1 week Ago By [email protected] (Kevin Landrigan)
FOR A TIME, 2025 looked like the year New Hampshire would finally start collecting abortion statistics, one of only four states that refuses to collect data at the state level. State Sen. Kevin Avard , R-Nashua, authored an amended bill ( SB 36 ) that passed his chamber on a unanimous voice vote.
Lawmakers have rejected abortion statistics legislation at least seven times since 2002. But hold on, the fight isn’t over. The same anti-abortion leaders who had been championing the cause for years urged the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee last week to kill it outright.
“Please vote ITL (inexpedient to legislate) and let’s get a better bill that does the job right!” wrote Rep. Walter Stapleton , R-Claremont, who had lobbied for abortion stats bills in the past. Online, only four signed up in favor of this one, three of them co-sponsors of the bill, while 172 registered opposition.
“This is an empty shell written in accordance with Planned Parenthood,” charged Isabella Peters of Cornerstone Action, with New Hampshire Right to Life one of the leading anti-abortion advocacy groups in the state. Planned Parenthood is neutral on the bill along with Reproductive Equity Now (REN) and Dartmouth Health, all of whom opposed the original version due to personal and provider privacy concerns. “It is our hope that in the future, if thoughtfully designed and well-resourced, this kind of data collection could be a powerful tool to further public health outcomes, enabling the development of targeted sexual and reproductive health interventions, evidence-based policies, and resource allocation strategies,” wrote Christina Warriner , state director of REN.
Anti-abortion activists say the bill lacks any enforcement or punishment since it has only a $100 fee levied on the health care facility, not the abortion provider, for passing on false information. The bill also removes statistics on the gestational age of the fetus and has the Department of Health and Human Services in charge of the data, not the Division of Vital Records Administration. Dartmouth Health’s Courtney Tanner said it had privacy concerns with the original bill.
The New Hampshire Republican State Committee is launching a digital ad package targeting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and 1st District Congressman Chris Pappas for long-ago comments he made regarding a broad-based tax.
They also are debuting a petition for residents to tell Pappas, “No more taxes.” “Chris Pappas is just another tax-and-spend liberal that has spent his career raising taxes on the people of the Granite State,” said GOP Chair Jim MacEachern . “He called us ‘Brainwashed’ because we were against creating an income tax.
We’re going to hold him and the rest of the N.H. Democrat party accountable for its obsession with creating an income tax.
” State Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley dismissed this characterization as a stunt. “Chris Pappas has always opposed a sales or income tax for New Hampshire and voted against an income tax in the state Legislature,” Buckley said. “Republicans are lying about Chris’s record to try to distract from the reckless tariffs imposed by President Trump and embraced by Scott Brown (former Massachusetts senator and likely GOP candidate here), which would force New Hampshire families to pay thousands of dollars in Massachusetts-style sales and income taxes.
” Pappas has faced this comment in every race he’s run having authored what he called a “satirical” column that tried to parrot the lament of very liberal Democrats who want an income tax while he most assuredly does not. Gov. Kelly Ayotte kept the pressure on in her pursuit of minimum mandatory prison sentences for those who traffic in a significant amount of fentanyl ( SB 14 ) or sell drugs that cause the death of another ( SB 15 ).
The first bill carries at least a 31⁄2-year state prison sentence for anyone who manufactures, transports or possesses with the intent to sell at least 20 grams of fentanyl. The second carries at least a 10-year term for someone whose drug sale results in another person’s death. The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee was scheduled to make a recommendation on these bills Wednesday, but punted until next week.
The House, under either party’s control, often has rejected minimum mandatory sentences but Ayotte said this is different. During her campaign for governor, Ayotte, a former attorney general, said she was surprised and disappointed by how far behind New Hampshire had fallen in the 14 years she had been out of law enforcement. “I do believe we need tougher penalties for fentanyl dealers,” said Ayotte, whose office signed in for both bills in the House and Senate.
“I learned that we used to have the toughest penalties in the region — no longer, we are not that way anymore,” Ayotte said. “These high-level dealers, they know the penalties, they know the score. I hope these mandatory penalties get passed and we are the toughest in the region.
” Ayotte said cross-border communication and cooperation has improved since she met with Lawrence (Massachusetts) Police Chief Brian DePena . In keeping with April being Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Ayotte did her first ride-along as governor with State Police this past week. During the event, troopers pulled over several distracted drivers, including one going over 100 mph who told them he didn’t realize he was speeding.
Much of this exercise is also to intended to underline enforcement of the state’s hands-free law. “I thank our troopers for their efforts to keep people safe on our highways each day, and I urge everyone to put the phone down and pay attention while driving,” Ayotte said. State Police Col.
Mark Hall said troopers appreciate the governor’s willingness to meet them where they work. “This experience highlights the important partnership between law enforcement and state leadership to keep our roadways, popular visitor destinations, and communities safe,” Hall said. Executive Councilor John Stephen , R-Manchester, said Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn and he is finalizing work on recommendations that Ayotte’s task force on the topic will be making to beef up state laws and regulations regarding impaired and distracted driving.
The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee is scheduled Wednesday to pass judgment on the Senate-approved bill ( SB 134 ) that seeks to reinstate a work requirement for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. Sen. Howard Pearl , R-Loudon, champions the proposal, which would allow the state to resubmit a Section 1115 waiver to the U.
S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to revive the work mandate. Georgia is the only state in the nation with an active program, but New Hampshire is one of several states looking to revive this effort.
The first Trump administration approved of the idea, but the Biden administration shut it down in 2021 and then persuaded federal judges to shut down work requirement laws in states that had them, such as New Hampshire and Arkansas. “If someone is able to work and we put in place a work requirement, I would support that,” Ayotte said, adding there should be exemptions to the mandate for those who can’t work. When it comes to the government, new offerings are never cheap and this is no exception.
HHS officials report it will cost up to $4 million a year to operate the program with 21 additional staffers and computer system upgrades costing at least $2 million. The New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a scheduling order over the dispute about how much would be awarded in damages to David Meehan , the first Youth Development Center victim of sexual and physical abuse whose suit went to trial. State lawyers argue that while Meehan got a $38 million jury award, he was entitled to only $475,000 because that’s the state cap on damages for a single incident.
Meehan’s lawyers, David Vicinanzo and Rus Rilee , are appealing the claim, and their brief is due in June while state prosecutors have until July to produce theirs. The trial judge, Andrew Schulman, did not rule that Meehan’s award had to be $475,000 but said it was either that, which he called a “miscarriage of justice,” or a new trial. This is no small matter in terms of state exposure.
Should the high court rule in Meehan’s favor, he’d be entitled to interest, which would surely bring the judgment over $40 million. If Meehan loses the appeal, a second civil trial is likely where his lawyers will no doubt ask that jury for more than $38 million. The New Hampshire Home Builders Association gave another signal this past week for how it’s all in for changes to expand access to affordable housing.
The association began airing a three-week ad on cable TV outlets trying to educate the public about the legislative solutions under debate. The 30-second ad is titled, “Keep New Hampshire Great.” This campaign also includes regionally targeted radio ad spots along with direct mail.
Some critics that charge some legislative options violate local control have named the homebuilders lobby as a force for no good on this topic. “There’s a lot of noise around the housing issue,” said association CEO Matt Mayberry . “We’re cutting through it by highlighting practical legislative measures that will streamline the permitting process and spur the construction of much-needed housing.
These solutions won’t cost taxpayers a single dime.” The pro-tax cut group Club for Growth was the first to apply a media strategy to legislation with its ad urging lawmakers to eliminate income eligibility for the taxpayer-funded Education Freedom Accounts. This ad has been running since early March.
The group had commissioned a poll that found a majority (54% to 38%) supported lifting the income eligibility limits. In the same survey, Democrats opposed the idea by better than a 2-1 margin (64% against to 31% for). At the end of last week, another pro-school choice group, Koch Brothers-backed “yes.
every kid.” kicked off its own ad praising Ayotte’s leadership on the issue. Illinois Gov.
J.B. Pritzker will keynote this Sunday’s McIntyre-Shaheen Dinner at the Doubletree Hilton Downtown Manchester hotel, one of the biggest fundraising events for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Pritzker is one of the party’s most prolific fundraisers and chipped in big during the 2024 cycle for the New Hampshire ticket led by Democratic nominee for governor Joyce Craig . This will also be the first major party event since Sen. Jeanne Shaheen , D-N.
H., announced her retirement in 2026 and Pappas stepped up to seize the mantle of front-runner of his party to replace her. This past week, Pritzker’s senior senator, four-termer Dick Durbin joined Shaheen in becoming the fourth incumbent Senate Democrat to declare he’s not running either next year.
With a midterm Senate map that’s already trending GOP, this should be concerning to national Democrats. This past week, Katrina Taylor , acting assistant director of the Human Rights Commission, wrote the Executive Council a detailed memo addressing some of the scathing results of a performance audit of the HRC. “With the necessary resources and oversight, leadership is confident that the agency can enhance its operations and deliver on its commitments more effectively to best serve Granite Staters,” Taylor said.
First you’ve got to survive the state budget gauntlet. The House-approved budget has called for eliminating the HRC and having all complaints be resolved through the superior court system. The Senate Finance Committee members didn’t tip their hands last week without a single question made of Taylor who made her case before the budget panel.
Ayotte said she’s determined to right the ship at HRC and would prefer it be retained. Last Wednesday, she nominated a second replacement member to the seven-person commission, this one Stewart Levenson , a Hopkinton doctor and former GOP congressional candidate who was one of the whistleblowers of inadequate treatment at the New Hampshire Veterans Medical Center in Manchester. He follows Ayotte’s pick of former police officer/investigator Ray Pinard , who reached out to the governor and pledged to devote “hundreds of hours” to improving HRC operations.
“I would prefer to keep the same Human Rights Commission and reform it,” Ayotte said. “If that doesn’t happen, these claims do need to be heard somewhere. Let me be clear.
Where we are with the Human Rights Commission is completely unacceptable.” Ayotte cites state personnel rules in declining to get specific. Ahni Malachi technically remains the executive director but has been out on a medical leave since last summer.
Unlike virtually every other agency head, Malachi is not a politically appointed staffer, which gives Ayotte no rights to let her go for cause but to have to follow personnel rules for classified state employees. “That position does not come through governor and council,” Ayotte said. “Perhaps that’s a problem the Legislature might want to consider as well.
” Translation: Keep your eyes peeled for a potential amendment to the House budget trailer bill (HB 2) to convert the HRC’s top staffer to become an unclassified (political) employee. Back in 2002, Ayotte was a rising murder prosecutor when she was assigned to the trial for one of the most gruesome double murders in modern New Hampshire history. Ayotte secured murder convictions for Robert Tulloch and James Parker for the brutal slayings of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop in their Hanover home.
The victims were picked at random, Parker and Tulloch said. The U.S.
Supreme Court declared mandatory life-without-parole sentences for minors unconstitutional in 2012. The New Hampshire Supreme Court unanimously decided this past week not to opine on the constitutionality of imposing another life sentence on a defendant (Tulloch) who was a minor at the time of the crime. “That sentence should absolutely stand,” Ayotte said, citing the “brutality, severity and premediated nature” of the killing.
Tulloch pleaded guilty after Parker reached an agreement to testify against him. Parker pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role and was sentenced to 25 years to life. Parker was paroled last year.
Despite a slumping stock market and massive tariffs, a new University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll finds growing backing for President Donald Trump among Republicans in the Granite State. His approval rating overall remained unchanged from a month ago, 53% disapprove, 47% approve but approval among Republicans jumped from 78% to 82%. Only 2% of Democrats and 40% of independents approve of Trump.
Approval for Trump in New Hampshire (47%) is better than what UNH found in neighboring Vermont (28%) and Maine (42%). Tariffs remain unpopular, with only 41% approving of them, 57% against. A staggering 79% say tariffs will raise prices domestically, but a plurality (46%) does think they will eventually lead to more U.
S. manufacturing. State department heads are learning the hard way the 2025-26 edition of the Executive Council is not where you go for smooth sailing.
Councilors rejected another three contracts last week and tabled two others. Councilor David Wheeler , R-Milford, led the rejection of $521,400 to continue a decade-long effort with the state departments of Education and Health and Human Services for a “Multi-Tiered System of Support for Behavioral Health and Wellness.” Wheeler said it’s a proxy for promoting “DEI and Critical Race Theory” policies.
Councilor Karen Liot Hill , D-Lebanon, supported the contract while Councilor Janet Stevens , R-Rye, abstained. They tabled a $2 million contract to provide Taser support at the Department of Corrections facilities. The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s latest report found the state’s labor force grew by 1.
3% in 2024, the largest jump since 2018. This means employers should have an easier time finding new workers now than they did during the pandemic. The downside from Phil Sletten’s analysis was the slumping birth rate, rising child care and housing costs all should shrink the pool of future job seekers.
Then there’s the “graying” of the Granite State, where 31% working are over 55 and 9.2% are over 65..
