign as evidenced by hundreds of Granite State endorsements," Doucette posted on X.

Debating over debates

Executives with two television networks were throwing elbows late last week over Republican candidate debates just before the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23.

CNN fired the first shot Thursday morning, announcing it will host a debate on Jan. 21, the Sunday before the Tuesday vote, on the campus of Saint Anselm College.

A few hours later, ABC and WMUR, its New Hampshire affiliate, confirmed it would hold a Republican National Committee-sanctioned debate on the same campus.

As we first reported on social media Thursday, CNN did not communicate with officials at the college before declaring they would bring a debate there.

"I don't know where that came from," said Neil Levesque, director of the New Hampshire Institute for Politics of the CNN event after having spent weeks negotiating with party officials and ABC about holding its debate here.

RNC officials also have since disavowed having anything to do with the CNN event, while New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Chris Ager declared he was on board with the ABC debate.

A CNN spokesperson insisted that despite this hiccup, the show will go on.

AFP staffer joins DeSantis

Chris Maidment stepped down from Americans for Prosperity after taking to X a week ago to lambaste his employer for endorsing Nikki Haley for president.

"My work to make New Hampshire a freer place for me and my family won't stop because a job ended," he concluded.

"I'm still in the fight. New Hampshire is a beacon of freedom in this country, and yet we still have so much more work to do."

Last Friday, Maidment dropped the other shoe, confirming he had joined Never Back Down, the Super PAC dedicated to electing GOP rival Ron DeSantis, as New Hampshire political director.

According to media outlets in the Hawkeye State, two AFP staffers in Iowa resigned in protest of Haley's endorsement.

Murray seeks advice

First-term state Rep. Alissandra Murray, D-Manchester, revealed last week she asked the Legislative Ethics Committee to advise her on votes regarding abortion rights since she's a deputy director of the non-profit Reproductive Freedom Fund of NH, which she co-founded in 2019.

The New Hampshire Journal first reported that Murray voted on abortion bills but did not sign a declaration of intent to participate in them, despite her professional role in the area.

The ethics panel does not comment on complaints or advisory matters until and unless it issues a decision.

Murray said on social media she was told the committee will be issuing an opinion.

"What I do know is that the committee was unanimous in the opinion that I committed no intentional violation and that any change moving forward will be prospective," Murray said.

"I, of course, intend to abide by their finalized ruling in the upcoming session."

Prediction: The committee is likely to advise Murray that she should recuse herself from voting on these matters in the future.

This would be consistent with its 2019 decision in the matter of the late House Majority Leader Doug Ley, a Jaffrey Democrat, who while serving in that top House leadership post was president of the American Federation of Teachers Union.

The ethics panel concluded that Ley should not be voting on matters affecting public education.

Speaker defends actions

House Speaker Sherman Packard's office last week sent a letter to all House members defending the actions taken regarding former Republican State Rep. Troy Merner's residency.

Prosecutors for Attorney General John Formella had told General Court Chief Operating Officer Terry Pfaff in December 2022 that they were looking into allegations that Merner did not live in the district where he had won reelection the previous month.

The letter states Merner represented himself to House GOP leaders.

"In response, Mr. Merner explained that he was in a period of transition but was properly domiciled in Lancaster, where he maintained a rented residence and planned to move into another house," the letter said.

Formella's probe did not conclude until mid-September, when Packard said he was informed that Merner did not live in Lancaster.

Packard asked for — and Merner tendered — his resignation from the House the following day.

"I am hopeful that this correspondence will provide you with some insight into the reasonable approach that the speaker's office took in relation to this important matter," the letter concluded.

Council hopeful sets record

First-time candidate and New London businessman Mike Liberty reported raising a record $380,000 in his campaign for the Executive Council District 2 seat that Warmington is vacating.

Liberty said it's $130,000 more than any council hopeful, including incumbents, has raised by this point.

The amount includes $74,000 from Liberty's own pocket.

Karen Liot Hill, another Democrat in the race, announced endorsements by the mayors of Concord, Lebanon and Claremont along with 31 state reps from Dist. 2.

National Dems chip in

New Hampshire was one of six states to receive money from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee for 2024.

The DLCC is contributing $50,000 to legislative races in New Hampshire. The total nearly $300,000 includes donations in Michigan ($82,000), Arizona ($70,000), Wisconsin ($24,000), Pennsylvania ($30,000), and North Carolina ($15,000).

'No Brainer' recognition

The National Taxpayers Union placed two of Hassan's bills on its 2023 list of 10 common sense "no brainer" pieces of legislation that Congress should pass.

The Site-based Invoicing and Transparency Act (SITE) would prevent hospitals from charging unfair facility fees for care at outpatient facilities such as a primary care physician's office.

The Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act would make all federal agencies identify wasteful programs and help Congress with legislation to eliminate them.

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, co-sponsored both bills with Hassan.

Kevin Landrigan is State House Bureau Chief for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Contact him at klandrigan@unionleader.com.