By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
The late Dennis Murphy, who was the longtime lobbyist for the National Education Association NH as well as advisor to the late former Gov. Hugh Gallen, had more good advice than most Concord insiders.
He used to say corruption in most states is getting your nephew a no-show job in the public works department, but in New Hampshire corruption is a low-digit license plate.
If that were only true today.
Former Department of Safety Commissioner Dick Flynn used to be the gatekeeper for those low-digit plates which were a billboard proclaiming “I have influence.”
Those who had them when former Gov. John Lynch removed Flynn from his position have held on to them, but the direct line between “pull” and low-digit plates is no more.
There have been incidents in year’s past that would indicate the corruption went a little further than low digit license plates.
Then House Majority Leader Vinnie Palumbo was forced to resign for a check kiting scheme to keep his royal lifestyle afloat, former House Speaker Gene Chandler never reported his annual corn roast take and Dover Rep. Roland Hemon robbed his mother’s estate and then tried to impeach the judge who put a halt to his thievery.
Some have raised issues about the closed-circuit between lawmakers and lobbyists, particularly with the fundraisers which are attended by mostly lobbyists who are expected to come with a check.
Before Citizens United and state Senators needed more than $100,000 to win re-election, the money was not that significant and it was understood the money did not buy votes, it may have bought a cosy relationship at times, but times were different then.
Also the names of the lobbyists usually showed up on the campaign finance reports so anyone could see where the money was coming from.
The more suspect practice of outside influencers paying for trips to resorts around the country to be indoctrinated or just “to learn more” about complicated issues take it a step further.
Various affiliations of the Koch Foundation have been very kind over the years particularly to members of the House Science Technology and Energy Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
You wonder why the state has been so slow to embrace alternative energy.
And labor unions play for conferences on labor issues for members of other committees.
The members have to report “the gift” they receive and some lawmakers appear to attend these events annually if not more.
Both the fundraising and the trips are a result of the pay scale for House and Senate members of $100 a year, and the lack of staff for lawmakers who have to depend on lobbyists to explain many of the complicated issues they have to deal with these days.
However, these days something a little more onerous appears to be going on.
Damien Fisher’s recent article on members of the attorney general’s office including Attorney General John Formella going on trips paid for by an organization that blasted robocalls to turn out insurrectionists to a rally it help plan for President Trump’s attempt to halt the counting of the electoral votes for president after he lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden.
Fisher’s story begins “During the fall gathering of the Republican Attorney General’s Association held in Charleston, South Carolina in November of 2022, attendees had the opportunity to play golf, go to a spa, take a dolphin watching boat tour, or enjoy time on a shooting range.
“One of those attendees was New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, who had assumed his position as the Granite State’s top law enforcement officer in April of 2021. Formella’s $3,500 trip to the South Carolina resort was paid for by an organization connected to the planning of the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot and attempted coup, the Rule of Law Defense Fund.”
The story goes on to say that Formella accepted $24,100 in reimbursements for eight trips from the Rule of Law Defense Fund, all to attend Republican Attorney General’s Association meetings.
Others in his office also accepted reimbursements from the same fund including Department of Justice Communications Director Michael Garrity, and Senior Assistant Attorney General Christopher Bond all totaling more than $71,000 over the past few years.
The RLDF and RAGA sponsored meetings for attorney generals and their staff around the country in 2020 with the title “War Games” to plan what could happen if they lost the election which they did.
You have to ask if you want the top law enforcement officer in the state taking money from an organization that sought to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.
And more concerning are incidents involving the state Supreme Court.
Until Chris Sununu became governor in 2017, Democrats had a long run of controlling the corner office from 1997 to 2017 with only a two-year break for Craig Benson from 2003 to 2005.
That meant Democrats were nominating justices to the Supreme Court. During that time, the Executive Council was mostly controlled by Republicans so the governors nominated a mix of Democrats and Republicans to sit on the state’s highest court which had long been the tradition.
Sununu nominated only Republicans to the Supreme Court and Gov. Kelly Ayotte continued that trend.
At some point it became clear, given who was nominated, that the court was assembled with a clear goal to be able to overturn the Claremont education funding decisions that the state’s legislature and executive branch have failed to meet in the 30 or more years since they were issued.
Neither party should pat themselves on the back for solving the education funding problem because no one has and all attempts to truly address the rulings by finding greater state support for public schools have failed in the legislature.
But something went terribly wrong along the way with the carefully anointed justices who were set up for the 5-0 dirty deed of telling the children of the state they no longer had a right to just an adequate education much less an exceptional education.
One of the greatest virtues of bipartisanship is it keeps the other side honest. When that is gone, it is easy for those on the court or in the legislature, executive council or governor’s office to think you have a God-given right to be in power and any Democratic victory is illegitimate.
Former Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald did not follow court rules and codes when he hired Dianne Martin to be the court administrator or when she was removed by associate justices Patrick Donovan and Melissa Countway, or when she was given another position in the court system because she was driving people out of the administrative office, or when she collected $50,000 for earned time in the three-day period between jobs.
One person told the Attorney General’s Office they had never seen so many people out on family and medical leave.
As the Apollo 13 astronauts said “Houston we have a problem.”
When the MacDonald-Martin scandal broke with Todd Bookman’s piece on New Hampshire Public Radio, the court hired a political consulting firm to handle its publicity which also got them into trouble with the Judicial Conduct Committee because the statement they issued was not true, something you would think judges would cherish.
They also hired an attorney who is also the attorney for the state Senate, which if any of the justices were impeached, would be the jury for the trial.
So now three judges who were implicated in the false statement and two for the maneuvering to remove Martin from her position and find her a soft landing spot with a $50,000 payout to help soothe the situation, are sitting in judgement of cases that come before them.
And the matter is not settled and won’t be settled until more information is available, but it appears the court and the governor and the elected Republican legislative leaders all want to plow ahead and be able to overturn Claremont I and II while they have “the team” in place to do it.
There is something rotten at the heart of all of this from the fundraising pay to play to the court’s disregard for its rules and codes.
We’ve gone beyond low-digit license plates to someplace way past the moon. Houston, we need help.
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 and their two rescue dogs.