New Hampshire

Manchin’s New Hampshire trip will leave Democrats shivering | CNN Politics

Published

1 year ago

July 17, 2023

Manchin’s New Hampshire trip will leave Democrats shivering | CNN Politics

CNN
—

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin will be back driving Democrats to distraction Monday by appearing in New Hampshire with a group whose exploration of a third-party presidential ticket is stoking fears they could hand the White House to Donald Trump.

The moderate Democratic senator will take part in a town hall hosted by the group No Labels to help launch a new “common sense” platform on immigration, health care, gun control, the economy and other issues that it believes are being ignored by what it views as two ideological and increasingly extreme main parties.

Manchin – who’s facing reelection to the Senate next year but has not yet said whether he’ll run – will be in his familiar political sweet spot, staking out ground to the right of his party and attracting a political spotlight he uses to maximize his influence. Last year, for instance, Manchin’s initial refusal to back a massive climate, tax and social safety net planned forced President Joe Biden to scale back and renegotiate a huge piece of his domestic agenda.

The West Virginia Democrat’s model has served him well with repeated statewide wins in one of the most conservative pro-Trump states in the nation. But he has Democrats doubly nervous – about how any presidential bid could roil Biden’s reelection and how a decision not to seek reelection himself would hand Republicans a Senate seat in 2024.

Manchin told CNN’s Manu Raju last week that his appearance in the Granite State has nothing to do with any third-party presidential run but is merely about advancing a “dialogue for common sense.” But the senator – who has built a power base by keeping people guessing – added, “I’ve never ruled out anything or ruled in anything,” and he dodged a question about whether an independent ticket could hurt Biden in November 2024.

No Labels says it is considering a third-party unity ticket with one Republican and one Democrat in November 2024 and will make a final decision next year based on whether its “insurance plan” has a viable chance of victory.

For now, Manchin’s noncommittal answers are worrying some of his Democratic colleagues. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who represents a swing state Biden won by a sliver of just over 10,000 votes in 2020, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he has raised the issue of potential third-party candidacies with Manchin.

“I don’t think No Labels is a political party,” Kelly said. “I mean, this is a few individuals putting dark money behind an organization. And that’s not what our democracy should be about. It should not be about a few rich people,” Kelly said. “I’m obviously concerned about what’s going on here in Arizona and across the country.”

CNN has reached out to No Labels, a registered non-profit that does not disclose its donors. The group has blasted previous efforts to dispute its right to participate in the political process as undemocratic.

Democrats are also concerned about a planned third-party run by former Harvard professor and public intellectual Cornel West, who supported independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns. Even if West were to take just a few thousand votes from Biden – for instance, in the key swing state of Georgia – he could still compromise the president’s hopes of victory.

But West, who is running for the Green Party’s nomination, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday that it was “simply not true” that he could tip the election to Trump, should the ex-president become the GOP nominee. And he accused Democrats of failing to speak up for poor and working people and warned Biden was “leading us toward a Third World War,” in an apparent reference to US support for Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.

Doubts about the current 80-year-old president are also fodder for Robert Kennedy Jr.’s bid for the Democratic nomination. He has a history of repeating unfounded conspiracy theories about child vaccines or that man-made chemicals could be making children gay or transgender. Kennedy this weekend became embroiled in new controversy after falsely stating that “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people are “most immune” to Covid-19.

Growing speculation about a potential third-party challenge in 2024 – despite the futile history of most previous such efforts – is being fueled by public dissatisfaction with the options. Polls show that both Biden and Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, are unpopular. In fact, a rematch between the two is the one race many voters don’t want to see. Anger at the political establishments in both parties – a defining factor of the politics of the first 20 years of the 21st century – is one reason why some political experts believe that there may be substantial running room for a third-party ticket this cycle, even if the obstacles for success are immense.

The fresh intrigue over the 2024 election also comes as the pace of the campaign heats up. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has failed to meet expectations so far as the main GOP challenger to Trump, polling in second in most national polls but still well behind the former president. DeSantis is showing the classic signs of a pivot. His campaign has shed staffers (a spokesman told CNN the number was fewer than 10), and he’s venturing out of his safe zone of only engaging conservative media. On Tuesday, he will join CNN’s Jake Tapper for an exclusive interview after a campaign event in South Carolina.

But Trump is upping his efforts to knock his former protege out of the race, even as he deals with the overhang of two criminal indictments. The ex-president claimed on Saturday he was “totally dominating” DeSantis in Florida polls and it was time for his rival to “get home.” Trump’s fundraising lead is cementing his front-runner status following new campaign finance data. An impressive $72 million haul by Biden and the Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, is not yet assuaging all of the Democratic concerns about the president’s reelection prospects.

No Labels is laying out its platform in a new “Common Sense” booklet that Manchin and Utah’s former Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman will promote in a town hall at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. The platform contains multiple ideas splitting the difference between the Democratic and Republican position on key issues with bipartisan stances anchored to the political center ground.

On immigration, for instance, the group calls for tighter border controls, a reform of asylum procedures and a path to citizenship for Dreamers, or undocumented migrants brought to the United States as children. On guns, the group wants to uphold the right to bear arms but calls for dangerous weapons to be kept out of the hands of “dangerous people,” including with universal background checks and by closing loopholes that make it easier to buy weapons at gun shows. No Labels also wants better community policing and crackdowns on crime.

Given the gridlock, anger and dysfunction in Washington, it’s hard to argue that the current political system is working. But many of these solutions are familiar, having been tried by presidents in either party or groups of cross-party senators. Their failure to make it into law both encapsulates the rationale behind a third-party bid to smash Washington’s political deadlock, but also explains the institutional and political barriers to an independent president ever being elected or effective.

“We think there is an opening today, and if it looks like this a year from now, there could be an opening,” said Ryan Clancy, the chief strategist for No Labels, in an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish in May. “To nominate a ticket, we’ve got to clear two pretty high bars, which is the major party nominees need to continue to be really unpopular, but a unity ticket needs to have an outright path to victory.”

No Labels says it would draw supporters equally from Republicans and Democrats and argues that previous third-party candidacies – for instance, by Green Party nominee Jill Stein, consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson – were unsuccessful because voters didn’t believe they could win. (Some Democrats accused Nader in 2000 and Stein in 2016 of siphoning away votes from Democratic nominees Al Gore and Hillary Clinton and opening the way for the GOP to claim the White House).

The center-left think tank Third Way is warning that a No Labels candidate could be especially dangerous for Biden in the key states that will decide the election. It is highlighting research showing that in 2020, Biden won six of seven states where the margin of victory was three points or less. It argues, therefore, that 79 electoral votes are potentially at risk for Biden from the involvement of a third-party challenger.

Such a challenger would also need to win states where Biden won big, and at least some conservative bastions. And given that Trump’s deeply loyal voters are unlikely to desert him, a third-party candidate seems more likely to pull from the same pool of anti-Trump Republicans and moderate and independent voters Biden is targeting with a campaign rooted in his warnings against the threat to democracy from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” populism.

An analysis by CNN’s Harry Enten shows that voters who don’t have a favorable view of either Biden or Trump are more likely to side with the current president in the end. In an average of the past three Quinnipiac University polls, Biden leads Trump by 7 points among those who don’t have a favorable view of either man. A third name on the ballot could complicate this equation.

There is also the question of whether No Labels – with its condemnation of “two major political parties dominated by angry and extremist voices driven by ideology and identity politics” – is drawing a false equivalency between Republicans and Democrats. Trump, for example, sought to overturn a democratic election in 2020 to stay in power, while Biden has enacted rare bipartisan legislation including over gun safety and infrastructure.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is hoping to thwart Trump’s bid for a third consecutive GOP nomination, warned Sunday that a third-party candidacy could play directly into the former president’s hands. “There are only two people who will get elected president of the United States in November of ’24 – the Republican nominee for president and the Democratic nominee for president,” Christie said on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“They think they know who they (are) going to hurt. They want to hurt Donald Trump if he’s the nominee. But. … you never quite know who you’re going to hurt in that process.”

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New Hampshire

New red flag warning posted for Saturday for much of southern New Hampshire

Published

3 hours ago

November 15, 2024

Press Room

New red flag warning posted for Saturday for much of southern New Hampshire

A red flag warning is now issued to start Saturday for southern New Hampshire, after a previous warning was posted for the same part of the state Friday. Despite the temporary break overnight, fire departments statewide are still keeping warnings active for residents to stay away from lighting flames outdoors.

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New Hampshire

As EFA program grows, Democrats push for more oversight • New Hampshire Bulletin

Published

14 hours ago

November 15, 2024

Press Room

As EFA program grows, Democrats push for more oversight • New Hampshire Bulletin

New Hampshire’s education freedom account program grew by 12 percent over the past year, the Department of Education announced Thursday. But as Republican lawmakers seek to expand the program and potentially remove all income limits, Democrats continue to raise concerns over the use of funds in the program.

At a hearing for the program’s legislative oversight committee Tuesday, Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, argued that more data is needed to demonstrate that students who are taking EFAs are doing better than they would have in public schools – particularly those in religious schools.

“We do not have aggregate information as to how the students in the program are performing using accepted statewide academic assessments or measured progress toward mastering any competencies that are considered part of an adequate education,” Altschiller said.

She added: “You know, we have schools that are not teaching to the standards of some very, very highly respected private, independent schools. They’re not all teaching to the same standards.”

Created in 2021, the education freedom account program allows parents in families making up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level – $109,200 for families of four – to use per-pupil state education funding toward private school and home-schooling costs such as tuition.

The program follows the state’s adequacy formula to determine how much each student receives: Families get a minimum of $4,182 per year per student, but can get more for students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, who are English language learners, or who require special education services.

In the 2024-2025 school year, the program’s fourth year, 5,321 students joined the program, according to the department. About 37 percent of those students – 1,974 – came from families making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $57,720 for a family of four.

In total, the program is using $27.7 million of funds from the Education Trust Fund this school year, with an average payout per student of $5,204. That’s a 25 percent increase over last year’s spend of $22.1 million. So far, that spending makes up 2.2 percent of the total $1.2 billion estimated to fill the Education Trust Fund this year.

The program grew at a slower rate last year than in past years, such as 2023 to 2024, when the number of students participating increased 39 percent. The change then was partly structural: In 2023, Republican lawmakers raised the income cap from 300 percent of the federal poverty level to 350 percent.

But while the program takes up 2.2 percent of the trust fund now, that portion will likely grow if lawmakers vote to remove all income caps and make the program universal. Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte said she would support that move in her campaign for governor, and top House lawmakers have also indicated interest.

Republicans and other supporters of the program say it provides helpful state support for families who are not interested in the public education system, or who have tried the public school system and had trouble such as bullying or difficulty acquiring special education services. And they argue making the program universal eliminates the “cliff effect” faced by families who make slightly too much money to qualify for a given cap.

But Democrats argue the state should not be sending public funds to assist with private school expenses and that the money would be better spent on increased state aid to public schools. Making the program universal would allow wealthy families who already pay to put their children in private school the ability to use state funds that could go to public education, they argue.

And the parties have quarreled over how to oversee the program. On Tuesday, members of the Education Freedom Savings Account Oversight Committee met to finalize their annual report looking into how many students are using the accounts and how much the program is spending.

Altschiller argued the committee’s final report presents a rosy picture of success for the families that are taking the EFAs without the necessary data to confirm academic improvement. “We have individual anecdotal reports from a minority of parents who took their children out of the public school system and then put them into a religious school environment, and we have no data on that.”

Republicans on the committee countered that while the state does require standardized testing for students in grades three through eight and 11, the committee could not see how those scores follow EFA students without violating privacy.

Rep. Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican and the chairman of the House Education Committee, said the survey responses from parents who have received EFAs are sufficient feedback to know that the program is working for them.

“We’re making decisions based upon social conditions,” he said. “We’re making [decisions] based upon parent information. We’re making decisions that are based upon what is seen in terms of progress, subjectively.”

Sen. Ruth Ward, a Republican of Stoddard and the chair of the oversight committee, agreed.

“I think that what you are proposing is for each individual child that uses EFA, we have to set up a special program finding out how they are taught and what they are learning,” she said to Altschiller. “And I think based on anecdotal evidence, I think what we have heard is that parents are making the choice, and most of the parents who have gone to a different school are happy about the change.”

Altschiller disagreed: “They have the freedom to educate the way they want to,” she said of private schools. “The difference is that now we’re paying for it and we can’t. We have no say. We have no oversight. We don’t even have a look at it.”

Altschiller also wanted the final report to clearly note the number of students who attended public school before receiving EFAs. According to Thursday’s department data, 36 percent of all EFA students left their public school; 64 percent came from families who already were home schooling or sending their children to private school before getting an EFA.

Democrats argue that ratio undermines how the program was presented by Republicans when it passed: as a way for students to have an alternative option if the public school they attended was not right for them.

Republicans say families should still receive the funding even if their children never attended a public school because the EFA will help them to continue to afford that choice.

The hours-long meeting ended with heated words; Altschiller eventually said she would write her objections and clarifications in a minority report attached to the official document.

Meanwhile, after claiming larger majorities in the Nov. 5 election, Republican state lawmakers are gearing up for a budget season next year in which they attempt to make universal education freedom accounts a reality.

House Deputy Majority Leader Jim Kofalt said he expected most House Republicans to be behind that measure – even amid some concerns about ongoing costs to the state.

“I certainly think we could expand it,” he said in an interview shortly after the election.

In May, the Republican-led Senate rejected an effort by the House to raise the cap from 350 percent to 500 percent, arguing that was too high an increase and proposing a jump to 400 percent instead. The House rejected the counter-offer and the bill failed.

Kofalt said next year, House Republicans would start out with an attempt to remove all income limits, and failing that, revert to 500 percent.

“I wouldn’t say we’ll get every Republican, but I think we will get a pretty solid majority of the caucus. So can we pass universal? I don’t know. Possibly.”

In a statement accompanying this year’s numbers, Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut expressed his support for the program.

“It is clear that there is a growing demand for more schooling options in the Granite State,” Edelblut said.

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New Hampshire

Concord Man Tussled With Officers While Intoxicated Downtown: Report

Published

24 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Press Room

Concord Man Tussled With Officers While Intoxicated Downtown: Report

CONCORD, NH — A felon from Concord was arrested on Tuesday morning after being accused of public drunkenness and passing out on the ground of a downtown street and sidewalk.

An officer traveling in the area of 61 S. Main St. around 12:45 a.m. saw a man face down on the ground halfway on the sidewalk and the street. The officer turned their cruiser around and checked on the man, who was not moving. The officer immediately recognized the man as Michael Guglielmo, 62, of Rumford Street in Concord, “from prior police contacts,” an affidavit stated. The officer attempted to speak to Guglielmo to confirm it was him and he “slurred that his name was ‘Michael Guglielmo,’” the report stated.

The officer accused Guglielmo of giving off “the strong scent of alcohol” and “attempted to move his head from the ground, but due to being highly intoxicated, he was having issues lifting his body.” The officer said there was a pool of drool and a hat on the sidewalk near where he was on the ground. He believed Guglielmo had lost his balance and had fallen onto the ground, the report stated.

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

When asked where he was coming from and if anyone could get him, Guglielmo could not respond, the report stated. After several minutes, he was able to push himself up, onto his hands and knees, and staggered up onto the sidewalk, the affidavit said. The officer told him to sit down so he would not hurt himself, but instead, Guglielmo used a rock wall for support and was heavily swaying, the report stated. The officer noted he had blood on his forehead, and fire and rescue teams were requested to assist him.

After repeatedly being asked if someone could get him, “Michael was so inebriated that he would just grunt or not respond” and had “a one-thousand-yard stare” as he waited for firefighters, the officer wrote.

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

EMTs cleaned up his forehead wound while the reporting officer attempted to find assistance for him but was unable to.

Due to his highly intoxicated condition, Guglielmo was taken into protective custody, the officer said. The reporting officer asked him to stand up, but he was unable to, they wrote. He was then cuffed and assisted to a police cruiser.

During a search, though, the reporting officer accused Guglielmo of getting “extremely irritated” and “began to yell,” the officer said.

“As I was attempting to finish the search,” the officer wrote, “Michael began to lunge his body at officers.”

Officers, they wrote, had to be pushed against while they attempted to force him into a cruiser. The affidavit said he was warned to stop lunging at them or he would be charged, but instead, Guglielmo lurched at them and attempted to use his feet to prevent a door from being closed after he was placed in the cruiser.

Guglielmo was taken to Concord Hospital and security was requested to meet the officer with a wheelchair, the report said. But he was accused of locking his legs and pushing against the ground when they tried to put him into the wheelchair.

“F— you,” Guglielmo was accused of yelling at officers and hospital security.

The reporting officer said they decided to place Guglielmo back into the police cruiser, but he was accused of fighting officers — although three were able to get him back inside. The reporting officer accused him of smacking his head off the cruiser as he was pushed back in but had no reaction to it.

The reporting officer interviewed one of the security guards to confirm whether Guglielmo kicked them. The security guard said No and believed him to be “too intoxicated to know what was really going on around him.”

Guglielmo was placed later into a bed in restraints and wheeled into the hospital, the report said. After being medically cleared, he was taken to the county jail. Guglielmo was charged with two counts of resisting arrest or detention and pleaded not guilty in Concord District Court. He is due back in court for a trial in March.

Last year, Guglielmo placed third in the Zone A (Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4) Concord board of education seat with 119 votes, after pulling his children out of the SAU 8 school district due to complaints by him and others about a crossdressing elementary school art teacher.

In April, he was arrested on a driving under the influence-second offense charge and an unsafe lane change violation after a crash on South State Street.

Guglielmo is a felon due to attempting to kill his drug dealer and being involved in a shootout with police in Manchester in the 1980s. He served nearly two decades in prison.

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