State House Dome: Libertarians hold gunfight in the lifeboat

Feb. 3—THEY REPRESENT a small slice of the electorate, but the New Hampshire Libertarian Party rarely fails to entertain.

The latest example: At its annual convention Jan. 28 at the Backyard Brewery in Manchester, the party voted, 44-11, to exclude former National Chairman Nicholas Sarwark from participating in the organization's business.

Sarwark is a Manchester-based attorney and executive director of the Libertarian Policy Institute, a 501©(4). He was chairman of the Libertarian National Committee from 2014-20.

His "sin" was backing someone who was not the endorsed candidate of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party in the midterms.

Sarwark also ran and won the Democratic Party nomination for Hillsborough County attorney when Democrats did not field a candidate.

As a result, Sarwark got 45% of the vote in the general election, which was won by Republican John Coughlin. Sarwark's percentage was the largest of any Libertarian candidate for county office in state history.

The party also approved a bylaw change to terminate the party membership of anyone who runs as a Libertarian in a race against a party-endorsed candidate.

Kelly Halldorson launched an independent campaign for nomination for governor and received more votes than Libertarian Party-endorsed hopeful, Karyln Borysenko.

In 2022, Borysenko posted on social media: "Everyone who died in the Holocaust chose to die in the Holocaust before they were ever born because they collective[ly] wanted to understand the experience of ultimate oppression."

Sarwark, who helped Halldorson's campaign for governor, said Borysenko represented a faction of the party "obsessed with online trolling."

He was also publicly critical of U.S. Senate Libertarian candidate Jeremy Kaufmann, who made controversial statements of his own on social media.

Sarwark said Libertarian Party candidates won't get the 4% support in a statewide race they need to retain their party status unless they return their focus to a principled platform.

GOP chair organizes, plans

Republican State Chairman Chris Ager of Amherst outlined his three main goals after his blowout victory to replace retiring chairman Steve Stepanek:

—deal with any "internal tension" among those who supported rival Lou Gargiulo;

—build a fundraising apparatus that will compete with Democrats;

—engage in messaging and media outreach.

Ager said he was delighted when former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley signaled that she would hold town hall meetings in New Hampshire after her expected announcement of a 2024 presidential bid on Feb. 14.

"We are hearing a very unifying message from all those in the 2024 discussion that they will respect and strongly defend the first-in-the-nation primary tradition here," Ager said.

"From Donald Trump to Mike Pence to Nikki Haley to Mike Pompeo and so many more, they are committed to campaigning often here to connect with real voters."

House Dems' blueprint

Late last week, House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm's team released its Blueprint for a Stronger New Hampshire, which includes support for abortion rights and public education and opposition to corporate tax cuts and education vouchers.

"After thousands of conversations on our neighbors' doorsteps last fall, we've heard the call from our communities, and stand ready to address their concerns. Across the state, our neighbors are struggling to afford the high cost of energy, rent, and childcare, with many working multiple jobs to make ends meet," Wilhelm said in a statement.

Long odds for pay raise

State Rep. Walter Stapleton, R-Claremont, is authoring the latest longshot proposal to increase legislators' annual pay, which has remained unchanged since 1889.

The $100 a year paid to rank-and-file legislators and the $125 for the House speaker and Senate president are the lowest in the country — by far.

This proposed amendment to the state Constitution (CACR 4) would raise the pay of presiding leaders to $6,250 annually and $5,000 for all other legislators. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates the average pay for lawmakers in the U.S. is about $40,000.

California legislators have the highest pay — $115,000 a year.

Maine lawmakers get $22,416 a year, plus $70 a day for meals.

Vermont pays legislators $743 a week, with per diems for meals each day they attend in person.

The pay bill would cost taxpayers $1.14 million a year.

Low pay "tends to narrow the range of service to retired persons or those of fairly well means," Stapleton testified.

"It doesn't cover the complete need, but it's a start and perhaps it may be reasonable enough for voters to say, 'Yeah, that's fair.'"

The three House Democrats who signed onto Stapleton's bill are Reps. Laurel Stavis of Lebanon and Rebecca McWilliams and Eric Gallagher, both of Concord.

Recall provision outlined

The House is considering whether to amend the Constitution to create a process to recall elected officials.

Rep. Michael Moffett, R-Loudon, said it could apply to anyone, but his focus was on the "three- and four-year term" officials such as local selectmen, school board members and some county offices.

He said it was unlikely this would lead to a process for recalling state legislators.

"I don't consider us to be politicians at all; we are citizen legislators," Moffett said.

Like the pay plan, this amendment to the Constitution (CACR 3) needs a 60% supermajority vote in both the House and the Senate to go before voters in November 2024.

This plan is unlikely to reach that threshold.

State revenues still boom

You've read it many times before: State revenues enjoyed another bumper month.

The state took in $203 million for January, generally not a big revenue month.

The take was $42 million — or 26% over the forecast for this month and 4.8% over January 2022.

Through seven months of the fiscal year, the state has brought in about $250 million — 21.2% more than expected.

Compared to the same seven months last year, the state is up $49 million or 3.6%.

Once again, business and hospitality taxes are responsible for a bigger revenue surplus.

Analysts have been waiting for business tax growth to slow. For the past three months, refunds from the state's Business Profits Tax have been up substantially compared to the same months a year ago.

With collections humming along, the three big months for business tax receipts (March, April and June) will determine just how large the surplus could get.

Meanwhile, the state's real estate market isn't as white-hot as it was, because of lower inventory and higher interest rates.

Through the first seven months, the tax on property transfers has brought in $3 million less than in the same period last year.

In January 2023, the tax collected $16 million, compared with $26 million in January 2022 and $25 million in 2021.

Because legislative budget writers had expected a steep slowdown of this tax, revenue so far this year is still $29 million more than planned.

Election law bill backed

Senate Elections Laws Committee Chairman James Gray, R-Rochester, got no pushback on an election law reform bill (SB 156) he spoke on last week.

This bill would repeal voter registration requirements contained in a GOP-passed law (SB 3) the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional.

"We thank him for doing that," said Liz Tentarell of the New Hampshire League of Women Voters.

Gray's committee endorsed it, 5-0.

Last week, lawyers for the state and Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and other parties presented oral arguments in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua over a controversial 2022 law (SB 418).

Starting with the municipal elections this year, the law requires anyone who registers to vote at the polls without an ID to come back with proof of their residency within seven days.

Votes cast by those who do not furnish proof in that time frame must be deducted from vote totals.

House and Senate Democrat leaders have offered bills to repeal this law, but given the GOP's majority, they are not likely to succeed.

State primary move?

Senate Majority Whip Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, is carrying the Senate GOP's proposal to move the date of the state primary election.

This bill (SB 133) moves the primary up four months, from the second Tuesday in September to the second Tuesday in May.

The plan also calls for a runoff election if no candidate for federal office in a primary gets 50% of the vote. A runoff would be held six weeks later, on the last Tuesday in June.

House Majority Floor Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, and Rep. Ross Berry, R-Manchester, also have a runoff election in their own House proposal to move the primary date.

"With crowded fields in recent years, this mean our nominees are seeking smaller and smaller slices of our party's voters," Birdsell said. "This is to make sure they have majority support. This will also help with any mischief that might happen in the primaries."

Currently 10 states have runoff primaries.

This concept is gaining traction because of the outcome in 2022.

Don Bolduc, Karoline Leavitt and Bob Burns all won very competitive primaries with less than 50% support from voters.

Legislative fans of defeated U.S. Senate candidate and ex-state Senate President Chuck Morse believe he could have beaten Bolduc in a head-to-head runoff.

The "mischief" Birdsell refers to includes a big spend by national Democratic groups that lifted the candidacy of Burns and helped him win his Second Congressional District primary over Keene Mayor George Hansel.

Burns remains politically active. Recently he has taken a few shots on social media at Sununu, who endorsed Hansel last year.

Secretary of State David Scanlan has questioned whether the state constitution would permit a runoff.

The Senate or House could decide to ask the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on whether a runoff would comply with the constitution, which states that candidates win New Hampshire elections with a "plurality" of votes.

A big hand for Thomas

The House gave state Rep. Wendy Thomas, D-Merrimack, a lengthy standing ovation after she gave an emotional thank-you to legislative and staff colleagues who helped her deal with a long case of COVID-19 in late 2020, followed by a diagnosis of cancer last year.

Thomas recalled the support she got from her inner circle after getting the cancer news.

"I didn't hold anything back. They heard the bad and the ugly, there is very little good to hear about cancer. They heard my fear and my outrage about how unfair it was," she said.

"I was going to beat cancer. I was going to beat cancer right, but here's a little life secret: No one can do cancer alone, no one. It is simply too big."

Thomas said the support of colleagues sustained her and she vowed to return the favor when they are in need.

Pappas gets third panel

With his third term, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-NH, got his third committee assignment last week, a seat on the House Committee on Small Business.

Pappas comes from a small business family that built the Puritan Backroom Restaurant and Conference Center complex in Manchester.

He remains a member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

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