New Hampshire

Even before Trump verdict, most N.H. voters already had their minds made up – The Boston Globe

Published

3 weeks ago

May 31, 2024

Even before Trump verdict, most N.H. voters already had their minds made up – The Boston Globe

“A lot of people are focused on putting food on the table. A lot of people are focused on not getting fired from their job, or keeping their families together,” he said.

So even before the jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts Thursday night, Register was confident: The trial’s outcome alone would be unlikely on its own to change the minds of many voters in New Hampshire, where analysts generally view President Biden as somewhat favored to win, though recent polling suggests he has no more than a slight edge over Trump.

“I think the people that are going to vote for Trump are going to vote for Trump,” Register said Wednesday, after a veterans roundtable hosted by the Biden campaign. “I think independents that are still undecided are going to stay undecided. I think the Democrats need to get out and vote.”

Register said he is among the undeclared voters who comprise a plurality of New Hampshire’s electorate. And, like a majority of the state’s population, he was born elsewhere. Originally from North Carolina, he moved to New Hampshire in 2021 after his military service. He said he used to vote for Republican presidential candidates, but sees Trump as a self-serving threat to American norms and the rule of law. So he’s actively supporting Biden.

Register isn’t alone in his assessment that Granite Staters — who handed Trump a victory over former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the first-in-the-nation GOP primary in January — have mostly made up their minds on who they prefer in the Trump-Biden showdown. And reactions to the verdict reflect that.

“If you’re on Team Trump, this just hardens the resolve,” said Wayne Lesperance, a political science professor and the president of New England College. For those on Team Biden? “It feels good: He’s been held accountable.”

But there is also a middle group, Lesperance said. The group includes some Haley voters who are still wrestling with whether to throw their support behind the presumptive GOP nominee, as Haley has. While this segment may be fairly small, it could have an outsize influence in New Hampshire, he said.

“It’s the only segment that has the potential to move the needle for either Trump or Biden,” he added.

J.P. Marzullo, 80, of Deering, N.H., is somewhere in that middle group. He’s a former vice chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a former state representative. He initially supported former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s bid for presidency, then turned to Haley after Christie dropped out.

Marzullo has mixed feelings about Trump’s conviction. On the one hand, he said the justice system worked and jurors did a good job. On the other, he still wants to know more details about how and why the case played out the way it did.

“Honestly, I’m still kind of sitting there, trying to figure out what I’m going to do,” he said on Friday.

Marzullo said he has lingering questions. He noted that Judge Juan Merchan made donations to Biden in 2020 ($15 to the campaign and $20 to progressive organizations, as NBC News reported). He’s also mulling Fox News commentary about Merchan’s alleged bias against Trump.

“It bothers me a little because I think the justice system worked,” Marzullo said, “but people are going to question those things, and I think rightfully so.”

Marzullo said the verdict will likely split Haley voters, with some backing Trump because they think he was “taken advantage of,” while others remain conflicted.

“I mean, to vote for a felon, for me, is going to be difficult,” he said.

Difficult, but not impossible.

Others contend the verdict will dramatically drive turnout for Trump.

“The American public is smart and they will see through this farce,” said Michael Biundo, a veteran Republican political strategist in New Hampshire who advised Trump’s campaign in 2016 and advised a political action committee that supported Vivek Ramaswamy’s candidacy in 2024. “I think it solidifies his base and moves people that just think that this whole case was done for political reasons. The Democrats have overplayed their hands.”

Recent polling of likely New Hampshire voters found that 37 percent of those who identify with the Republican Party and 14 percent of those who identify as independent said a conviction in this case would make them “much” more likely to vote for Trump, according to the University of New Hampshire Survey Center — but it’s not entirely clear how many of those respondents would cast a vote for Trump anyway. The survey found that 85 percent of likely New Hampshire voters had “definitely decided” who they will support in November.

Bobby Yoho, a construction worker who lives in Alexandria, N.H., said while enjoying a sunny Friday afternoon with his family at the Franklin Falls Dam that Trump’s conviction was “trash.” He called it an abuse of the justice system and said Trump’s other legal challenges are also part of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Yoho, a registered Republican, said he was pleased with how Trump ran the country, noting that costs went down and wages went up. He felt Trump did exactly what he said he would do, and the felony conviction won’t shake his support for the former president.

“It doesn’t change anything for me,” he said.

While many New Hampshire voters may be dead-set in their presidential selections at this point, Dante Scala, a UNH political science professor, said it would be worthwhile to keep an eye on two groups: progressives and independents.

There are progressives upset with Biden over his handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, and Trump’s conviction might provide a basis for Democrats to reinvigorate some of that diminished support, he said. And there are casual independents who aren’t particularly plugged into the political process; the phrase “convicted felon” might make a difference for them.

Scala said it’s also important to remember where the conviction landed in the 2024 political calendar.

“This isn’t an October surprise. It’s a May surprise,” he said. “There’s an awful long time until people actually go to vote, and there’s an awful long time for this to settle in.”

Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter. Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.

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New Hampshire

Nashua Man Pointed Gun At Another Man During Road Rage Incident: Cops

Published

7 hours ago

June 18, 2024

Press Room

Nashua Man Pointed Gun At Another Man During Road Rage Incident: Cops

CONCORD, NH — A man from Nashua is facing a felony gun threat charge after an incident on West Hollis Street Friday.

Police in the Gate City received a report of a possible “road rage incident. A man accused another man of driving in front of him on the street and “aggressively applying the brakes to his vehicle for no reason,” Sgt. John Cinelli, the public information officer and communications division supervisor for the Nashua Police Department, said. The other driver was identified later as Chandler Doucette, 27, of Nashua.

“The victim pulled up next to the suspect vehicle in a parking lot,” he said, “and when he did, Doucette pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the victim.”

Find out what’s happening in Nashuawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Officers took Doucette into custody.

Detectives from the department’s criminal investigations division applied for and were granted a search warrant for Doucette’s vehicle. After executing the search warrant, Cinelli said they found a gun inside the vehicle. Doucette was then charged with criminal threatening with a firearm, a felony. He was released on $300 cash bail and is due in Nashua District Court on July 24.

Find out what’s happening in Nashuawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Nashua Police Department requests anyone with more information about this incident to contact the Crime Line at 603-589-1665.

Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella’s YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the NH politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.

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To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

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New Hampshire

Homeless Sex Offender, Convicted 7 Other Times On Registration Charges, Arrested Again

Published

14 hours ago

June 17, 2024

Press Room

Homeless Sex Offender, Convicted 7 Other Times On Registration Charges, Arrested Again

A detective who handles sex offender registration, on April 19, was told by another Concord police officer, about a homeless sex offender in Concord who had been arrested in Manchester at the Super 8 Motel on Brown Avenue the night before on a Concord warrant. The warrant was against Brian Bilodeau, 64, and police knew him from prior incidents in the capital city, including at least seven other registration convictions in New Hampshire. He was initially convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault in August 1991 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

The officer told the detective, during questioning after waiving his Miranda rights, Bilodeau “admitted that he lied on a previous sex offender registration” when stating he lived on Canton Circle, an affidavit stated. It was “the only address that came to mind,” he was accused of telling the officer. Bilodeau, the report said, had been crashing at various hotels around the state and admitted he “f—– that up” after he was released on bail previously and failed to notify the court of his address.

The detective began canvassing area hotels to see if Bilodeau had been renting rooms when he was a wanted fugitive. He was accused of staying at the Residence Inn on Hall Street in March for more than five days, requiring him to re-register with police. Bilodeau was accused of staying at the Hampton Inn in Bow for more than five days without notifying police. The detective also noted the gmail account and phone number were given to the hotel. At the Super 8 in Manchester, Bilodeau was accused of staying there for more than five days and failed to register with Concord or Manchester police. At the Fairfield Inn on Gulf Street, Bilodeau was also registered there in March for more than five days, an affidavit stated. The Quality Inn in Loudon also had him booked there in early April for more than five days, a report stated.

The detective also requested a search warrant for Facebook after finding an account under his name, an affidavit said. Meta Platforms reported back the account was created in September 2023, was still active, featured Bilodeau’s legal birthdate, and his cell phone number.

A search warrant to Google on the Gmail account stated the account was created on March 7 and had Bilodeau’s cellphone number, too, the report stated.

The cellphone, which was seized by police, matched the number and the Gmail account, the affidavit said.

A search warrant for the cellphone was requested on April 30, and after approval, the Samsung A25 unit was matched to the number and the Gmail account on the hotel rentals and Facebook account, the detective wrote.

“Bilodeau messaged numerous people known to Concord, informing them that he was out of jail and had a new phone number being the one assigned to the device I seized,” the detective wrote.

A warrant for Bilodeau was issued on May 30, for six counts of sex offender registration; fail to comply/knowingly-subsequent and two counts of registration of online identifiers, all felonies. He was arrested on June 3.

According to the Merrimack County Superior Court, he also has active registration-subsequent and bail jumping charges from April 5 out of Concord boundover on April 29 to the superior court. Bilodeau was held on preventive detention and is due back in court on July 15. An active felony duty to report charge out of Concord from November 2023, common nuisance and six acts prohibited charges from July 2023 in Concord, and two sex offender registration charges out of Concord from May 2023 will also be reviewed in July.

The affidavit noted, after being convicted in 1991, Bilodeau was convicted on duty to report in May 2003, July 2008, February 2009, September 2015, December 2019, November 2021, and October 2022.

Bilodeau is a sex offender due to aggravated felonious sexual assault and felonious sexual assault victim under 16 convictions.

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New Hampshire

Wood Partners Enters Rhode Island and New Hampshire

Published

21 hours ago

June 17, 2024

Press Room

Leading multifamily developer breaks ground on two luxury communities in new markets

BOSTON , June 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — National multifamily developer Wood Partners today announced the start of construction on Alta Altitude in Warwick, Rhode Island, and Alta Oak & Pine in Londonderry, New Hampshire, marking its entry into both states. These multifamily communities will bring more than 475 units of much needed housing to these markets that have seen a shortage of new development.

“We are consistently looking to develop in key growth markets that offer convenient transportation, access to a highly educated workforce and provide an unmatched residential experience,” said Mark Seck, Vice President for Wood Partners’ Boston office. “We are excited to add Rhode Island and New Hampshire to our rapidly growing portfolio of well-located, luxury multifamily communities.”

Wood Partners’ Alta brand features Class-A apartment living with premier amenities and unparalleled design. Residents can expect stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops and upscale finishes.

Alta Altitude in Rhode Island is designed as two four-story buildings containing 214 apartment homes with an expansive courtyard. The apartments are located within the City of Warwick’s “City Centre,” a 95-acre Master Plan that calls for more than 1.5 million square feet of office, retail, hotel, commercial and residential. Highly walkable, Alta Altitude is conveniently located just off Interstate 95 and adjacent to T.F. Green International Airport and the T.F. Green MBTA Train Station. Amenities at Alta Altitude will include a state-of-the-art fitness center, resident lounges, gaming and entertainment and a beautifully landscaped courtyard with resort style swimming pool, fire pits and grilling areas. The community broke ground in May 2024 and is expected to deliver first units in Summer 2025.

Alta Oak & Pine in New Hampshire comprises 11 three-story residential buildings and a stand-alone amenity building. The 264 units will be a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom floorplans. Located just off Interstate 93, the 11-acre site is part of the Woodmont Commons master development, which is approved for more than 1 million square feet of office, retail and residential. Premier amenities include a state-of-the-art fitness space, work-from-home lounge, game area, swimming pool, large greenspace, dog park and pet spa, and outdoor grilling, firepits and lounging areas. The community broke ground in May 2024 and is expected to deliver first units in Spring 2025.

For more information on Wood Partners and its communities, visit woodpartners.com.

About Wood Partners
Wood Partners is a national leader in the development, construction, and management of multifamily communities across the United States. The company has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than 100,000 multifamily homes with a combined capitalization of $21 billion. The company currently owns 80+ properties across the United States representing more than 25,000 units. Headquartered in Atlanta, Wood Partners has offices in 19 major markets covering development across 18 states nationwide. Wood Partners is consistently ranked as one of the five largest multifamily developers in the United States. For more information, visit woodpartners.com.

Media Contact:

Addy Kundla

The Wilbert Group

[email protected]

SOURCE Wood Partners

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