By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
State Rep. Kat McGhee, D-Hollis, said Wednesday she was interviewed last week by the Attorney General’s Office about statements she made about former Republican Rep. Troy Merner, who has resigned and since been arrested.
McGhee said she was interviewed by phone and asked what she knew about Merner’s domicile and asked to corroborate what she told InDepthNH.org in mid-November. She declined to go into detail about the recent interview.
McGhee previously told InDepthNH.org that after the news broke in September that Merner was living out of his Lancaster district during the entire last House session, he told her that “everyone knew” he had moved away from Lancaster but House “leadership” told him to continue serving.
McGhee, who became friendly with Merner when they both served on the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee, said she called him as a friend after he resigned.
McGhee said then that she thought it was because the Republican leadership needed Merner’s vote in the closely divided House between the number of Republicans and Democrats.
“(Merner) admitted to me that everyone knew,” he had moved out of district, McGhee said. She didn’t press him for names during that call.
“He did say he wanted to step down sooner and was asked not to. He said he had brought up the idea earlier in the year and was asked not to do so,” McGhee said.
At the time, Republican Deputy House Speaker Steve Smith said: “I’d be shocked if that is true.” He also said it is common to get allegations against House members that they can’t verify.
Complaint Handled Differently
Merner’s controversial domicile complaint was handled differently than a similar complaint against former Republican Rep. Don Leeman in 2016.
Leeman’s domicile case was decided by the Legislative Administrative Committee after being referred by then-Republican House Speaker Shawn Jasper. The committee said he could no longer serve because he had moved out of Ward 3 in Rochester to Ward 6. At the time Leeman said it was temporary.
Leeman was also charged with felony witness tampering and bribery, charges that were later reduced to a misdemeanor as long as he performed 200 hours of community service. Leeman said in a phone interview he still believes he was innocent.
Right-to-know questions
Chichester Attorney Paul Twomey questioned why House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, didn’t use the Leeman committee process in Merner’s case and instead allowed him to serve during the whole House session.
Twomey also wants to know why Packard didn’t notify the House minority leader as soon as he learned before the last session began that a credible complaint had been made that Merner had moved out of his Lancaster district.
Twomey said he found it interesting that Packard hasn’t released any information under his name since the Attorney General’s Office said the Merner investigation has been taken over by its Public Integrity Unit and said the criminal investigation is ongoing.
“(Packard) has rather chosen to have all information come out of and be attributed to the ‘Speaker’s Office,’” Twomey said.
Twomey represents former state Senators Peter Burling, a Democrat, and Mark Hounsell, a Republican turned Independent, in their right-to-know requests to find out who knew what when in the House leadership about Merner’s domicile.
InDepthNH.org asked Packard why the same process wasn’t used as in the Leeman case and why he took Merner’s word for it that he was properly domiciled.
The Speaker’s Office sent the following email reply to InDepthNH.org Tuesday:
“The Speaker’s Office cannot speak to the facts and circumstances that may have led a prior speaker to take a particular course of action. In the matter at hand, the Speaker’s Office engaged in reasonable action, and reasonable restraint, based upon the information preliminarily provided by the DOJ in December of 2022. Immediately upon the DOJ communicating its finding that Representative Merner was not properly domiciled in Lancaster, the Speaker’s Office took action to ensure that he vacated his seat. The Speaker’s Office has no further comment on this matter at this time.”
On Monday, the “Speaker’s Office” also sent a memo to all House members explaining its actions regarding the Merner case.
The memo explained that the COO of the General Court (Terry Pfaff) received a call and email from the Attorney General’s Office on Dec. 6, 2022 before the session began about Merner living out of district, but took no action because they indicated the criminal investigation was ongoing.
Merner resigned from the House and as a Lancaster selectman in September and was arrested last month.
Merner, 63, who now lives in Carroll, has been charged with one class B felony count of wrongful voting, and misdemeanor charges of theft by deception, unsworn falsification and tampering with public records. Merner will be arraigned Dec. 28 in Coos County Superior Court.
Twomey said it doesn’t matter if there was a criminal investigation. It was Packard’s duty to get to the bottom of Merner’s domicile, not simply rely on his word, he said.
Merner has repeatedly declined to respond to requests for his side of the story.
Twomey said it is the House that determines who is qualified to sit as a state Representative, according to the New Hampshire constitution, not the Attorney General’s Office. The state Constitution requires House members live in their districts.
Twomey said he doesn’t think Merner sitting for the whole session and voting after he moved out of district was the bigger crime.
Rather, Twomey said the bigger crime would be people in leadership who deliberately kept that information quiet to make sure Merner was able to vote because that affected state laws that affect everybody in New Hampshire.
The right-to-know requests Twomey filed for the former senators have been denied because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
Twomey said he respects the fact that time is needed to investigate, but he doesn’t want it to drag on. It is too important that the people of New Hampshire know what happened in this case, Twomey said.
Otherwise he, Burling and Hounsell may decide to file a public records lawsuit in court, Twomey said.