By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
After taking a shellacking at the hands of New Hampshire voters, you would think Republican lawmakers might me somewhat contrite.
If there were some who publicly stated the state — like the nation — had had enough of the culture wars, the attacks on public education, transgender youth and vaccines, and corruption, the voices were pretty soft.
Instead many blamed the voters, some blamed President Trump and the “national scene,” and others spoke as if the wholesale change in the State House from Republican control to Democratic and not by a little bit by a super majority in the House, one vote short of a super majority in the Senate and all five Executive Council seats for the first time, was but a blip on the screen and they would be back in charge in a couple of years.
After the election, former Republican state chair Chris Ager in the Concord Monitor, essentially blamed a national trend for what happened here.
“It wasn’t that New Hampshire Republicans did something wrong per se,” he said. “It seems like it was more a Washington-based vote than a New Hampshire-based vote,” noting New Hampshire Republicans were caught in a wave of negativity towards the President’s party.
He said the clearest sign was voters turning on the whole ticket at once. “It looked like there was straight ticket voting against Republicans.”
Sen. Victoria Sullivan of Manchester posted on election night voters had “Massed up NH,” echoing Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s campaign slogan two years earlier.
“It makes no sense that they would vote to so drastically change our state,” she wrote.
Not being able to realize or articulate what really happened in the midterm election reeks of arrogance and the assumption Republicans have a God-given right to control New Hampshire government.
And if you want assurances Republicans learned little to nothing from what should be a humbling defeat, the 100 or so House Republicans left standing, selected Jason Osborne to be minority leader for the next two years, although it was a close vote.
The same Jason Osborne who as House majority leader set the agenda for the House and ultimately the Senate that brought out voters in historic numbers to fire Republicans across the board even in reliably Republican towns like Bedford, Londonderry, Merrimack and Milford and made significant inroads in others like Derry and Hudson.
Osborne’s Libertarian/Republican agenda for the past six years has been aligned with President Trump’s and the MAGA movement, which has never been that popular here.
Free State/Libertarians focused on issues that are at odds with the majority of residents such as the war on public schools.
Bill after bill added to what schools have to do to ensure they are no longer woke or imply slavery has damaged the country.
They tied the hands of school nurses and school counselors to deal with immediate problems and gave parents more and more channels to object to instructional materials and vaccines and passed various others straight jackets to make it nearly impossible to do what schools are supposed to do, teach children so they may become productive adults.
They instituted a voucher program that will have drained more than one-hundred-fifty million dollars from the state’s Education Trust Fund at the end of this school year when that money could have helped reduce property taxes for some of the most property poor communities and improved educational opportunities for their students.
The voucher program essentially is a subsidy for parents wealthy enough to send their children to religious or private schools or homeschool programs because that is where the vast majority of Education Freedom Account program students come from, not public schools.
It is not a popular program among the general public who believe there is little accountability for where the money goes or what the students learn with a program administrator so far refusing to share the data needed to monitor either.
They also instituted a parental bill of rights that turns educators into surveillance agents for parents who fear their child may not be heterosexual or sis, or may be exposed to information that contradicts or questions their political or religious beliefs.
The Libertarian/Republicans also tried time and time again to restrict what could be taught about such things as racism, slavery and other “woke issues” that they claim could make a white child feel guilty for the sins of their ancestors although the federal court found the two bills that did pass the legislature and signed into law unconstitutional on a number of grounds.
They also spent enormous amounts of legislative time trying to ban transgender people from using their preferred restroom and prohibiting the use of hormones, other substances and surgery to align a minor with his or her sexual identity, negating parental consent in that area.
Last year they had six or seven “bathroom bills” that came through the House and Senate although Ayotte vetoed them all and said early in the session she would do that.
The Libertarian/Republicans also did their best to suppress voter turnout by requiring a voter to prove his or her citizenship either through a birth certificate or passport. That makes it difficult for married women who changed their last name and for naturalized citizens to meet the requirement.
They also prohibited students from using their student ID to prove their identity to vote, and eliminated voter affidavits for those without a photo ID.
The federal and state courts stepped in to knock down the most disenfranchising actions taken to prevent what is a minuscule amount of voter fraud.
The Libertarian/Republicans also followed Trump’s lead in ending the office encouraging ocean-based wind power, wrote a state energy plan favoring fossil fuel electricity generation as well as encouraging the use of small nuclear units to power data centers although they have yet to come to market.
They also pushed the state toward digital currency which is really the wild west with little oversight or backing by sovereign currencies.
Osborne and others like Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney pushed legislation to ban sanctuary cities or towns that shield undocumented immigrants, encouraged state and local police to enter 287 agreements with ICE, and the development of an ICE holding center in Merrimack.
And there is the corruption that runs from the state supreme court to the use of PPP loans during the COVID pandemic not to mention the lack of civility by FreeStaters/Libertarians such as Jeremy Kauffman and Rep. Travis Corcoran, who Weare voters returned to the House next term although he was censured this year for his social media posts targeting Democratic lawmakers.
The agenda set by Osborne tracks closely with the one established nationally by Trump and his administration, so to say it’s a national problem that caused New Hampshire voters to generate a Blue Tsunami to oust Republicans does not pass the straight face test.
The Libertarians/Republicans have been fueled by outside money, much of it coming from billionaire oligarchs who believe they are the real rulers of the country. In the midterm election, they spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy their politicians as indentured servants to protect their well being but came up short.
Dark money has flowed into New Hampshire in rivers since the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision with the Koch Foundation’s Americans for Prosperity providing millions as well as the Young Americans for Liberty organization.
That influence waned Nov. 3.when Elon Musk poured about $500 million into the midterm elections and could not push his chosen candidates over the finish line as he has in the past.
Most of the state’s residents do not like the Trump agenda echoed by the Free State Project/Libertarians. That agenda is no more popular than the 2025 project also developed by the same oligarchs who had a plan to build to this point for 50 years.
Libertarian movement shaker and king pen Leonard Leo is not going to give up after spending billions of oligarchs’ money to stack the supreme court, gerrymander US House districts, support their chosen politicians, diminish government’s reach and reduce taxes.
In New Hampshire what is impressive, is how an organization with fewer than 8,000 “movers” has taken over the state’s Republican Party, hollowed out its history, and did much damage to a state that at one time was tolerant, civil and took care of its most vulnerable.
The coalition of people in the Granite State that said “we’ve had enough,” Nov. 3, if it can hold together over the next few years, could make Republicans in New Hampshire the minority party for some time to come.
But Democrats have to accomplish voters’ goals: control property taxes, have affordable housing, groceries, gas, health and child care, good public schools, cooperation among lawmakers and civility.
That is a long and difficult list, but they may have some help maintaining their control.
If Republicans continue to act like they have a God-given right to govern New Hampshire, Democrats will be grateful.
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.