It has recently come to the attention of many members of our legislature that a big national war chest has been made available to the enemy camp in Concord. Many members have already taken to social media with requests for donations to (committees to elect) Team Red in both chambers and campaign coffers of their own.
I recommend the latter option, and I know Senator Giuda would say the same, as he made such a comment into Chau Kelley’s mic, surrounded by an angry crowd on 11/19/21, shortly after our Joint Fiscal Committee accepted the dirty money. He even went on to make suggestions on how to save up, Christmas Club style, but I’m here to talk about bad actors in the Senate.
Tiny Tim (the senator, not the Dickens character) tweeted the following words in response to Landrigan’s tweet about our senate being targeted, “So for those looking for this to NOT happen in NH, you can donate here. As much as many of us in the NHSenateGOP don’t like fundraising…combating Washington cash is important.”
Seeing that Jeb & Co. splurged six figures in attacking Emily Phillips before her primary against Senator Gannon, a huge enemy of 91A(more on that in a moment), I asked Tim how potential donors would know if their money would be spent in the same manner (against Emily or any other non-incumbent). Instead of addressing how money will be used, he came to Gannon’s defense with “In that particular race, Senator Gannon, who championed anti-sanctuary city policies, was a great candidate, and in 2025, he passed that policy, stopping sanctuary city policies in NH, and it’s now law. You might disagree, but Bill(presumably Senator Gannon, not Joe Friday’s partner) was the right person for the job.”
I don’t disagree with Tim on sanctuary cities, but I certainly disagree with Tim, another enemy of 91A, on his cheerleading for Senator Gannon. There were and are enough votes in the Senate to pass good bills on party lines. It’s unknown (to me) if there will be a Gannon-Phillips rematch. I hope there will be, and I hope most of the Senate gets primaried by viable candidates that place respect for 91A above the wishes of disgruntled stewards of public records and Gannon’s most prestigious supporter, Kelly Ayotte.
I haven’t looked at all of Gannon’s LSRs, but I know he’s her tool, as governors don’t make law. Ayotte says very little about outrageous school budgets growing like weeds, but she sure has made it clear, ad nauseam, how important it is to her that school starts after Labor Day(SB 403). Local control be damned. Gannon is her highest-ranking henchman because it’s definitely NOT Queen Sharon or Regina, as we’ve observed last summer during the budget bill Committee of Conference.
Gannon is (still) in office to do one thing, and that’s the bidding of Ayotte. Yeah, he might yammer in the Senate chamber about his business owner constituent in her final round of chemo, who’s afraid of getting COVID from a pureblood employee or customer(HB 1210 5/5/22). Or he might tell Daryl Abbas, who bartended his way through law school, how much he hates Dan Innis’s wine tasting bills for culinary students because he wants to, rather than being ordered to by the Corner Office. However, he is still her puppet.
Gannon sponsored SB 626-FN, an act restricting RTK requests to persons domiciled or maintaining a permanent residence in NH and requiring proof of domicile or residency to file RTK requests. Hmmm, I wonder if it will be harder to prove NH residency to a steward of public records than it will to a town/city clerk or ward moderator! If this bill passes, we will find out, but let’s hope that it doesn’t pass. Seeing that it has bipartisan sponsorship from lawyers in the Senate Judiciary (Gannon & Reardon), it’s sadly predictable what’s going to happen in committee and in the chamber(likely a Consent Calendar item that will never have a discussion or a roll call vote).
Once on the other side of the wall, it will fall into the welcoming open arms of House Judiciary, a committee that has HB 1002’s sponsor(Kuttab) as a member and a chair(Judge Lynn) who viciously railed for HB 1002 in Reps Hall more than once. SB 626 will sadly get the OTP from House Judiciary, so it’s up to regular, ordinary non-Judiciary reps to kill it in a House roll call vote. Remember that!
When SB 626 came to my attention, I sounded the alarm to Laurie Ortolano and the Nashua locals, who will probably be ordered to dance the dance each and every time they make RTK requests at city hall in the same manner that Gannon would like to see everyone get carded, regardless of their amount of grey hair or crow’s feet. However, this bill is NOT aimed at Nashua, despite being an embattled state line city; it’s aimed at “Nashua Jr,” aka Rochester. If you remember(or watch old House Judiciary videos on HB 1002), the supporters of the RTK tax(including that annoying alderman who later became the mayor) complained about a Maine journalist being a nuisance in Rochester, which is another state line city. And if I have the attention of any Vermont readers and contributors with ties to Lebanon, this bill should also concern you! Now, let’s get back to Tiny Tim for a moment.
The day before the whole Senate adopted a Consent Calendar that contained HB 1002, I was in Kevin’s office insisting that he do something to stop it. He told me to go talk to Tim Lang about an amendment(supposedly exempting locals). When I unexpectedly ran into Tim a little while later and inquired, I learned that there was no amendment or any other action planned for that matter. Now I have a question for everyone to consider. If a local or in-state carve-out amendment was NOT important enough to create when HB 1002 was in committee on either side of the wall in 2024, why do we now have a bill tailored in such a manner? Could it be that our Nashua governor doesn’t want any politically inconvenient truths exposed in Rochester? You tell me, but before you do, I would like to praise Senator Gray for NOT being a cosponsor.
