Given that the election has already occurred, I can only say that someone with an extremely loose grip on the Law and Reality didn’t make it past the Primary. Yes, David Hershey melted in the heat of the race and came in fourth in a three-person race in Alton/Barnstead.
Before the election, I wrote about a Hershey (who is running for the NH House in the Republican Primary from Alton/Barnstead) and his wife who decided to persuade the Belknap County Administrator on 9/6 to support and vote for HB1397. That would be David, his wife Debra, and BC Admin Deb Shackett. I gave Hershey’s missive to Shackett a fine and rather thorough fisking, which you can read there (I’m not going to repeat it here).
The next part of the story is as interesting as that email is both hilarious, misinformed, and sad. What was Belknap County Administrator Deb Shackett’s response? Well, she should have known better (emphasis mine):
From: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 3:29 PM
To: Barbara Comtois <bcomtois2016@gmail.com>; Dawn Johnson <dawnjohnsoninthehouse@gmail.com>; Douglas Trottier <trottierfornhstaterep@gmail.com>; Glen Aldrich <glenaldrich@gmail.com>; Gregg Hough <gregghough2020@gmail.com>; Harry Bean <froggytouttaint@aol.com>; Jonathan Mackie <jon@clearwatercampground.com>; Juliet Harvey-Bolia <jharveybolia@gmail.com>; Michael Sylvia <mike@mikesylvia.org>; Mike Bordes <mikebordes@gmail.com>; Norman J Silber <njs@silbersnh.com>; Paul Terry <revpaul51@verizon.net>; Peter Varney <pvarney@atsnh.com>; Richard Littlefield <proudreplaconia22@gmail.com>; Tim Lang <tlang@thelangs.us>; Tom Ploszaj <tom.ploszaj@gmail.com>; Travis O’Hara <travis.oas@gmail.com>
Subject: FW: Gunstock Mountain Resort – For the TaxpayersForwarding as requested.
Like I said earlier, Hershey was either too lazy or too stupid to look it up himself. Nice for Shackett to use their PERSONAL addresses instead of their NH House legislative email addresses.
Oopsies – forwarding Hershey’s electorial obsessed email? That’s against the Law and when you send stuff to a Legislator that both served on the Elections Committee in the NH House AND is a lawyer, well, that old phrase of “Decisions have Consequences” comes into play (again, emphasis mine):
From: Norman J Silber
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 10:13 PM
To: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.org>; Barbara Comtois <bcomtois2016@gmail.com>; Dawn Johnson <dawnjohnsoninthehouse@gmail.com>; Douglas Trottier <trottierfornhstaterep@gmail.com>; Glen Aldrich <glenaldrich@gmail.com>; Gregg Hough <gregghough2020@gmail.com>; Harry Bean <froggytouttaint@aol.com>; Jonathan Mackie <jon@clearwatercampground.com>; Juliet Harvey-Bolia <jharveybolia@gmail.com>; Michael Sylvia <mike@mikesylvia.org>; Mike Bordes <mikebordes@gmail.com>; Paul Terry <revpaul51@verizon.net>; Peter Varney <pvarney@atsnh.com>; Richard Littlefield <proudreplaconia22@gmail.com>; Tim Lang <tlang@thelangs.us>; Tom Ploszaj <tom.ploszaj@gmail.com>; Travis O’Hara <travis.oas@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Gunstock Mountain Resort – For the Taxpayers
To County Administrator Debra A. Shackett-Your distribution of the below email is an outrageous, flagrant and blatant violation of the following law:
659:44-a Electioneering by Public Employees. –
I. No public employee, as defined in RSA 273-A:1, IX, shall electioneer while in the performance of his or her official duties.
II. No public employee shall use government property or equipment, including, but not to, telephones, facsimile machines, vehicles, and computers, for electioneering.
III. For the purposes of this section, “electioneer” means to act in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office.
IV. Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.As a longtime public employee, you should know better. Thus, this matter will be sent as a formal complaint against you to the NH Department of Justice.
Any individual wishing to contact members of the Delegation about any political matter can easily find the individual email addresses of the representatives comprising the Delegation, and there is absolutely no need or e4xcuse [sic] for something like the piece from the Hersheys to be forwarded using the County email system. It is against the law.
Your disregard of the law seems to imply that if virtually anyone wants to advocate for or against any candidate or bill all they need to do is ask you to forward their email advocacy piece to the members of the Delegation. But it is still against the law for you to use the county email system to further their aims.
And, of course, the legislation mentioned in the Hershey piece already died in the last session., which any reasonably competent person could easily determine with some simple research.
Norm Silber
Member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
Belknap County District 2- Gilford & Meredith
Chair, Belknap County Republican Committee
Member of the New Hampshire Bar & The Florida Bar
243 Mountain Drive
Gilford, New Hampshire 03249-6764
Remember, while the Constitution is meant to be a fence that protects US against THEM (in the Government), so do these kinds of Laws. Government should NEVER be a Special Interest Group politicking on its own behalf.
Sidenote: Like Gunstock Mountain Resort GM and President Tom Day using Gunstock/taxpayer money to contribute to the campaign of sitting Governor Chris Sununu’s re-election campaign. And I have news on that front as well – but for another post.
It seems, however, that while politicians and bureaucrats can use the Law as a whip against us (re: the rapidly vaporizing FBI raid on Trump’s home), they do not feel compelled to follow the law either (right, Harry Bean, Gregg Hough)?
So this post is not the last in what now seems to be turning into a series. There’s more chuckleheadness ahead!
From: Mike Bordes <mikebordes@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 10:16 PM
To: Norman J Silber <njs@silbersnh.com>
Cc: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.org>; Barbara Comtois <bcomtois2016@gmail.com>; Dawn Johnson <dawnjohnsoninthehouse@gmail.com>; Douglas Trottier <trottierfornhstaterep@gmail.com>; Glen Aldrich <glenaldrich@gmail.com>; Gregg Hough <gregghough2020@gmail.com>; Harry Bean <froggytouttaint@aol.com>; Jonathan Mackie <jon@clearwatercampground.com>; Juliet Harvey-Bolia <jharveybolia@gmail.com>; Michael Sylvia <mike@mikesylvia.org>; Paul Terry <revpaul51@verizon.net>; Peter Varney <pvarney@atsnh.com>; Richard Littlefield <proudreplaconia22@gmail.com>; Tim Lang <tlang@thelangs.us>; Tom Ploszaj <tom.ploszaj@gmail.com>; Travis O’Hara <travis.oas@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Gunstock Mountain Resort – For the TaxpayersShe was simply forwarding correspondence from a concerned Belknap resident!!
Mike Bordes
and
From: Juliet Harvey-Bolia <jharveybolia@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2022 10:03 AM
To: Mike Bordes <mikebordes@gmail.com>
Cc: Barbara Comtois <bcomtois2016@gmail.com>; Dawn Johnson <dawnjohnsoninthehouse@gmail.com>; Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.org>; Douglas Trottier <trottierfornhstaterep@gmail.com>; Glen Aldrich <glenaldrich@gmail.com>; Gregg Hough <gregghough2020@gmail.com>; Harry Bean <froggytouttaint@aol.com>; Jonathan Mackie <jon@clearwatercampground.com>; Michael Sylvia <mike@mikesylvia.org>; Norman J Silber <njs@silbersnh.com>; Paul Terry <revpaul51@verizon.net>; Peter Varney <pvarney@atsnh.com>; Richard Littlefield <proudreplaconia22@gmail.com>; Tim Lang <tlang@thelangs.us>; Tom Ploszaj <tom.ploszaj@gmail.com>; Travis O’Hara <travis.oas@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Gunstock Mountain Resort – For the TaxpayersDistribution of correspondence is not electioneering. Ask the town admin or planning board clerk of any town.
Yeah, no Mike Bordes or Juliet Harvey-Bolia. It’s breaking the Law. As Norm pointed out, it’s not what you think, it’s what the Law SAYS. Let me repeat:
II. No public employee shall use government property or equipment, including, but not to, telephones, facsimile machines, vehicles, and computers, for electioneering.
III. For the purposes of this section, “electioneer” means to act in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office.
IV. Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Any government official, using government property, in forwarding a politically oriented email meant to affect an election, is electioneering and is breaking the Law. Hershey’s email was electioneering against Norm Silber. By forwarding his email as requested, she promulgated an election message. By definition, that’s electioneering.
Whether Norm is going to continue to pursue this with the Attorney General’s office, I have no idea. Perhaps he should – it can easily be construed that it may have made a small difference (even given all of the mistakes Hershey made (again, pointed out here).
What this whole thing points out is that EVERY Citizen must be vigilant on everything that our elected representatives do and how they comport themselves according to the written Laws of the Granite State. While much of that controls our lives, we should all be cognizant of those Laws that control THEM.
Those Laws exist to protect US against THEM – and as you can see, three don’t. Many others use the fact that most citizens don’t know the law and know little what their Reps are doing other than what they are told at election time – by those same reps.
And yes, I hate wasting time and effort previously expended so, by gosh, I’m putting it up now.