By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
Most casual voters do not understand the devastating effect the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has had on the nation’s politics.
The decision opened the floodgates of corporate money to flow into campaigns like never before allowing untraceable dark money to over take campaign contributions, which are traceable, as the primary source of funding for candidates.
It has also freed newly created Political Action Committees and candidate Super Pacs to produce political ads that have little to do with facts and everything to do with damaging the candidate they target.
New Hampshire has had a front row seat to this campaign method that only seeks to drive up a candidate’s negatives in the US Senate race where an Elon Musk PAC has endlessly run ads against Chris Pappas, the Democratic nominee that stretch anyone’s definition of truthful and are filled with dog whistles that he is gay, something that at least half of New Hampshire, the 1st Congressional District, probably already knew.
Pappas’s campaign and PACS supporting his run, have run numerous ads about Sununu’s past support for overhauling Social Security, his financially rewarding work for corporations and the fact that he is mentioned in the infamous Epstein files.
In all of this “dirty air” as it is known, sooner rather than later, people begin tuning it out and no longer listen, but the tens of millions of dollars that have been spent have done what was intended and driven up the “other candidate’s negatives” and probably a little of their own if people get sick enough of hearing the same old crap.
The governor’s race has also had its share of negative ads, mostly from the Kelly Ayotte campaign about Cinde Warmington’s work as a lobbyist for the company that made oxycontin 25 years ago.
Warmington has certainly been outgunned in the campaign finances arena, but began running ads attacking the governor near the end of the campaign cycle.
None of this does much to improve the political climate that has for far too long been all about painting your opponent either a threat to democracy or a communist and not about how to make a broken system in Washington D.C. work again for the American people instead of the oligarchs who fill executive branch positions to line their own pockets.
At the state level some of what has been going on has crossed the absurdity line.
Everyone knows the fake outrage that exists about the other side, but then the lack of action when someone is really threatened by the rhetoric from people like former Free State Project executive director and Libertarian Jeremy Kauffman who wants people to either kill Democrats or vote Republican.
The Republicans were outraged when retiring Portsmouth state Rep. Ned Raynolds challenged House Majority Leader Jason Osborne to a fight in Market Square in a private Facebook message because the Free Stater did not condemn Kauffman’s post with Osborne’s acolytes Reps. Joe Sweeney and Ross Berry calling for Raynolds to resign.
The incomprehensible part is why Raynolds is the only lawmaker who challenged Osborne to a fight with his authoritative heavy-handed grip on the House.
Osborne had his own absurd behavior as the leader of the PAC to Elect House Republicans when he filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office claiming the National Education Association New Hampshire broke state election laws in its campaign against Question 2, the proposed school property tax cap that would also cap administrative costs.
He said the organization put tens of thousands of dollars into its political fund to bankroll the campaign without saying where the money came from.
Organizations like the NEA -NH and Planned Parenthood NNE have separate political funds as opposed to their lobbying activity just as the Koch Foundation-backed Americans for Prosperity has a separate political fund from its lobbying activity, although it is often difficult to tell the difference.
Perhaps Osborne may be a little more upset with NEA – NH because it is a union than the AFP which has dumped millions of dollars into House and Senate campaigns over the last few cycles.
Osborne complained that the union’s mailings and ads do not have the organization’s name as campaign ads are required to have so people know the organization it is coming from.
“The union broke election law to keep taking more and more money from Granite Staters with no accountability,” Osborne said in a press release.
The union does not take money from Granite Staters, it helps negotiate contracts between educators and school boards. Union members pay dues to the organization, but that comes from their salaries not directly from taxpayers.
Besides judging from the past two years when school budget caps were warrant articles on annual meetings and all were unsuccessful, people do not share the same belief of Americans for Prosperity and Osborne that “taxation is theft.” To most residents, school taxes are an investment in the state’s future.
Within the last year, Osborne was fined by the Attorney General for breaking election laws by failing to file campaign and expenditure reports for the same PAC filing the NEA complaint.
Another complaint was filed with Attorney General by former House Speaker Bill O’Brien who claimed an education conference at the University of New Hampshire Law School, sponsored by the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service titled “Judicial Conduct: Accountability, Due Process, and Public Trust” was partisan using public resources and facilities “to reinforce Democrat campaign attacks.”
He called on Attorney General John Formella and Secretary of State David Scanlan to halt the conference which was scheduled last week.
Two members of the Judicial Conduct Committee, the committee’s executive secretary and general counsel, and two attorneys the committee uses for investigation are the scheduled speakers.
“It is outrageous that public institutions would be used to help Democrats promote yet another false campaign theme five days before an election,” O’Brien said. “Democrats working within these institutions have no right to commit public money, facilities, and personnel to partisan politicking.”
The blurb on the law center’s website states “Join us for . . .an educational conference examiningthe Judicial Conduct Committee’s role in enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct. This conference is intended to bring together members of the public, judges, attorneys, legislators, journalists, and other interested professionals for an informed discussion of judicial ethics, disciplinary procedures, public accountability, and the role of the media in reporting matters involving the judiciary.
“This conference will not discuss specific cases.”
The conference was rescheduled to Nov. 10.
The committee has been in the news lately for its decision to file complaints against former Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald for violating the judicial code which led to his resignation from his position and the court over his involvement in the firing and rehiring of Dianne Martin from court positions while collecting $50,000 in earned time from the state.
The question is whether three other justices who signed onto a statement with MacDonald about its actions, Patrick Donovan, Melissa Countway and Bryan Gould, are also being investigated for violating the judicial code because the statement was not true.
Warmington has raised the issue in the governor’s race.
All the justices are Republicans as both former Gov. Chris Sununu and Ayotte have only nominated Republicans to the Supreme Court.
What really may be the issue however, is overturning the two original Claremont education funding decisions by the court more than 30 years ago.
Speaking to the Boston Globe O’Brien said, “In my view, the conference … advances a political effort to discredit and replace the current Supreme Court justices and prevent existing decisions on state funding of primary and secondary education from being overturned.”
“Rescheduling the conference does not eliminate that concern,” he said.
The Attorney General has not made any decision on either the NEA nor the judicial conference, but it has made a decision on anonymous mailers aimed at Sununu.
In a press release issued Friday, Formella said “due to the imminence of the State General Election, on Nov. 3, 2026, and the need to provide the public with information regarding anonymous political mailers that have been distributed in New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Department of Justice Election Law Unit” is providing certain information.
“To date, we have received complaints about three anonymous mailers distributed in New Hampshire concerning United States Senate candidates John Sununu and Edmond Laplante. These mailers do not contain information identifying the person or entity responsible for the advertising—known as ‘paid for’ disclaimers—that are required by New Hampshire and federal law.”
The Attorney General’s Office said the mailers were produced by Massachusetts printing company, the Journeyman Press, and distributed through U.S. Mail.
The mailers were commissioned by Pinpoint Campaigns, a Washington, D.C. based “boutique direct mail firm,” Formella said.
The office has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Journeyman Press and Pinpoint Campaigns ordering them to cease distributing any further political advertising mailers that do not contain the disclosures required by New Hampshire and federal law. The office has further ordered the Journeyman Press to take all necessary steps to recall or prevent the distribution of further political advertising mailers that have been provided to the United States Postal Service. The Journeyman Press has confirmed that no further mailers are scheduled to be sent to voters in New Hampshire.
The Attorney General’s Office refused to comment on a political advertising mailer from the Suncook Valley GOP that contains candidate advertising with no individual “paid for” disclaimers.
The Suncook Valley GOP sent out the Suncook Valley Taxpayers mailer that included several articles by Free Staters Rep. Dan McGuire and his wife Rep. Carol McGuire, both Republicans from Epsom, along with ads for nine Republican candidates. One for state Sen. Howard Pearl showed him with Gov. Kelly Ayotte and a quote from her endorsing Pearl, who did not respond to a request for comment.
None of the ads individually contain the required financial disclaimer.
This is almost as crazy as it is in Washington with the Trump justice department threatening election officials in a number of states over what it claims may be non-citizens voting and Alaska over identical names on the ballot, a technique used just two years ago in Florida by Republicans.
The Constitution leaves the running of elections to the states, not the federal government, but the stakes are high here and in Washington.
Make sure you vote.
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.