By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
Protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority was and is a major tenet of the US Constitution.
There are lots of examples of the tyranny of the majority, but last week it couldn’t be more blatant than what happened with House Bill 75.
People do not pay much attention to county government, but they should, it is one of the four categories on everyone’s property tax bill.
Most people are familiar with county nursing homes housing many elderly who cannot afford private care or require specialized care that would cost a fortune in a private facility.
The counties made an unfortunate deal with the state many years ago to pick up a larger share of nursing home costs the federal government doesn’t pay for those on Medicaid while the state paid a greater percentage of the costs associated with at-risk young people.
Not too long after the agreement was reached, the state legislature decided to shut down the most expensive youth services program, the Children in Need of Services, during a budget crunch. When it was restored after a hue and cry from all corners of the state, it reduced the role of the courts, which reduced the cost considerably.
Live and learn and ever since the counties have to fight to keep their percentage of nursing home costs from inching higher as some governors try to save some state dollars by downshifting the costs to counties, which downshifts the costs to property taxpayers.
The counties do more than nursing homes. Some among us are too familiar with the county attorney’s office which handles many cases coming before the superior court system, with every county having at least one superior court within its boundaries along with district and family courts.
And then there is the county correctional facility and the county sheriff’s office.
County government became a hot topic last year in Belknap County when some free state legislators tried to mess around with Gunstock Mountain Recreation and Ski Area, but otherwise counties and the people who run them, the commissioners and the county administrators, receive little attention compared to local or state government.
The state’s 10 counties all have three commissioners, but how they are elected varies somewhat.
Seven of the counties elect their commissioners by districts with the commissioners having to live in the district they represent.
Two require the commissioners to live in the district they represent but are elected at large, and Strafford County elects its three commissioners countywide no matter where they live.
While Strafford County may elect its commissioners in a different manner than the others — it does not have districts — it is also known as one of the better managed and run counties in the state.
But there is a problem. The three county commissioners elected at large are all Democrats, which would make sense in a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans 38,322 to 28,151 with undeclared or independents outnumbering both parties at 43,101.
Along with Cheshire and Grafton counties, it is one of the top three counties for Democrats outnumbering Republicans.
For the last four general elections — the only ones available on the Secretary of State’s website — Democrats have filled the three positions in every one, the same three commissioners for the last three elections and the 2016 election was the last for long-time Strafford County politician Leo Lessard as commissioner.
And in two of the four general elections, no Republicans ran for commissioner.
If Republicans didn’t like their odds in the commissioners’ races, they could have been addressed in the last term of the legislature when they held sizable majorities in both the House and Senate during the redistricting process.
There was no attempt when the House was redrawing the lines for the County Commissioners in nine of the 10 counties to change Stafford County’s countywide elections for the three posts.
Instead, six Republicans, all but one from towns in Strafford County, proposed House Bill 270 to divide the county into three commissioner districts the year after the state’s 10-year cycle to draw political boundaries in light of the most recent US Census population figures.
Usually that sort of thing is frowned upon unless there is some mitigating issue, like when the state Supreme Court had to hire a firm to redraw the boundaries for the House and Senate when the governor and legislatures could not agree on any plan.
And then it was only to change a couple of floterial districts with some questionable contiguous groupings.
Otherwise, redrawing lines outside of the 10-year window is thought to be unconstitutional.
HB 270 was retained by the House Municipal and County Government Committee to work on before bringing something to lawmakers next year, but low and behold it shows up late in this session on Senate Bill 75, with the amendment introduced by Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, who chaired the Senate redistricting committee last year.
The House almost killed the bill two weeks ago, but a number of two or three vote margins on different motions finally resulted in a two-vote majority for a committee of conference, which was held last week and resulted in a split decision among Republicans and Democrats so the two Democrats on the seven-member committee were replaced by Republicans who signed the report with the change to three districts.
Gray’s argument was that Strafford County was the only outlier in the 10 counties, and would give the towns more of an opportunity to elect a commissioner although the population of the three cities is far greater than the 10 towns in the county.
A look at the proposed redistricting would break up the two largest cities, Rochester and Dover, while only Somersworth would be in one district.
The map would also create one clearly Republican district, one very heavy Democratic district and one that may lean Democratic but not by much.
It’s the old tried-and-true, pack-and-crack method of gerrymandering.
The prime sponsor of HB 270, Rep. Len Turcotte, R-Barrington, who was on the House redistricting committee, said he brought up the idea of three districts for the county but was told the leadership did not want to muddy the waters.
He said most people who talk about gerrymandering have no idea what it is and made the proclamation having the three commissioners elected countywide was gerrymandering given the outcomes.
The Republicans on the conference committee tried to say the plan was districting, not redistricting, so it should be allowed although it is doubtful judges would agree with the hair splitting.
And conference committee member Rep. Richard Lascelles, R-Litchfield, noted the minority is left behind when the commissioners are elected countywide.
“The history of the county is that the minority has been left behind time after time after time,” he said. “After a while people in the minority figure out they have been disenfranchised so they lose faith in the political system.”
In the past when Republicans held majorities in the House and Senate for years and years and years, they were not concerned about the minority losing faith in the system and being disenfranchised, but now they appear to have gotten religion.
If the change is approved by the House Thursday when the conference report on HB 75 is before the body, the Senate will approve it on a partisan vote and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu will sign the bill.
If the House Municipal and County Government Committee decides to use House Bill 270 to go back to the countywide elections and it passes the House, the Senate will kill it and the districts will be in place until at least the next redistricting cycle in 2031.
The move to change the commissioners’ elections was not something the people of Strafford County asked for, it’s what some politicians in the county’s Republican minority want.
And Republicans talk about rigging elections, this is nothing but ugly partisan politics at its worst and that more than anything disenfranchises voters making them lose faith in the political system.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
Distant Dome by veteran journalist Garry Rayno explores a broader perspective on the State House and state happenings for InDepthNH.org. Over his three-decade career, Rayno covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat. During his career, his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. Rayno lives with his wife Carolyn in New London.