By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, has been cleared of allegations by the Republican State Committee that she may have inappropriately “electioneered” on behalf of a political law firm in her official capacity.
In an email sent to James MacEachern, chair of the NH Republican State Committee on Thursday, Senior Assistant Attorney General Brendan A. O’Donnell of the Election Law Unit, wrote that none of Liot Hill’s emails constitute “electioneering” within the meaning of state law and “accordingly this matter is closed.”
Republicans called on Liot Hill, the only Democrat on the five-member Executive Council, to resign or be impeached over their allegations that she violated law under RSA 659:4-a to solicit plaintiffs for a lawsuit against New Hampshire’s recently enacted voter identification law.
Liot Hill immediately responded to the Republican claim as baseless.
Attempts to get comment from Republican officials Thursday night were not successful.
Liot Hill said: “The AG’s office has concluded their investigation into Republican allegations against me of inappropriate use of official email, stating: ‘This Office cannot conclude that the e-mails constituted a misuse of position or otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code. This matter is closed.’
“The AG’s findings underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks against me: I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat.
“Republicans are doing everything they can to distract from their failure to lower the cost of housing, healthcare, education, and property taxes for the people of New Hampshire. Granite Staters are working harder than ever but getting no relief. Meanwhile, Republicans are out here filing baseless impeachment proceedings against me in an act of pure political theater.
“My job as an Executive Councilor is to vote on state contracts and gubernatorial nominations, to manage our state infrastructure, and most importantly – to advocate for my constituents. This is serious work, and I will continue taking it seriously,” Liot Hill said.
According to O’Donnell’s findings, Republicans reported Aug. 14 that the Executive Councilor inappropriately sent out Aug. 5 emails to Charles Saia, the executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Disability; Isadora Rodriguez-Legendre, executive director of the NH Council on Developmental Disabilities; a private organization known as Strategies for Disability Equity LCC; another private organization called Community Action Partnership Hillsborough and Rockingham County; and to the Executive Director of Open Democracy, a private organization.
In each of the emails, Liot Hill wrote, “I am writing to ask for your help.” She identified Senate Bill 287 and the concern she had with it.
The bill https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/results.aspx?adv=2&txtbillno=SB%20287 requires applicants for absentee ballots to present a photo identification with their application. The bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Aug. 1.
She stated in her emails that she was trying to identify voters who might be impacted and also asked if any would be willing to join a call with the Washington-based Elias Law Group to discuss it further.
The Attorney General’s office wrote that while the law prohibits certain public employees from electioneering while performing their duties, the statute defines electioneering to mean acting in “a way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office.”
The finding by the Department of Justice was that the conduct did not meet the definition of electioneering and further stated that it is not uncommon for elected leaders to take positions and use their official email to do so.
The letter to Republicans said that while she sent two of the five emails to executive branch officials on the various commissions “it would not be appropriate for an executive branch official to use their position to secure a privilege or advantage for another person or entity, such as Elias Law Group, to which that entity was not entitled.”
O’Donnell told MacEachern that the plain meaning of Liot Hill’s request was just that, not commands and investigators said that the recipients did not interpret the letter as commands.
In the end, none of the recipients provided the names of any voters who would have reported being impacted by the bill, which had just become law.
“Even though Councilor Liot Hill’s emails were not phrased as a command and neither recipient interpreted those emails as a command, sending this type of email from her government email address to other executive branch officials created a risk that these officials would interpret her request as commands. All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety.
“Nonetheless, based on the text of the emails and the interviews of the recipients, this Office cannot conclude that the email constituted a misuse of position or otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code. This matter is closed,” O’Donnell wrote on Thursday.
In August, House Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, alleged the emails constituted illegal political activity using a government email address and called for Liot Hill to resign or face impeachment.
He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night.