CONCORD — Attorney General Joseph Foster has made it official: he has recused himself from a review of a recent campaign finance complaint filed by the state Republican Party against Gov. Maggie Hassan’s campaign regarding a union PAC donation to her in 2012.
The NHGOP had asked Foster to step aside from any review or investigation because he served as a member of the Hassan campaign’s finance committee in 2012. That committee, like any campaign finance committee, is charged with raising money for the campaign.
Foster told the New Hampshire Journal on Tuesday that he would “probably” recuse himself in order to take a “conservative” approach and avoid any possible appearance of a conflict. (see story below)
Friday, Associate Attorney General Richard Head told the Journal in a brief email: “Attorney General Foster has recused himself from the undated complaint we received on August 6 regarding a June 15, 2012 donation.”
NHGOP Chairman Jennifer Horn issued this statement: “Governor Hassan’s illegal campaign money scandal has cast a dark ethical cloud over her administration and undermined public trust in state government. Attorney General Foster made the right decision given his role on Hassan’s 2012 finance committee and his close ties to some of the labor unions that broke campaign finance laws. We hope that the New Hampshire Department of Justice will expedite its ongoing investigation into Governor Hassan’s shady campaign finances and quickly provide an opinion on her suspicious failure to disclose her donors on required campaign finance report.”
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Liisa Rajala at the NH Business Review thinks through some of the lessons of Market Basket's fiery implosion for other businesses: Take one look at the Market Basket fiasco – employee protests that have essentially shut down 71 stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine – and you’ll get a quick lesson in business communications 101. While Market Basket recently hired O’Neill and Associates, a crisis communications firm in Boston, the damage has been done. Communications specialists and grocery industry experts are in awe, watching a rapidly growing supermarket that was once valued at $7 billion drop in value within a week. The Market Basket saga will be discussed in the communications industry and business schools for years to come. My problem with the theoretically liberal bloggers in NH is that instead of advocating for anything, they mainly just spend their pixels explaining why you should hate and fear NH conservatives. Here's a sample from William Tucker at Miscellany Blue: Republican House candidates report receiving a letter from former state Rep. Tom Alciere (R-Nashua) threatening to “sink the Republican Party” if the party fails to nominate “extreme libertarians.” "Ron Paul Revolutionaries have proven that we can and will sink the Republican Party if our demand is not met," the letter read. "Nominate libertarian extremists, — or else!" "To defeat the Democrats, the Republican Party must stand united, and Ron Paul Revolutionaries will never unite behind enemies of liberty," wrote Alciere. "You must unite behind libertarian extremists. Delay and denial will get you nowhere." That's some brisk rhetoric from a crazy man. Oh hey, Susan the Bruce has a follow up. Given all that Alciere has espoused, it's no wonder that he served as an inspiration to early Free State Project colonizers, as we see in this 2002 Yahoo Group: Well, if a handful of people wrote stuff like that on the internet, I definitely think NH's democracy is under threat from a dangerous conspiracy.
Shine, perishing republic. Charles Arlinghaus at the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy wants the state to publish how much it spends every month: The state budget is in shambles but that information is not being shared publicly. To guess at the nature of the overspending and budget shortfall, we can only estimate using some incomplete public documents. This problem can be resolved by the quick release of information the executive branch has but is not sharing. Longer term spending should be made transparent in a timely fashion in exactly the same way revenues are currently transparent. Mike Chambers, director of operations and customer service at Relyco Business Solutions, a commercial printing firm in Dover, says he gets a message a day from companies looking to sell him telecommunications services. With the careful use of microphones, interns and high-tech surveillance equipment Kathleen Ronayne of the Concord Monitor was able to collect the positions of NH's incumbent office holders and some of the candidates who hope to replace them: Pressure is growing on Congress and President Obama to take action to resolve what’s become a humanitarian crisis along the nation’s southern border. Since October, more than 50,000 children from Central America have entered the country, overwhelming the U.S. immigration system. Most of the migrant children are coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and they’re either fleeing gang and other violence or seeking better economic opportunity. Continued below the fold -
Both Representatives Shea-Porter and Kuster voted for the short term fix to keep the national highway trust fund solvent. Outwardly calm and willing to go about their daily business, both inwardly pine for a long-term solution. NH Labor News reports: Today, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) voted in support of bipartisan legislation that will keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through May 2015, allowing New Hampshire cities and towns to continue repairing roads and bridges. H.R. 5021 passed the House by a vote of 367-55. The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and be signed into law by the President. “I am pleased that this badly-needed fix will allow construction projects in New Hampshire to continue this summer,” said Shea-Porter, who has pushed for months to bring the fix to the floor. “Maintaining investments in our highways, roads, and bridges will support jobs, enhance safety, and boost the local economy.” Representative Ann McLane Kuster has helped to introduce a constitutional amendment allowing the states to pass regulations on campaign spending. NH Labor News looks on appreciatively: Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02), has helped introduce a constitutional amendment that would reform the campaign finance system by giving Congress and state governments the right to pass legislation to limit the influence of money in federal elections. H. J. Res. 119, the Democracy for All Amendment, would largely overturn the controversial Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC., which ruled that corporations and Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money to benefit political campaigns. James Pindell briefly texted the following report to WMUR headquarters before disappearing into the unincorporated townships of the North Country with only a dog, rifle and ax: U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster continued an impressive fundraising pace for her re-election efforts this year raising over a half-million in the last three months, WMUR Political Scoop has learned. Representative Kuster intends to defend the Import-Export Bank against its ideological foes: As part of her commitment to creating jobs and opportunity for Granite State families, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) joined with local New Hampshire business owners and leaders at BAE Systems in Nashua to call for the reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which is set to expire at the end of September. Many New Hampshire businesses rely on support from the Bank in order to create jobs for Granite State workers, so reauthorization is important to the state’s economic success. |