We are military veterans. We served our country with honor because we believed democracy was worth defending. Today, we are united in endorsing Karishma Manzur for the U.S. Senate. She is fighting to restore a democratic government that works for the people, not for wealthy donors and special interests.

Too many politicians from both parties rely on corporate PACs, lobbyists and billionaire-funded groups instead of listening to working families. Big money in politics has weakened public trust, fueled corruption, and allowed elected officials to profit from the industries they are supposed to regulate rather than the people who elect them.

People in New Hampshire are struggling to afford housing, health care and groceries. In the richest country in the world, that should not be happening. But too many lawmakers answer to wealthy donors instead of working families.

Karishma is running to change that.

She supports overturning Citizens United, banning corporate PACs, strengthening ethics laws, increasing transparency in campaign donations and banning stock trading by members of Congress. She also supports stronger restrictions on former members of Congress becoming lobbyists after leaving office.

Karishma’s campaign is inspired by New Hampshire’s own Granny D, who walked across America at the age of 89 to demand fair elections and accountable government. That fight is far from over.

What we admire about Karishma is that she is not offering hollow words about reform; she is actively fighting to get big money out of New Hampshire politics.

As veterans, we also understand the human cost of failed foreign policy. For too long, American troops have been sent into endless wars without meaningful congressional oversight. Since 9/11, thousands of U.S. service members have died, millions of veterans have returned home with trauma or disabilities, and trillions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on military conflicts that left deep scars at home and across the world. This is unpatriotic.

Karishma believes America must lead with strength, wisdom, diplomacy and accountability. She will work to end the endless wars and stop war profiteering. She supports restoring Congress’s constitutional role in authorizing military action, cracking down on war profiteering and banning members of Congress from owning stock in weapons manufacturers.

Our troops, veterans and working families deserve more than political slogans. They deserve leaders who will fight corruption, protect democracy and put people ahead of powerful interests.

We are proud to endorse Karishma Manzur for U.S. Senate because she has the courage to challenge corruption, reject politics controlled by wealthy interests and fight for the people of New Hampshire.

We served to protect our country. Now we are fighting for a government worthy of the people it serves.

True to Our Oath to the Constitution,

• Douglas Whitbeck from Mason, NH: U.S. Army, 1967-1969, SP5
• Bjorn Lange from Concord, NH: U.S. Army, 1969-1972, O-3
• Don Rankin from Wilton, NH: U.S. Army, 1969-1973, SP5
• David DeTour from Weare, NH: U.S. Navy, 1974-1978, BU3

The post VETERANS: We’re Supporting Manzur to Stop Failed Foreign Policy appeared first on NH Journal.

The Monday Memo is a mix of reporting, rumors, analysis, and unkind comments compiled from various sources and provided for your entertainment and enlightenment each Monday. Reader discretion is advised.

Pappas Plays Possum on Platner Scandals

Maine Democrat Graham Platner is being hit with another barrage — dare we say a blitzkrieg? — of embarrassing revelations about his personal behavior. The all-but-certain U.S. Senate nominee admitted having a Nazi tattoo on his chest and making abusive/misogynistic comments about women. Over the weekend, news from The New York Times and Wall Street Journal came that the campaign had been warned early on that Platner had been sexting with at least six women besides his wife.

Who warned the campaign? His wife.

According to the reporting, Platner has an account on the “Kik” messaging app, which is frequently used to arrange casual hookups. Platner’s profile picture featured a mirror selfie of the headless, shirtless Democrat wearing only a towel around his waist.

Add in the revelations about his frequent use of public porta-potties and engaging in what Catholic schoolboys were told was “self-abuse,” and his slurs against Black people and rural Whites, and it’s no surprise that some Democrats are distancing themselves from Platner’s campaign.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker told ABC News Sunday that he has “concerns” about Platner’s candidacy. “The guy has questions to answer.”

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) recently said Platner’s Nazi tattoo is “personally disqualifying.”

Some Democrats are floating the idea of pulling a “Biden” — using Maine’s obscure election rules to swap out Platner with another candidate after the primary.

On the other hand, California Congressman and likely 2028 POTUS candidate Ro Khanna is scheduled to campaign with Platner later this week. And U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren remain staunch allies.

With the national media making Maine’s contest its top story and his fellow Democrats across the country speaking out, what does Rep. Chris Pappas — who’s running next door for the chance to possibly serve with him in the U.S. Senate — have to say about Platner’s behavior?

Nothing.

NHJournal has been pressing Pappas’ campaign for his position on Platner’s candidacy, his embrace of Nazi symbolism, and his comments about women, etc., since early May. Pappas has declined to respond.

The same goes for requests about the latest allegations.

When Pappas was asked about Platner by a radio host on May 5, live on air, he also refused to answer.

Democrats have been trying to link Pappas’ likely opponent, John E. Sununu, to Jeffrey Epstein, even though the two men never met. Platner, on the other hand, could be serving in — and often voting with — Pappas for the next six years.

Sununu and Gov. Kelly Ayotte are going to get a million (more) questions about Trump’s behavior, and they are expected to answer them. Is the Pappas plan to just pretend Platner doesn’t exist until November?

MEMO-RANDOM

Dems Still Cool on Warmington: What if you ran for governor, and nobody noticed? Democrat Cinde Warmington may be answering the question right now.

When Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s campaign team learned Warmington was opening a new campaign office in Manchester on Saturday, they dispatched their trusty billboard truck to remind voters for the eleventy-billionth time that the Democrat is a former lobbyist for OxyContin.

But Team Warmington (unintentionally) foiled their plan… when nobody showed up for her grand opening. Attendance was so light that they dumped the event.

Originally, the campaign made a serious push, distributing an invite and soliciting contributions from $100 to $5,000. When it was clear there wouldn’t be a crowd, it quietly canceled the grand opening at the last minute.

When the NHGOP posted a picture of their truck outside the new Warmington digs, the campaign’s finance director Madelyn McCluskey responded, “Weird considering we don’t have an event today. Also, you’re parked in the fire lane.”

Republicans, as the saying goes, pounced. “Warmington’s sleepy campaign is so sad that she can’t even fill a room on a rainy day,” said NHGOP Chairman Scott Maltzie. “There were more people on Hampton Beach during today’s monsoon than at Cinde’s event.”

Dead McGough Walking? He’s been kicked out of his own caucus and banned from contact with Senate staff, but state Sen. Tim McGough (R-Merrimack) is reportedly telling people he fully expects to be the Republican nominee in November with the full support of the Senate GOP leadership and its funding.

One Republican recounted being astonished by McGough’s insistence that he’s a Republican in good standing despite the investigation into his abusive treatment of his fellow Republicans. “It’s only the New Hampshire Journal,” McGough reportedly said.

The response from knowledgeable insiders? “He’s a psycho,” one told NHJournal. Instead, Republicans are recruiting primary challengers, and the biggest name to emerge is former state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. No word on whether Edelblut, who narrowly lost to Chris Sununu in the gubernatorial primary in 2016, would be willing to run. But both conservative and moderate Republicans tell NHJournal on background that he could beat McGough and give the party a lift.

Triumph, the Insult Comic Democrat: Matthew Emerson describes himself as “a published author, personal trainer, and former organizer at the New Hampshire Democratic Party.” But based on the video he released Saturday, launching his NH-01 primary campaign, the North Conway Democrat may want to add another title to his résumé: stand-up comic.

Emerson takes aim at members of both parties in his 12-minute announcement video, sticking them with Trump-style nicknames along the way. Some highlights:

“The fair shake snake, Christian Urrutia, Airbnb boy, Mr. Checking All The Boxes… Chico, no bueno.”

“Heath Howard, the Gen Z, begging, bourgeoisie duplicitous Beemer Baby.”

“Maura Sullivan: More Maura, more problems. Illinois-born, bred, and baptized, yet she spends millions to brand herself a lifelong Granite Stater.”

“The anointed heir, Miss Name ID, fiercely fighting for nobody, and can’t stand her own f-double-E t, the no-trick pony, the nepo baby queen, too sus to trust: Miss Stefany Shaheen.”

Emerson also targets “The always-screwing-you Sununus,” including “the Crypt Keeper, Mr. Moneybags, John E. Dangerously.”

Will Emerson’s shtick be enough to win a seven-way primary? Probably not. But it could make the race a lot more fun to watch.

“DON’T PUT THAT IN THE MEMO!”

(Stuff people said that we weren’t supposed to tell you about.)

“Was she too f***ing busy getting ice cream recently to talk to the legislature about this bill?” — A GOP state legislator on open enrollment deal Gov. Kelly Ayotte poo-pooed at the 11th hour.

“Cinde didn’t even want to run, and now folks are trying to dump her due to the campaign-killing opioid lobbyist baggage. Yikes. Ray Buckley, call your office.” — A Democratic activist on the party’s response to Warmington’s candidacy.

Down to the Wire: NH Lawmakers Face Last Votes Thursday

This week is it for the state House and Senate this year, at least until they come back for any bills vetoed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte.

Each chamber will convene to consider the Committee of Conference Reports agreed to by House and Senate negotiators last week.

In total, 41 House bills will go back to the Senate while seven Senate bills are headed to the House. If approved, they will return to their original chamber for a final up-or-down vote before heading to the governor’s desk.

Thursday, June 4
10 a.m. House Session- Representatives Hall
SB 481 relative to the sale of the Sununu Youth Services Center property. The Senate wanted any proceeds to go toward the settlement fund with victims of abuse at that facility. The House prevailed, and any money from the sale will go into the state’s General Fund, with the next legislature deciding how much more to appropriate to the settlement.

SB 538 would extend net metering eligibility terms for municipal energy projects. Ayotte has been highly skeptical of any expansion of net metering but agreed to this compromise in order to allow a separate bill extending consumer rebates under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to go through (HB 1738).

10 a.m. Senate Session- Senate Chamber
HB 155 relative to business enterprise tax returns and appropriating funds to the Department of Health and Human Services for licensed nursing facilities. The House plan to cut the Business Enterprise Tax from 0.55% to 0.5% was changed in the Senate to increase the filing threshold rather than lowering the rate. The Senate also added $2.5 million in additional Medicaid reimbursement for New Hampshire nursing homes. House conferees went along with the Senate version, but added a complex trigger mechanism that would lower BET rates in the future if business tax revenues come in well above projections and the state’s Rainy Day Fund is filled to its statutory limit.

Read the rest here.

The post Monday Memo: Pappas Plays Possum on Platner Problems appeared first on NH Journal.

Each chamber will convene to consider the Committee of Conference Reports agreed to by House and Senate negotiators last week.

In total, 41 House bills will go back to the Senate while seven Senate bills are headed to the House. If approved, they will return to their original chamber for a final up-or-down vote before heading to the governor’s desk.

Thursday, June 4
10 a.m. House Session- Representatives Hall
SB 481 relative to the sale of the Sununu Youth Services Center property. The Senate wanted any proceeds to go toward the settlement fund with victims of abuse at that facility. The House prevailed, and any money from the sale will go into the state’s General Fund, with the next legislature deciding how much more to appropriate to the settlement.

SB 538 would extend net metering eligibility terms for municipal energy projects. Ayotte has been highly skeptical of any expansion of net metering but agreed to this compromise in order to allow a separate bill extending consumer rebates under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to go through (HB 1738).

10 a.m. Senate Session- Senate Chamber
HB 155 relative to business enterprise tax returns and appropriating funds to the Department of Health and Human Services for licensed nursing facilities. The House plan to cut the Business Enterprise Tax from 0.55% to 0.5% was changed in the Senate to increase the filing threshold rather than lowering the rate. The Senate also added $2.5 million in additional Medicaid reimbursement for New Hampshire nursing homes. House conferees went along with the Senate version, but added a complex trigger mechanism that would lower BET rates in the future if business tax revenues come in well above projections and the state’s Rainy Day Fund is filled to its statutory limit.

HB 609 relative to the General Court’s authority over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, and other matters pertaining to firearms, stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray devices, knives, and other self-defense tools.
As amended, the bill would expand state preemption over local firearms ordinances to nonlethal devices such as Tasers and pepper spray. It would also require that any state agency policy limiting Second Amendment rights go through the state rulemaking process, thereby giving the legislature oversight of state gun regulations. All existing rules and policies would stay on the books, requiring state agencies to clear them through rulemaking over the next three years.

HB 751 establishes a committee to study the licensure of outpatient substance use disorder treatment facilities, authorizes parents to enroll their children in any public school in the state, and creates a limited exemption from the parental consent requirement for certain recordings under the Parental Bill of Rights.

School open enrollment is dead; long live open enrollment. A deal to expand the state’s open enrollment program was scuttled when Ayotte signaled her misgivings. A last-minute amendment would prevent school districts from blocking students from transferring to another open-enrollment school.

HB 1300 establishes a school district local tax cap question for the state general election of 2026 and related limitations on central office administrative expenses in school districts.
That would require towns to put a question on the fall ballot this year and in 2028 about whether to adopt a local tax cap. Republicans argue that voters should get the chance to weigh in during a high-turnout general election rather than the low-turnout local elections in the spring. Democrats don’t like tax caps in general and don’t want to force towns to put it on the November ballot.

HB 1816 relative to the intervention of the Department of Education into a school or school district during a financial emergency and requiring the state school board to establish rules governing the vetting of school district business administrator candidates.
In the wake of the Claremont School District’s financial meltdown, the legislature is taking steps to improve local financial controls. As amended, the bill would also strengthen vetting procedures for local school business administrators and subject them to the Educator Code of Conduct should they bungle the district’s budget.

The post Down to the Wire: NH Lawmakers Face Last Votes Thursday appeared first on NH Journal.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference to announce millions of federal dollars to fight Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of Lyme disease in the country, and tick bite cases exploded this spring.

“One of the real tragedies is Americans can’t go in the woods safely anymore,” Kennedy said. “It’s a science fiction nightmare we now live in.”

Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” tour stopped at the State House to commemorate the end of Lyme Disease Awareness Month. It’s an issue Kennedy takes seriously. Kennedy, his six children, and his former wife were also diagnosed with Lyme. One of his sons suffered from facial paralysis for a year, he said. Millions of Americans deal with daily pain and debilitating symptoms caused by Lyme. Kennedy wants to do better for those people.

“They deserve better prevention, better treatments, and real support,” he said. “Americans deserve an answer. They deserve gold-standard science, and a health care system that treats suffering seriously.”

Kennedy announced a federal initiative to find more accurate Lyme disease tests, as well as other programs to halt the spread of the disease, and get people diagnosed with better medical care.

Kennedy was flanked by House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry), Senate President Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry), and House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn), as well as Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, director of National Health Communications for the Office of the Surgeon General, HHS Chief Data Officer Dr. Kristen Honey, and local celebrity Sophia Sargent, a radio host, 2025 Miss Greater Hooksett, and a Lyme survivor.

“Trying to manage Lyme disease while launching my career in social media felt like racing in the Daytona 500 in a minivan. Everyone around me was moving fast, and I was just trying not to crash,” Sargent said.

While Lyme disease is a serious problem in New Hampshire, and Kennedy seems to want to make a difference against the illness, any Granite State political event by a major player in President Donald Trump’s administration is shadowed by the 2028 primary.

Kennedy waged an independent race for the White House in 2024 — a race he first telegraphed to NHJournal in March 2023 — before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump. So it was perhaps no surprise that when a Kennedy came to New Hampshire, he brought national media attention and political buzz along with him.

Kennedy’s politics tend to be a mixture of fringe science, nontraditional medical advice, and podcast bro-ready sound bites. But thanks to his loyal MAHA following, he could be a wild card in any GOP presidential contest.

Thus far, however, Kennedy has poured cold water on the idea. On May 7, he told KFF Health News, “No, I’m not going to run.”

The post Kennedy’s Lyme Disease Stop Casts a Long Shadow Toward 2028 appeared first on NH Journal.

All of this affects GDP growth and the measurement of employment in the economy. If we’re to understand what’s going on, we need to take a harder look at the data.

When it comes to GDP, the wind that AI puts in our sails may come with a cross-breeze. Economists have long recognized that if a person marries a housekeeper, and thus stops paying for the service while the house stays clean, GDP goes down. In other words, the economy as traditionally measured shrinks a bit. For the opposite reason, if one places a cared-for family member in a nursing home, GDP rises.

Something similar happens when a person uses ChatGPT or another AI service for tax, medical or even engine repair advice. As recently suggested by Oxford University economist Carl Frey, you might find yourself with less leisure time than if you’d visited the accountant, clinic or mechanic. At the same time, the do-it-yourself AI approach reduces earnings for businesses that previously provided the service. GDP growth, as traditionally measured, encounters a setback.

So, we may marvel at what AI seems to be doing for free while failing to realize that we are doing more. Wouldn’t you know? Few things are truly “free” in this world.

As for the employment picture, in 2025 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that 60 percent of small businesses use AI for core operations, double the share reported two years earlier. AI activity is helping many of these expand their commercial operations, and small-business growth lies at the heart of the U.S. economy.

There’s something else to consider: Many small businesses emerge because a person previously employed with another enterprise starts a new one. We need to acknowledge the people moving from employed to self-employed, because they don’t show up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment head count each month.

Just how large might their effect be in the current economy? In March 2026, there were 491,000 businesses formed in the United States. That same month, 157,769 workers were added to U.S. payrolls. Last year, more than 5 million new businesses were formed, and only 181,000 were added to U.S. payrolls.

While we don’t know how many of the owners of all these new businesses were previously on a payroll, new business leadership has been larger than new hiring for years.

When we add the importance of AI to small businesses, as reported by the U.S. Chamber, the result strongly suggests that U.S. employment growth, fully considered, is healthier than reported and that better things are eventually in store for the overall economy.

Yes, we need to dig deeper when seeing the latest GDP and employment growth numbers. Our economy is undergoing an AI-led revolution that warrants more formal recognition.  The White House should name an OMB-led task force that includes the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of the Census and  Council of Economic Advisers to provide recommendations on how to track and report on the newly emerging economy. We are no longer a smokestack economy.

Who knows, maybe this really is America’s golden age, but not as traditionally measured.

The post YANDLE: Will AI Bludgeon Job Markets or Just Some of the Numbers? appeared first on NH Journal.

It still wasn’t enough for the Senate to sign on.

By the end of the HB 155 conference committee, House Republicans had filed a report containing three pieces of policy: a $400,000 Business Enterprise Tax filing threshold that wipes the BET out for roughly 4,500 small businesses, a $2.5 million appropriation for county nursing homes, and an automatic trigger that would walk the BET back to 0.25 percent, the same rate the tax was introduced at in 1993.

The Senate agreed on the threshold and the nursing home funds. The trigger is where the two Republican caucuses split.

“This is what responsible tax policy looks like,” Sweeney said in a statement after the meeting. “We deliver relief to nursing homes, get 4,500 small businesses out from under a filing they never should have been pulled into, and put the BET on a glide path back to where it started in 1993. Pragmatic, responsible, and a real pathway to prosperity.”

Two Republican views on timing.

Sweeney spent the day between Tuesdays’s session and Wednesdays’s meeting rewriting his trigger to answer concerns Senate negotiators raised. Under his revised version, also rejected by Senators, a cut would have required $200 million in combined BPT and BET surplus across a full biennium before the BET rate drops by a tenth of a percentage point. The trigger only fires if the rainy day fund is at its statutory cap, if combined general and education trust fund revenues meet plan, and if business tax revenue isn’t declining year over year. Tax amnesty windfalls and federal repatriation cash get stripped out by the DRA commissioner before the calculation runs.

In practice, no rate cut would have taken effect until at least the 2028-2029 biennium, and only if the state runs a substantial surplus.

Sen. Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton), chair of Senate Ways and Means, said he supports the direction but wants more revenue data before locking an automatic mechanism into statute.

“I want more data and more time. It is as simple as that,” Lang told the committee. He argued tax-rate policy should move through a full budget-year debate with hearings in both chambers, and offered to co-sponsor a stand-alone trigger bill with Sweeney next session.

Rep. Jordan Ulery (R-Hudson) reminded the room that the BET launched at 0.25 percent in 1993, climbed to 0.75 percent, and has been ratcheted back down to 0.55 percent under Republican majorities over the last decade. The trigger, he said, codifies the direction lawmakers have already been pushing the tax.

“Let people know the direction, let businesses know the direction we want to go,” Ulery said.

Rosenwald raises trigger concerns, defends nursing home funding.

Sen. Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua), the lone Democrat on the conference committee, offered two arguments against the trigger. She said automatic mechanisms create an incentive for the state to under-estimate revenue in order to inflate the apparent surplus, and noted bond rating agencies have flagged a structural deficit in the state’s outlook.

Rosenwald spent the bulk of her time on the nursing home appropriation, where the House and Senate are aligned. With the non-lapsing language attached, she said, the $2.5 million figure effectively grows to $8 to $9 million spread across 33 facilities. She cited a Derry-area nursing home that recently absorbed a per-resident, per-day reimbursement cut of more than $50.

“If we lose nursing home capacity, that means people won’t get out of hospitals,” Rosenwald said. “People will be lined up in hallways again.”

The small business piece both chambers agree on.

The $400,000 threshold raise is the most immediate item in the bill. Sweeney told the committee approximately 4,500 small businesses currently pay around $650 a year in BET and a comparable amount in accountant fees just to file. Under HB 155 as filed, they would owe zero and would not have to file at all. The fiscal cost of carving them out is estimated at $3 million.

“It is not a lot of money in their pocket,” Sweeney said, “but a lot better than zero.”

The nursing home appropriation, which both chambers want in the bill, takes effect June 30, 2026 and is targeted at supporting per-diem rates Medicaid pays to licensed nursing facilities. County property taxpayers absorb a share of those costs.

Where it goes from here.

House conferees, all Republicans, voted to file their report containing the threshold raise, the nursing home appropriation, and a $100m revenue trigger for a BET cut. Lang, Sen. Victoria Sullivan (R-Manchester), and Rosenwald voted no on that version. Under conference committee rules, the filed report is the document the Senate can sign or decline before Thursday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

“We are only going to be cutting taxes if there is a future surplus,” Sweeney told the committee. “I cannot wrap my head around how that is not a reasonable, pragmatic, sensible solution.”

The post Back to 1993: House Republicans’ Plan to Phase Down the BET appeared first on NH Journal.

“We’ve had some wins already, and we’ve had some losses, and we have things that are kind of in limbo,” Americans for Prosperity Deputy State Director Sarah Scott said.

AFP activists and volunteers gathered this week at the Stark Brewing Company to assess this year’s session. The packed room brimmed with energy as Scott, Rep. Sam Farrington (R-Rochester) and Adam Haverstock with the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance counted off the wins and near misses for liberty in Concord.

“I think it moved in a positive direction,” Haverstock said. “I don’t think it’s a knockout win just yet.”

Farrington was less cautious in his assessment of the session, saying while the House did its job, the Senate slowed the cause of liberty.

“The House was good, the other chamber is the issue,” Farrington said.

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag for taxes: the legislature hasn’t passed any major tax cuts this term, and an anti-income tax constitutional amendment failed. Still, the income tax fight ended up as a win because every time Republicans talk about taxes, voters like what they hear, Scott said.

“It was actually a win for a lot of our side this year because we’ve got to keep talking about it again and again and again. And it’s really gotten a lot of public support on our side,” she said.

A constitutional amendment to require a super-majority to raise taxes was headed for sure defeat when Democrats decided to give him and the GOP a moral victory. Rep. Thomas Oppel (D-Canaan) joined former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky on the State House lawn with several other prominent Democratic politicians to propose an income tax at 3%, which spurred Majority Leader Jason Osborne to amend the bill to outright ban income taxes all together.

That galvanized debate and a pro-income tax amendment, proposed by Rep. Oppel, was defeated 322-16. A following vote on the underlying proposal to ban income taxes was party-line, 193-148, with only 4 Democrats voting in favor of the ban. Anytime voters are reminded that Democrats want an income tax, and Republicans do not, is a win.

On education, there is positive movement as the House passed a bill to deregulate homeschooling, making New Hampshire the freest state for homeschooling families. The bill to allow open enrollment for public schools is still being negotiated down to the wire. Healthcare was a miss as bills to allow experimental treatment clinics and direct payment health clinics failed.

Farrington got a win with his bill to change labor laws so that contract employees can receive retirement and healthcare benefits while retaining their contract status. But Farrington wants to do more to free up the labor market.

“We have other, bigger bills that we need to push. Right to work is probably the most important one,” Farrington said.

The coming midterm elections, and worry about a GOP wipeout, underscored AFP’s scorecard session. Scott pointed out that issues like affordability will sway voters concerned about their pocketbooks, as they did in the GOP primary where incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) got wiped out by his opponent.

Scott said Massie’s strong support among young, liberty-minded voters couldn’t help him as older GOP voters worried about the economy turned on him. But that’s not the whole picture. Massie is a favorite among libertarian-leaning Republicans, but he ran afoul of President Donald Trump, who backed victor Ed Gallrein. Massie had pushed Trump’s DOJ to release the Epstein files, and he opposes the war in Iran.

If there’s a lesson for New Hampshire, when the legislative score isn’t an outright win, it might be wise to pay attention to non-economic motives driving older, Trump-supporting voters. During the Q&A session many voters repeatedly expressed anger that Gov. Kelly Ayotte won’t sign a bill to ban biological males from bathrooms and changing rooms for women.

“How are we going to get the governor to sign the bathroom bill?” one attendee asked.

“I’m going to guess that nobody in this room has a good answer for you,” Scott said.

The post Right to Work, Bathroom Bill Top of Liberty Wish List After Mixed Session appeared first on NH Journal.

Festivus has come early this year, ladies and gentlemen. And we’re starting things off with the Airing of Grievances. As Frank Costanza would say, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!”

First up is Anthony DiLorenzo. Speaking as a Republican voter in New Hampshire’s first Congressional district, I’m befuddled by this campaign. DiLorenzo is a man of remarkable accomplishment in the business world and has clearly given a lot back to his community. But his campaign message is bland GOP boilerplate from the 1990s. I don’t know why he’s running for Congress.

Of unique concern is his personal financial disclosure form (PFD), a form every candidate for Congress is required to file with the House Ethics Committee to disclose (using broad estimations) their personal net worth and financial holdings. DiLorenzo has been described as one of the wealthiest men in New Hampshire. Yet, somehow, according to his PFD, he is the poorest candidate in the GOP primary. The bottom range of his estimated net worth is $1.8 million. Yet he has already loaned $800,000 to his campaign. Most insiders believe he is prepared to loan his campaign even more.

Let me briefly explain how this plays out, should DiLorenzo win the primary. Prompted by the New Hampshire Democratic Party and the DCCC, someone will file a complaint in late September with the House Ethics Committee accusing DiLorenzo of failing to adequately disclose his full net worth. The Ethics Committee will take no immediate action, but the media will find this story captivating. And the campaign will spend weeks trying to explain how the candidate has loaned such a large portion of his reported net worth to the campaign, how he clearly holds assets that exceed his reported worth, how basic desktop research shows his worth to be far (far!) more than $1.8 million.

My advice to Anthony DiLorenzo? You are a successful businessman who should be proud of all you have accomplished. Own it. Don’t hide from it.

Next up – The New Hampshire Forum.

This effort, spearheaded by actor Andrew Shue, popped up a few weeks ago promising to be a bipartisan, grassroots group looking for common sense solutions. In almost no time, it has transitioned into an anti-Republican front group that looks like little more than a pretext for a Shue campaign for the presidency.

Allow me to run through some facts about the Granite State.

New Hampshire ranks #1 in public safety, economic opportunity, and economic freedom. We are the healthiest state in the nation. And the freest. We have the nation’s best taxpayer return on investment. We have one of the lowest tax burdens in the country.

We can handle our own business, Andrew Shue.

No airing of grievances could be complete without mentioning state Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley. On Wednesday, Buckley groveled before the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee to beg for our First in the Nation Presidential Primary back. He wouldn’t have had to do that if it weren’t for the cavalcade of incompetence that was the 2024 Democratic primary process. Trying to protect Joe Biden, who would drop his reelection bid anyway, the DNC scrambled their calendar and punished New Hampshire by stripping us of our birthright. Buckley was too weak and inept to stop it. Instead, he held a secret (and probably unlawful) primary, in which Biden was the only candidate and, according to the Concord Monitor, only “dozens” voted. And absolute disgrace.

Now, onto the feats of strength …

The post HYNES: The Airing of Grievances Comes Early appeared first on NH Journal.

The 1980 Reagan Revolution had lasting effects that can still be felt today, even as low as the local government level. In one state, voters doubled down on anti-tax sentiment that year, supporting Ronald Reagan for president while imposing a permanent cap on property tax increases.

A successful tax cap imposed in 1980 in a Reagan-voting state would seem like an obvious example for tax cap opponents to cite during New Hampshire’s regular debates over whether to limit local property tax increases. Just imagine how those local governments shriveled away over the past 45 years.

Yet the state is seldom mentioned in New Hampshire’s tax cap debates.

That’s because the state is Massachusetts.

Local governments there didn’t wither away and die. The cap didn’t shrink them at all. Local property tax revenues more than doubled.

Neither side’s most dire or most hopeful predictions came true. And that’s really useful when considering whether New Hampshire should adopt some form of property tax cap.

In 1980, Massachusetts voters chose Reagan over Jimmy Carter and approved Proposition 2 1/2, which capped at 2.5% the rate at which property tax revenues could grow from one year to the next.

Proposition 2 1/2 included two important exceptions. Local government capital outlays and new growth in the property tax base were excluded from the cap.

A Tax Foundation report last year showed that property tax collections in Massachusetts more than doubled from 1984-2023, after adjusting for inflation and population growth. But property tax revenues “would have risen far faster still” without the cap, the report concluded.

Shortly after he lost 40 states to Ronald Reagan’s successor in 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis convened a task force to look for ways to increase local government revenues.

The task force recommended some modifications to Proposition 2 1/2, but firmly advocated keeping it.

“The discipline that Proposition 2 1/2 imposed on the property tax … is an important element of the local tax structure,” the report concluded. “As a tax on shelter, property taxes should continue to be constrained and the decline in burden caused by the 2 1/2 limit protected. Both the ceiling on the tax rate and an annual limit on tax increases should be retained.”

The only other New England state with a statewide property tax cap is Rhode Island. That state releases an annual report on the cap, which shows that it is effective at slowing the rate of growth of property taxes too.

New Hampshire authorizes municipalities to limit property tax increases, but has no statewide cap. That would still be the case if a much-misunderstood tax cap bill, House Bill 1300, becomes law.

Instead of imposing a statewide cap, HB 1300 would merely require that voters be given the option to limit school district revenue increases to the rate of inflation and administrative costs. School districts account for more than 70% of local property taxes in New Hampshire. As the Josiah Bartlett Center has shown, their spending has risen dramatically this century as enrollment has plummeted.

In the House version, these caps would apply only to the next school budget. To keep them, voters would have to approve them at every general election. They would never become permanent.

In the Senate version, voters would have one chance to cap school district tax revenues this fall.

Unlike in Massachusetts, HB 1300 would include increases in taxable property value due to new construction. That likely would prevent the more than doubling of real property tax revenues that happened in Massachusetts from 1984-2023.

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With his gruff voice, beard, and sweatshirts-instead-of-suits, Mr. Platner cuts the figure of a working-class Mainer. I’m sure you’ve also heard he’s an oyster farmer and a veteran, plucked from the sea to run for U.S. Senate. Progressive Democrats think they’ve found the ideal candidate — Nazi tattoo and Reddit posts notwithstanding — to lure back working-class voters who fled the party during the Trump years.

“I didn’t vote for Trump, but I very much understand why people did,” Mr. Platner says in a 12-minute video he posted to X with a three-time Trump voter now backing him. “Everybody down here feels like they’re getting robbed, and Trump came along and told us that, one, you are getting robbed.”

At Bentley’s Saloon, a biker bar in Arundel with bras hanging from the rafters and at least 40 motorcycles parked outside, this shared message — that “the system is rigged” — resonated. I met two Trump voters there who said they’re backing Mr. Platner, and more than a handful who said they don’t like the choices. I also met plenty of Trump voters who said they’d never vote blue.

“The American people are sick and tired of being yanked around and jerked around by people who say they’re going to do something and nobody does anything,” a 60-year-old nursing home maintenance man, Charles Jones, told me.

Mr. Jones worked 30 years as a commercial fisherman, voted for Barack Obama and then Mr. Trump, and says he’s open to voting for Mr. Platner. “I am the average working man in this country,” he said.

A retired factory worker at the bar told me he’s backing Mr. Platner, though it took prodding for him to admit he voted for Mr. Trump. “Only because I thought he did a really good job the first time,” he said, declining to give his name for print. On Mr. Platner, he echoed Mr. Trump’s expression, “What do you have to lose?”

I got a similar response when I spoke to a Trump voter in York who works in sales. He said he likes Mr. Platner’s “populist message” and support for Medicare for All, a sign of how much Mr. Trump reshaped the GOP base. “I don’t like that he’s running as a Democrat,” he said of Mr. Platner, “but I don’t like the gerontocracy more,” referring to Susan Collins’ 73 years of age.

In the last week, I’ve spoken with more than two dozen Mainers, all of whom knew about Mr. Platner’s covered-up Totenkopf tattoo, though they made wisecracks about it more than expressing concern. They also knew about Mr. Platner’s Reddit posts questioning why Black people don’t tip and whether women should “take some responsibility” to avoid sexual assault, but these don’t appear as damaging as media coverage would suggest.

“All lobstermen are drug addicted? Well, a lot of them are,” a police officer from Central Maine told me, referring to one of Mr. Platner’s posts.

While mainstream Democrats who were backing Gov. Mills in the primary may be loath to vote for Mr. Platner, Mr. Trump has primed MAGA voters to overlook personal foibles and what were previously considered campaign-killing remarks. Outrage is high online, but to normies on the ground — many who said they get their news “here and there” on social media — Mr. Platner’s “sh**posting” is like Mr. Trump’s “locker room talk.”

The officer, who voted for Mr. Trump and is unsure how he’ll vote in November, said he takes opposition research and out-of-context quotes with skepticism now, since anything can be clipped and anyone who runs for office and is under the age of 45 is going to have a trail online. A Fox News report Monday that Mr. Platner reminisced on Reddit about masturbating in porta-potties while serving will probably only win him some veteran votes.

More than $78 million has already been spent on this race, which is expected to shatter records in the state. At stake is control of the U.S. Senate. Liberals I’ve spoken to often dismiss Mr. Platner’s Reddit posts and tattoo by saying Mr. Trump is worse, mentioning the Access Hollywood tape, sexual assault allegations, or “fascism.” A retired contractor I met at the Navy Yard Bar & Billiards in Kittery told me he voted all Democrat in 2020 except for Ms. Collins, but Mr. Trump needs to be stopped, so he’ll be voting for Mr. Platner this time.

The more opposition research that comes out about Mr. Platner, the more likely some Democrats will cast their ballots for the old steady hand. Ms. Collins’ age came up in almost every conversation I had. She has held her seat for 30 years largely because Democrats split their tickets to vote for her. She was polling 5 points behind on Election Day in 2020 and won by 9 percent.

To win then, Mr. Platner will need independents, the largest share of the Maine electorate, and at least some MAGA voters. This will be an uphill fight. Mr. Platner may have Trumpian magnetism and own AR-15s, but at Bentley’s, accusations that he may be cosplaying his working-class identity dominated the conversation. His grandfather was a famous architect, and his lawyer father loaned him $200,000 to buy a house.

Mr. Trump appealed to working-class voters as a billionaire. Several people told me the oysterman plucked from obscurity didn’t pass the smell test. Look for authenticity to be a main line of attack against Mr. Platner.

“He’s just a rich kid trying to play working man,” a logger from Arundel, Tregg Cliche, told me. “We’re all f***ing Republicans anyway. We’re never switching.”

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