State House Dome: A tale of the tape from the 2022 primary

Sep. 18—WHILE RETIRED Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc did not win the GOP Senate nomination decisively, he did beat Senate President Chuck Morse across the state.

Despite the relatively small victory margin of 1,771 votes, Morse won only two of the state's 10 counties (Carroll and Rockingham County).

The only part of the state Morse truly dominated was in his own four-town state Senate district, where he beat Bolduc by 2,052 votes, 4,425-2,373. Morse did also win Bedford handily, 1,311-887.

Even then, however, Morse lost the town of Pelham (902-667) which is part of his district and next door to his hometown of Salem.

South buried Hansel

Former Hillsborough County Treasurer Bob Burns scored his big win over Keene Mayor George Hansel by running up the score in the big suburbs in the 2nd Congressional District near the Massachusetts border.

Burns beat Hansel by 2,041 votes with perhaps the biggest surprise being the 25% support that went to third-place finisher, Chinese-born law professor Lily Tang Williams of Weare.

Of course, Hansel won his home city big and won Concord, though Burns still took two of the 10 wards in the capital city.

But in many moderate suburbs, Hansel's wins in places like Bow (322-269), Amherst (432-410) and Hollis (324-244) were not enough to offset Burns' strength.

Burns owes his nomination to voters in towns such as Hudson (870-473), Milford (573-368), Pelham (753-381) and New Ipswich (430-163).

During an interview, Hansel said he blamed the defeat on the $700,000 that Democratic Super PACs spent promoting Burns as the true "MAGA (make America great Again) Republican."

"I just couldn't compete with that," Hansel said.

Leavitt's win was total

Karoline Leavitt of Hampton, the 1st Congressional District Republican nominee, dusted her primary opponents with a campaign that triumphed pretty much everywhere.

Yes, 2020 Republican nominee Matt Mowers of Gilford did win in Bedford (1,070-989), Merrimack (906-825) and a few other places, but he couldn't win big enough to offset her strength across the district.

State Rep. Tim Baxter, R-Seabrook, did win his hometown on the way to a disappointing fifth-place finish.

Leavitt even beat Mowers in Gilford and rolled to big wins in Derry (1,106-840) and Londonderry (1,228-742).

She even won in Rye, the hometown of third-place finisher Gail Huff Brown.

Last Friday, Mowers tossed a not-so-subtle shot at Leavitt when he praised Bolduc for having changed his mind and stating that indeed Joe Biden had won the 2020 election.

"Even if it is politically advantageous, I'm glad to see @GenDonBolduc speak honestly about his position on the 2020 election. Will other GOP candidates follow suit and finally be truthful about where they stand?" Mowers asked on Twitter.

Leavitt stood out as the only election denier among the five major GOP candidates in the 1st District.

On that score, former President Donald Trump chose to make his first New Hampshire comment Wednesday morning, congratulating Leavitt for showing "wonderful energy and wisdom" in her victory.

Sununu performs virtually

OK, he's no Garth Brooks, but Gov. Chris Sununu cut his own virtual cover song on social media Friday.

Sununu had guitarist Brooks Young play guitar and sing the lead chorus of Johnny Cash's classic, "I've Been Everywhere."

Sununu follows up in the tune with a listing of the towns and places he's visited across New Hampshire.

The debut play was on the Neal and Marga morning show on WZID.

"I love old country music, and it's time we have a 603 version of Johnny Cash's hit...because I've literally been everywhere!" Sununu declared on Twitter.

As expected, Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley panned the performance.

"Sununu's tired old song hits a flat note reality: signed abortion ban, electric rates doubled, property taxes up, assaulting public schools," Buckley said.

AG warns state Senate candidateThe Sunday News received a copy of a letter from Attorney General John Formella's elections unit regarding past campaign finance reports from state Rep. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, who is running for the state Senate this fall.

The Aug. 25 letter from Deputy General Counsel Myles Matteson noted that in 2020, Altschiller failed to file seven different campaign finance reports, and the ones that she did did not itemize expenses or document starting balances.

The letter gave Altschiller seven days to refile these reports.

"Please be advised that any future failures to comply with these minimum disclosure requirements may result in a cease and desist order, enforcement actions, fines, and/or criminal prosecution," Matteson wrote.

Altschiller said she's complied with the AG's request and doesn't believe this will lead to any further investigation.

"There is no investigation, the reports have been amended and the attorney general has acknowledged receipt of the reports. I have not heard that they require anything more. Should they reach out, I'm, of course, more than happy to comply," she said.

Right-to-work gets wins

Those campaigning to try and have New Hampshire join states to end making any workers join unions or pay dues had a very good week.

In the Republican primaries, the right-to-work forces picked off four incumbent House members who had opposed them in the past.

Former state Rep. Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, easily defeated Rep. John Klose.

Rep. Brodie DeShaies, R-Wolfeboro also lost to RTW supporter Katy Peternel.

Rep. James Allard, R-Pittsfield, lost to newcomers Clayton Wood and Cy Aures, and Rep. Dennis Acton, R-Fremont, lost to Emily Phillips.

In one of the biggest near-shockers last week, 10-term state Rep. and anti-right-to-work lawmaker Bonnie Ham, R-North Woodstock, barely survived with a two-vote win over right-to-work supporter Paul Schirduan.

This one will almost surely be going to a recount.

The right-to-work forces came up short with one supporter, Rep. Max Abramson, R-Seabrook, who lost to Jason Janvrin.

As a right-to-work supporter, the Americans for Prosperity joined in the campaign that included direct mail.

Allard and DeShaies also had been targeted by socially conservative Cornerstone Action, which did mailings against them and other cosponsors of legislation that exempted fatal fetal anomalies from the state's ban on abortions after 24 weeks.

The sponsor of that bill (HB 1609), Rep. Dan Wolf, R-Newbury, did manage to win his primary race.

12 GOP, 6 Dem casualties

The recounts could change this total, but unofficially 12 House Republicans and six House Democrats lost their primary campaigns.

The Sununu-created Granite State PAC managed to beat four of six House conservatives it targeted, Reps. Michael Sylvia, R-Belmont, Norm Silber and Glen Aldrich, both R-Gilford, and Abramson.

Other GOP losers were Reps. Gregg Hough, R-Laconia, Betty Gay, R-Salem, Kenna Cross, R-Northfield, William Foster, R-New Boston, along with Wolf, DeShaies, Klose, Allard and Acton.

The House Democrats who lost were five-term Rep. Paul Berch of Westmoreland, 13-term Rep. Jackie Cali-Pitts of Portsmouth, John Bordenet of Keene, Joshua Query and Diane Langley, both of Manchester and Ivy Vann of Peterborough.

Bolduc out of fundraiser

National Republican leaders said all the right things after New Hampshire Republican primary voters gave them conservative Bolduc and not establishment Morse as their nominee for the U.S. Senate.

Former Vice President Mike Pence came to the state last Wednesday to be the guest of honor for a Hillsborough County GOP fundraiser on Bolduc's behalf.

Also right on cue, the same day the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee began running attack ads against Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., the first one mocking her claim to be a bipartisan leader on Capitol Hill.

This was critical for Bolduc whose campaign was flat broke after his narrow victory.

But when it came time for the NRSC to hold its first joint fundraising event with targeted Senate candidates, Bolduc didn't make the cut.

GOP nominees in the swing states of Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio got an invite, as did Colorado and Washington GOP nominees.

Green troops lost allies

The campaign to require new landfills to meet tougher siting requirements was doomed to fail last week.

Yes, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly, 256-65, to override Gov. Chris Sununu's veto of the bill (HB 1454) to make developers show proof that any leakage from the landfill would not soon end up in public water bodies.

The Senate voted 12-11 against the override effort, which left it five votes shy of a two-thirds majority.

Supporters surely point to the fact that four GOP senators who voted for the bill ended up embracing Sununu's veto, Sen. Gary Daniels of Milford, Bill Gannon of Sandown, Bob Giuda of Warren and John Reagan of Deerfield.

Even if all had not changed their mind, it still would have come up one short.

That's because the strongest Republican supporter of this cause, ex-Sen. Erin Hennessey, R-Littleton, had resigned her seat to become deputy secretary of state.

Windham ballots in news

Conservative election reform advocates are up in arms after learning at least some 2022 primary absentee ballots sent to voters in Windham had folds that landed on the names of candidates.

You may recall a forensic audit in 2021 determined folds of absentees caused a near-400 vote discrepancy between what the electronic voting machines reported and what came out of a hand recount of state representative races in Windham.

Thomas Murray, a leader of the Government Integrity Project, has launched a right-to-know request to town officials for information, including pre-election testing of the voting machines.

Scanlan breaks a tie

Secretary of State David Scanlan settled one close election with a time-honored tradition.

His predecessor, Bill Gardner, came up with this one to decide a race when both candidates end up tied.

Gardner used a leather shaker bottle and gave each candidate a number matched to a black ball in the container. The first one to roll out of the bottle was the winner.

In this week's case on Thursday, Conway Republican Mike DiGregorio was declared the winner of the third nomination over former state Sen. Mark Housnell, also of Conway.

House Finance Committee Chairman Karen Umberger, R-Conway, had topped the GOP ticket followed by Frank McCarthy.

NH vets get more time

Last week, the U.S. Veterans Administration gave vets some good news with its announcement that those with cases in the pipeline trying to get benefits will have their eligibility extended through Sept. 30, 2025.

The VA Caregiver Program supports family members caring for veterans severely injured in the line of duty. The Trump administration narrowed the program's eligibility, and the VA denied 88% of applications to the program between October 2020 and August 2021.

Last February, the VA had decided to reverse the previous administration changes and keep vets in the program until they have reexamined the eligibility criteria.

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