Maggie Hassan's Pay-to-Play: No-Bid Contracts Worth Millions to Campaign Donors - Granite Grok

Maggie Hassan’s Pay-to-Play: No-Bid Contracts Worth Millions to Campaign Donors

Girard at large

From Rich Girard’s News Read yesterday: looks like Maggie Hassan is giving away no-bid contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.

Is Governor Margaret Wood Hassan presiding over a pay to play scheme in the awarding of state contracts?  Curious minds want to know, at least on the Republican side of the aisle.  Republican State Committee Chair Jennifer Horn called on Hassan to quote “start answering questions about the growing list of no-bid contracts she has awarded to her campaign donors,” charging Hassan has quote “turned the state’s contracting process into her personal A T M.”  Horn also filed Right-To-Know requests for all records pertaining to the awarding of controversial contracts to a company called Centene, which the Union Leader reported as having given Hassan tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions before and after  the company received no-bid contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and all no-bid contracts issued while Hassan’s been in office.

Among the facts raising questions over the state’s involvement with Centene are the following:

  • On December 1st, 2 0 1 3, Centene began coordinating services for N H Medicaid participants.  Two days later, Centene employees donated $34,000 to Hassan’s reelection campaign.
  • On March 5th, 2 0 1 4, Centene donated $25,000 to the Democratic Governor’s Association, while Hassan was its vice-chair.  Two weeks later, Centene donated another $25,000, then, the very next day,  Hassan signed Medicaid Expansion.
  • On June 6th, 2014, Centene donated anther $75,000 to the D G A, followed by another $10,000 on July 13th. Three days later, a $2 9 2 million Obama Care Medicaid Expansion contract for Centene was pushed by Hassan through the Executive Council.  Ten days after that, Centene donated another $50,000.
  • On August 5th, 2 0 1 5 a $1.6 billion contract extension, the largest single deal in state history, was awarded to Centene and Well Sense to run the state’s Medicaid program.  At the time, Centene was one of Hassan’s largest donors, having given her campaign’s $52,000 and the D G A $185,000, while she was vice chair.
  • The D G A spent almost eight hundred thousand dollars supporting Hassan’s reelection bid in 2 0 1 4 (WMUR 11/12/14), meaning that Centene’s donations to the D G A represented a quarter of all of the money it spent helping Hassan.
  • Centene’s first contract was not originally in the Executive Council agenda but was added as a late item.  When District Three Executive Councilor Chris Sununu complained that no one had time to read it, Hassan refused to delay the vote:

Girard at Large

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