LIKE MANY successful politicians, former President Donald Trump isn’t necessarily superstitious, but he is partial to venues that stir fond memories.
That’s why he picked the Atkinson Country Club on Tuesday night to kick off his final week of campaigning in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state, the night after Iowans go to caucus.
As large rooms go, this place is relatively intimate, but Trump had three different events there during his first White House run in 2015-16.
Aware that this venue can’t hold the numbers who want to see Trump in person, the campaign confirmed at least two more rallies, one next Saturday at Southern New Hampshire University Arena in Manchester and next Sunday at the Rochester Opera House.
Trump chose the SNHU Arena as the site of his New Hampshire rally on Nov. 7, 2016, the eve of his election victory.
Trump returned there in August 2019, to give a speech in which he insisted that, despite a slumping stock market, the economy was in full recovery.
Only seven months later, COVID-19 would decimate that outlook for America.
The small Rochester Opera House has its own good juju. It was the site of an overflow Bernie Sanders rally three days before he narrowly won his second New Hampshire primary in February 2020.
Still preferable to Biden
Gov. Chris Sununu said that if Trump becomes the nominee, he’ll vote for him this November — even if he is convicted in the interim.
“I am going to support the Republican nominee, absolutely,” Sununu told CNN Wednesday.
“That shouldn’t shock anybody. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that the Republican governor, and most of America, is going to end up going against (President Joe) Biden, because they need to see a change in this country.”
Later, he said, “Make no mistake about it: Biden is that bad a president that even Trump would win.”
In other interviews, Sununu dismissed the question as a “wild hypothetical.”
Right to Work returns
The fight over whether to end compulsory membership or dues-paying to labor unions (HB 1377) returned to the State House, but without the intensity of previous years.
The bill has nine House Republicans, led by first-term Rep. and sponsor Yuri Polozov of Hooksett, along with Deputy Majority Leader Jim Kofalt, R-Windham.
Supporters insist that if New Hampshire were to be the first state in the Northeast to adopt right to work, it would be an economic engine, attracting employers to locate here.
Only 29 supporters signed up online for the bill, and 899 registered opposition to it.
Labor leaders across the spectrum turned out to testify in person, as did Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington of Concord.
“The proposed legislation, which is veiled as ‘maximizing individual freedom of choice,’ would actually decrease wages, increase unsafe working conditions, and reduce benefits for working people across our state. We cannot be fooled by false slogans,” Warmington said.
House GOP leaders in support know that given their numbers, it’s unlikely 2024 will be the year they end more than 20 years of opposition to the idea.
In June 2021, the House had larger GOP numbers and still voted, 196-178, to not just kill the bill but indefinitely postpone the topic, which kept it out of the Legislature until the 2023-2024 biennium.
Labor leaders have lost one of their most dependable House GOP opponents of right to work, ex-Rep. Troy Merner of Carroll, who is a retired union ironworker. Merner resigned in September and later was charged with felony wrongful voting in Lancaster and other misdemeanors relating to allegations that he collected excess mileage to and from the State House in 2023.
So right to work backers return in an election year with this proposal and a companion bill in the State Senate.
At the very least, supporters want to make this an issue they can use to help defeat GOP right-to-work opponents in primaries or Democrats running in swing districts in the fall.
Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, is on the Senate bill SB 516 with seven GOP colleagues, led by Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown.
The Senate narrowly passed the measure, 13-11, in 2021.
Union nod for Craig
Democratic candidate for governor and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig continues to roll up union endorsements. The latest is by the Sheet Metal Workers Local 17, which represents 2,700 workers in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.
“Leadership that understands the needs of hard-working union members is exactly what we need in the corner office and that’s why we are thrilled to endorse Joyce Craig for Governor,” said Mike Sheehan, council representative of the union’s Northeast Regional Council.
This becomes the eighth labor organization to back Craig’s candidacy.
Dems target Ayotte backer
Twenty more past and present state lawmakers got behind former U.S. Sen. and GOP candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte last week.
“I’m supporting Kelly to be our next governor because I know that she’ll stand by our law enforcement and will work with us to make sure they have the resources to protect our state,” said Rep. Jennifer Rhodes, vice chair of the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
This brings the total number of past and present lawmakers backing Ayotte against former state Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, to 65.
National Democrats were focused on only one name on the list — House Finance Committee Chairman Ken Weyler, R-Kingston.
The Democratic Governors Association pointed out that Sununu had called for Weyler to be stripped of his chairmanship in October 2021 after he spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines.
House Speaker Sherman Packard returned Weyler to his chairmanship after the 2022 elections.
“After Granite Staters rejected Kelly Ayotte in 2016, she’s returned with a new strategy: embracing extremists and courting conspiracy theorists rather than focusing on the issues that are front-and-center for New Hampshire’s working families,” said Emma O’Brien, press secretary for DGA States.
Ayotte campaign spokesman John Corbett dismissed the hit.
“This is an old and tired attack from an out-of-state Democrat organization that is spending millions to turn New Hampshire into Massachusetts,” Corbett said.
“Their tactics won’t work because Granite Staters will reject Joyce Craig and Cinde Warmington’s high-tax, high-crime, open border policies.”
Scanlan, Gardner on primarySecretary of State David Scanlan and his former mentor, retired Secretary Bill Gardner, will give an update on the first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday afternoon at 4 at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
During this entire cycle, Gardner has been careful to stay out of the public limelight and let his successor represent the office with a singular, strong voice.
Scanlan said that the two have spoken often over the past two years, at times more about their families and other pursuits (maple sugaring and historic preservation) than on the daily rough-and-tumble of primary politics.
Mandatory time for fentanyl
Sununu and Senate bipartisan leaders got behind a bill to beef up penalties for those possessing sizable amounts of fentanyl.
The measure (SB 415) would create a minimum mandatory prison term of 3½ years for possession of five grams and seven years for anyone caught with 28 grams of the deadly opioid.
“Mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking will make drug dealers think twice about setting up shop in New Hampshire,” said Sens. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, and Gannon.
Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy of Manchester joined Bradley on the bill.
Jeff Odland, of the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the bill as written could catch drug users as well as dealers in a mandatory prison net.
“It makes a one-size-fits all approach to be a difficult and unmanageable one,” Odland said.
Laconia deal misses deadline
Administrative Services Commissioner Charles Arlinghaus told the Executive Council that the state’s sale of the former Laconia State School property to a Manchester-based development group for $21.5 million would miss a planned deadline of Monday to close the deal.
Arlinghaus insisted that the project remains on track, and he’s hopeful to get all the details done in time for the council’s next meeting on Jan. 31.
HHS fills another spot
Public Health Division Director Patricia Tilley of New London secured her promotion to one of three associate commissioner positions in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Executive Councilor David Wheeler, R-Milford, was the only opponent to the choice, reflecting his long-held opposition to the state vaccine registry managed by Tilley.
She will make about $148,000 a year in her new role, replacing Morissa Henn of Concord, who moved up to become deputy commissioner.
As expected, Sununu nominated Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver of Concord to a full five-year term that would run until Feb. 1, 2028.
She earns nearly $162,000 annually.
Weaver has been filling the unexpired term of former HHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette, who retired from state government in December 2022.
One legend after another
Sununu has nominated quite a replacement to succeed state Sen. Bobby Stephen of Manchester, who stepped down in 2023 after 42 years on the state Boxing and Wrestling Commission.
A Golden Gloves boxer of New Hampshire renown, Stephen worked tirelessly for decades to keep the amateur sport alive in the state.
Sununu has nominated David George of Hampstead, who had his own stellar career as a pro MMA fighter and returned to the ring in 2018 as a three-time cancer survivor.
Rebuilding Guard complex
A Burlington, Vermont, architect will do the $2.5 million design of a new Plymouth Readiness Center for the New Hampshire National Guard.
The new 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art complex will be built on the grounds of the circa-1957 guard armory in town and become the permanent home for the 197th Field Artillery Brigade, which currently is split between armories in Plymouth and Franklin.
The Guard recently began the planning process to find a new home for a readiness center to replace the Manchester Armory.
They still want out
Two conservative House Republicans have returned with proposals for New Hampshire to secede from the U.S.
Rep. Jason Gerhard, R-Northfield, wants to ask voters if they want to amend the Constitution (CACR 20) to have the state leave the Union if the national debt reaches $40 trillion.
Rep. Matthew Santonastaso, R-Jaffrey, seeks to create a study commission (HB 1130) to look at how secession could one day be carried out.
Carla Gericke, president emeritus of New Hampshire’s Free State Project, said it’s a fiscal imperative.
“Not only is this country on the brink of bankruptcy, but we are now, as a nation, ignoring fundamental American principles,” Gericke said.
A similar constitutional amendment was spectacularly defeated, 323-13, in March 2022, and a few of the 13 House Republican supporters lost their primaries later that year.
These latest proposals during hearings Friday drew little interest, with 11 signing up online for the constitutional amendment and 28 against.
Foes included Rep. Laura Telerski, D-Nashua, who chairs the House Democrats political action committee, and Rep. Jim Spillane, R-Deerfield, chairman of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee.
Senate on primary, education
The Senate will be back in session Thursday to deal with issues that include putting the presidential primary into the state Constitution (CACR 22), expanding eligibility to education freedom accounts for students denied a request to transfer (SB 422) and banning no-knock warrants (HB 135).
House Speaker Packard has policy committees spending all this week taking testimony on dozens of bills with a tentative plan to meet in session on Jan. 25.
