Democrats are running as Republicans in Goffstown, NH. The Town committee knows it. The Hillsborough County Republican Committee knows it. Elected Republicans know it, and some have been vocal about the problem. But no one in Republican party leadership seems willing or able to do anything about it.
This is an ongoing problem in Goffstown, by the way, which we’ll get to eventually, but let us start with something simple. Barbara J. Griffin.
Barbara J. Griffin is running for the NH House from Goffstown as a Republican. This is an ideological calling she adopted just before the candidate filing deadline. She did it because her political agenda would never win her a house seat in that town unless she lied to the voters about who she really is, and what she would do once elected.
Barbara J. Griffin has run for the NH House before. In 1998 she ran as a Democrat.
In 2004, she marched with then Democrat presidential candidate Joe Lieberman–in not one but two parades. (Not the Barbara we’re looking for.)
As a figure in local government she has opposed right to know laws (here and here), a position common to NH Democrats.
She embraced and advocated for Regional planning and decision making by unelected bureaucrats by fighting hard for workforce housing in Pinardville. Democrats love regional planning and shifting power to unelected boards and committees.
And Barbra has been registered as a Democrat and voting in elections and primaries as a Democrat up until this year, 2014.
My sources tell me she only changed her registration this year so she could run as a Republican and was still on the checklist as a Democrat.
She is not alone. David Pierce (not the NH Senate Democrat, a different one) is also a life-long Democrat running as a Republican in Goffstown.
The Democrat party appears to have accommodated them by only running three candidates for five seats. There are plenty of Democrats who could fill those two spots but why bother when other two Democrats are more likely to win running as Republicans? If they lose in the primary, there are still to slots open for a write in campaign or two on the left side.
This is clearly a case of subterfuge. Griffin’s entire internet history, for as far back as we can go, identifies her as not just a Democrat, but a politically active one who supports Democrat candidates and democrat policies. We have 16 years’ worth of timeline, during which this woman was a politically active Democrat. But weeks before the filing period ends in 2014 she discovers she’s a Republican?
There have been plenty of ‘Democrats’ who have run and been elected to office as Republicans in this state, so this is nothing new, though most f those were Democrats in another state and decided to be Republicans here, much for the same reason–to hide in the party by which they might achieve office, only to vote with Democrats after. But many were never Democrats in NH for decades before hand. So this may be one of the more brazen and obvious acts of subterfuge we’ve seen. They are blatantly lying and the party will not or cannot call them out. It is up to each of us to bring this message to the primary voters.
Barbara J. Griffin and David Pierce are life-long Democrats who are deceiving the people of Goffstown for their own political gain.
Note: Anyone with knowledge of Democrats running as Republicans in Town GOP Primaries, let us know. We’ll keep your confidence, then dig out the details and report on any and all legitimate cases before the primary. But you have to tell us who they are. Maybe you can’t say anything publicly, but we can!
