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New Hampshire

At the Democratic National Convention, breakfast isn’t just bacon and eggs – The Boston Globe

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At the Democratic National Convention, breakfast isn’t just bacon and eggs – The Boston Globe


At the national party conventions, state delegation breakfasts are in part organizational events, where weary state party staffers hand out credentials and preview the day’s schedule, not unlike camp counselors rallying their adult wards for the day. But the gatherings also offer revealing glimpses at political up-and-comers, who spend their early-morning hours with the party faithful they will need to secure higher office down the line. Their remarks are typically brief — sometimes funny, sometimes heartfelt, always laudatory of the state they’re addressing. For strong speakers, they end in standing ovations.

Savvy politicos make the rounds, moving with discipline from hotel ballroom to hotel ballroom and often hitting multiple breakfasts per day. Not all 50 are created equal: The A-list speakers pay particular attention to battlegrounds, influential delegations, and, of course, the early nominating states that could decide their fates should they pursue the presidency.

That elite status was clear this week for humble New Hampshire, with a breakfast speaker line up that included many of the party’s buzziest names. Vermont’s breakfast may have had maple syrup shots, but its New England neighbor heard from a who’s who of the party’s up and comers, including some who have run for president before or are looking to in the future, and some who were under consideration to serve as Harris’s running mate. Delegates enjoyed bacon, eggs, and potatoes as speakers addressed them from a podium flanked by inflatable coconut trees, an apparent tribute to the now-famous Harris line.

Not every state got the same attention. Shapiro was on the schedule to speak to a Massachusetts breakfast on Thursday, but did not appear. He did not miss his appointment with the New Hampshire delegation Wednesday morning, though.

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The status of the state’s first-in-the-nation primary is uncertain on the Democratic side, after the national party pushed it later in the nominating calendar and New Hampshire rebelled. But the early contest, and the outsize power it gives this state of just 1.4 million people, was nonetheless at the center of the conversation.

“Speaking of New Hampshire, the primary is back!” laughed retiring New Hampshire Congresswoman Annie Kuster as she introduced Booker to the delegation on Thursday morning.

“I’m like, it’s home,” Booker said as he took the podium to applause. “I just love your state. I spent so much time there — I don’t know if you all know this, I ran for president in 2020.”

Ten minutes later, the crowd was on its feet applauding him, and state party chair Raymond Buckley had to chastise attendees for lining up for selfies and delaying the rest of the stacked program.

“You know, Cory Booker’s been to New Hampshire about 455 times, and he’s coming back,” Buckley chided.

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For some of the state’s youngest delegates, access to the party’s future stars has been a highlight of the convention.

“Who’s gonna be there in ‘28, and who’s gonna be there in ‘32, and how many meals have we already had with them?” laughed Samay Sahu, a 20-year-old Dartmouth student. “Have I met them already? Have we taken a selfie?”

New Hampshire is “small” but “mighty,” Sahu added, crediting the primary for its political power.

Khanna, the California congressman seen as having presidential ambitions, attended more than a dozen state delegation breakfasts this week. A prominent poster near the New Hampshire delegation’s breakfast buffet thanked its sponsors; Khanna was at the top, and he was one of the few sponsors who did not live in the Granite State.

“I have gone to Michigan, to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,” Khanna told reporters on Tuesday, naming a slate of battleground states as he spoke about the importance of introducing delegates to “the next generation of talent.”

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“It’s about getting the right economic message for the party and figuring out what the right message is to win in the fall and going and talking to delegates, talking to people across the breakfasts, helps you figure that out,” he said.

And does the ambitious congressman have particular affection for the first-in-the-nation primary state?

“I love New Hampshire because it’s a state that values ideas. It’s a state that values retail politics,” Khanna said. He added that he has long been a supporter of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, “and I’m pretty confident that it’ll have a big role going forward.”

Paying extra attention to states such as New Hampshire is nothing new in national politics. It was a similar scene at the Republican National Convention last month in Milwaukee, where onetime presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy sponsored a breakfast for the state, his smiling face featured on posters outside the room. The state’s Republican delegation heard from Ramaswamy and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Bill Shaheen, husband of Senator Jeanne Shaheen and DNC committeeman for New Hampshire, said in an interview after breakfast Thursday that his state “has a tradition of being involved and being active, and I think we can help give these people who want to run for president guidance.”

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Sahu, who introduced Boston Mayor Michelle Wu when she addressed the New Hampshire breakfast earlier this week, said he was “bawling” when they heard from Buttigieg, whom he reveres.

“The thing is, even though we’re seeing them, and I get to be, what, two feet away from Wes Moore, it’s almost not that big of a deal,” Sahu added. “Because he’s gonna come back to New Hampshire.”


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Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.





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New Hampshire

FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums

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FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums


NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A pilot was taken to the hospital with injuries Wednesday after a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in southern New Hampshire, authorities said.

Emergency crews found the aircraft upside down in a snow bank in the parking lot of a wooded condominium complex in Nashua Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the pilot was the only person on board and was the only person injured. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

The Velocity V-Twin plane crashed at the Cannongate Condominiums shortly after departing from the nearby Nashua Airport around 2:10 p.m. local time, according to the FAA.

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Aerial video from NBC10 Boston showed damage to the roof of one of the condos near the crash site.



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Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire

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Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire


NEW YORK (Gray Media) – Thursday night Law enforcement officials confirmed the suspect in last Saturday’s shooting at Brown University was found dead. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man suspected of killing two Brown students and injuring nine, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, NH. Officials believe the 48-year-old former Brown student was also connected to the killing of an MIT professor earlier this week.

Neves Valente was a student in the early 2000s at Brown and a fellow student of Dr. Nuno Loureiro, the MIT professor. His motive was unknown, but university officials said he likely spent a lot of time in the building where he carried out the attack.

A six-day manhunt led law enforcement to a storage unit where they found Neves Valente, who came to the U.S. from Portugal originally on a student visa, eventually receiving a green card to stay in the country. Rhode Island’s Attorney General Peter Neronha said tips from the public were crucial in finally identifying the suspect.

“When you do crack it, you crack it. And that person led us to the car. Which led us to the name. Which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence,” said Neronha.

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In response to the tragedy and ensuing investigation, President Donald Trump paused the diversity visa lottery program the suspect used to get a green card. Some 50,000 visas per year are granted to students from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.



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Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe

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Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe


The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has closed a complaint after finding that Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill did not engage in illegal electioneering.

At issue were a series of emails Liot Hill, a Lebanon Democrat, had sent from her official government account to help the partisan Elias Law Group connect with voters impacted by a new state voting law.

Republican lawmakers said that was an inappropriate use of official resources, threatening to impeach Liot Hill over her correspondence. James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, reported his concerns to the Attorney General’s Office in August.

In August, the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats and progressive causes, represented three visually-impaired plaintiffs who sued New Hampshire officials over the constitutionality of a new law that would tighten photo ID requirements for voters seeking an absentee ballot. That case was recently dismissed by a New Hampshire Superior Court judge.

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This week, the Attorney General’s Election Law Unit released its determination that Liot Hill’s emails did not constitute illegal electioneering, in a Dec. 18 letter to MacEachern.

The Election Law Unit said it reviewed five emails from Liot Hill’s official government account that MacEachern had provided.

It found the content of the emails did not meet the state’s definition of electioneering, “because it does not relate in any way to ‘the vote of a voter on any question or office,’ i.e., something to be voted on at an election,” Brendan A. O’Donnell, senior assistant attorney general in the Election Law Unit, said in the letter.

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“Moreover, it is not uncommon for elected officials to use their official capacity to take a position on the constitutionality of an enacted law that is being challenged in court,” O’Donnell said.

However, the letter noted that Liot Hill’s emails did raise the risk that its recipients — including two executive branch officials — could interpret her requests for help as commands.

“All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety,” said O’Donnell.

But, he continued, his office did not find in this case that there had been a misuse of position or that the emails otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code.

MacEachern said he still has concerns about Liot Hill, when reached for comment on the Election Law Unit’s findings.

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“This report, among others, continues to raise serious questions about Councilor Liot-Hill’s judgement and brazen willingness to push ethical boundaries with her conduct,” he said in an email.

But Liot Hill said the findings “underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks” against her, including the impeachment proceedings Republicans have failed against her.

“I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat,” she said in an email.


Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.





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