By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome

The political climate in New Hampshire took a dark turn this month as lawmakers were in the middle of the last year of the current two-year term.

The second year of any term is always more contentious and antagonistic as the parties ramp up the rhetoric heading into the general election in November.

Each side wants to put the other on record for the perceived hot button issues their polling tells them will drive voter turnout.

But since the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowing billions of dollars of dark money to flow into elections nationally, and here, the stakes are higher because the donors want a return on their investment and decidedly more partisan.

Immigration and how the Trump administration is handling it through its ICE officers who often act more like street thugs than law enforcement, as well as the Iran war have heightened the partisan divide to the point of creating two realities. 

And politically driven violence is on the upswing with no reason to think New Hampshire would escape.

Long gone are the days of the old New Hampshire Hotel where many lawmakers stayed rather than trek home through the notches in bad weather or to the geographically isolated Monadnock region or to the Seacoast with a few too many manhattans under your belt.

As the old timers used to say, they could fight like hell on the House floor and then share dinner, a cigar and drinks in the dining room of the hotel making lifelong friends on both sides of the aisle.

Now there are death threats over tax policy.

Attorney and longtime education funding reform advocate, Andru Volinsky and others proposed the 3 3 program to reduce property taxes for 80 percent of the state’s property owners by instituting a 3 percent income tax and $3 per $1,000 of valuation statewide property tax.

The plan also came with a handy feature that calculates how you would fare under the proposal instead of paying 70 percent of the cost of education with your property taxes.

It did not take long before Gov. Kelly Ayotte chimed in with “No income tax, no sales tax. Not now, not EVER,” followed by the House Minority Leader Alexis Simpson’s press release saying House Democrats do not support an income tax, which is not true for all of them.

And then an X post showed up under Libertarian Party NH which is still controlled by the Free State Project’s former executive director Jeremy Kauffman saying an income tax equated to forced labor and “under libertarian ethical theory, it is perfectly permissible to kill him.”

The Tweet has since been taken down.

But the threats didn’t stop there. In the comments Volinsky’s friend and 1st District Congressional candidate Christian Urrutia defended Volinsky on the string and the reply to him was “leave New Hampshire while it’s safe for you to do so.”
The threats were reported to police and the Attorney General’s Office acknowledged it is aware of them.

While later Simpson put out a press release saying, “This kind of rhetoric is dangerous and unacceptable. Calling for the murder because of political disagreement crosses a clear line. The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire should be ashamed to promote language that encourages violence against elected officials and others in public life,” but never mentioned Volinsky’s name which she did in a press release objecting to his proposal.

Two days later when House Majority Leader Jason Osborne offered a constitutional amendment to outlaw an income tax, she did mention the threats, but again but did not say Volinsky’s name.

Ayotte has yet to say anything about the threats to Volinsky or other threatening social media posts from a Republican representative targeting two female Democratic representatives one Jewish and the other a naturalized citizen from the Philippines.

State Rep. Travis Corcoran, R-Weare, known for his racist and bigoted commentary, wrote the posts.

After Rep. Jessica Grill, D-Manchester, promoted a bipartisan Karaoke Caucus meeting on X, Corcoran posed on X “We need a final solution for theater kids  in politics,” referring to the Nazi’s plan to kill all the Jews in Germany.

The week before on social media he urged the Trump administration official behind the sometimes violent and often illegal arrests and detentions of immigrants, Stephen Miller, to have Rep. Luz Bay, D-Dover, deported.

Those remarks were contested by Simpson who released a statement saying “Posting antisemitic language and references to the Holocaust is reprehensible. Rep. Corcoran’s conduct is unacceptable for anyone, and even more so for a member of the legislature. I condemn this rhetoric. I expect the Speaker to stand against it and take action to address the hate speech coming from his caucus. For far too long, Rep. Corcoran has used antisemitic and racist rhetoric without consequence. The Speaker has allowed this behavior to continue, and addressing Rep. Corcoran’s pattern of hateful comments is long overdue.”

House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, did release a statement responding to Corcoran’s tweets.

“The recent rhetoric shared by Rep. Corcoran is deeply inappropriate and has no place in the New Hampshire House. Any language that invokes violence, hate, or intolerance is unacceptable by any member. Our institution is built on respect and the responsibility to serve all Granite Staters with dignity and professionalism. Conduct that undermines that mission does not reflect our values. Members of the House are expected to uphold the standards of the body and honor the trust placed in them by their constituents.”

Missing along with the governor is the Republican Party of NH and the Democrats’ response was to release a one line statement from party head Ray Buckley to a Boston public radio station.

“We strongly condemn political violence and remain committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect.”

Lot of profiles in courage from the political hierarchy on both sides of the aisle.

Corcoran has a long history of racist, hateful, intolerant and violent spots and comments.

Last year when the state budget went down in the House at the end of the session, Corcoran took credit for its defeat posting on social media his “No” vote and saying it killed the budget, noting he had been fighting for five months to have the state defund the Department of Health and Human Services Refugee Resettlement Program.

“No more using tax dollars to import third worlders to NH, then giving them money and free housing,” he wrote.

Corcoran was the prime sponsor of House Bill 635, which would tax non-profit entities who settle illegal immigrants as for-profit entities and have the Revenue Administration award bounties to anyone who report non-profits settling illegal immigrants.

The refugee resettlement program is run in conjunction with International Institute of New England and Ascentria Care Alliance, both non-profits.

Later on X he wrote he would be switching his vote because  “I have been told that there will be MASSIVE leadership support to defund NH Office of Refugee Resettlement if I change my vote. I trust leadership.”
After the vote, Corcoran posted “we’ve got leadership saying they’re all going to cosponsor a bill to defund NH DHHS Refugee Resettlement in November.”

That bill, House Bill 1706, “Repealing the refugee resettlement program in the department of health and human services and prohibiting expenditure of state funds on refugee resettlement,” was sponsored by Corcoran and co-sponsors include Osborne and committee chairs Joe Alexander of Goffstown, Ross Berry of Weare, Kristin Noble of Bedford and James Spillaine of Deerfield.

It came out of committee with a 10-8 vote down party lines for passage and passed the House last week on a 170-164 vote and is now in the Senate.

At one time, government’s job was to help the most vulnerable among us, but that is not the case any more as you look at the bills that passed the House in just two days last week to undermine public education, education in general and local government, harm workers and transgender individuals, end the refugee resettlement program, and allow greater use of deadly force.

And there are death threats and forced deportation in the mix in a very troubling time in this country and particularly in New Hampshire where the vision of the elected leaders follow the tenets of the Free State/Libertarians who are controlling the agenda.

At an after conference party for the Free State’s Liberty Forum last weekend Kauffman announced a new club with the backing of a very wealthy individual is being formed to promote the ideas and tenets of the group and among those he announced were already on board were Osborne and Corcoran.

That is not reassuring.

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 in New London.