Josh Rogers

Concord State Senator Dan Feltes says he’s strongly considering a run for Governor and will make a final decision by summer’s end.

In a Medium post Feltes sent to potential supporters, he said, “The major roadblock to meaningful, inclusive progress for New Hampshire is one person: Governor Chris Sununu.”

Feltes and Sununu have clashed repeatedly on issues including the state budget, paid family leave, taxes and election law.

Feltes serves as Majority Leader in the State Senate, and before joining the senate he was a legal aid lawyer.

Governor Chris Sununu rallied Republicans on July 4th by playing auctioneer and selling off memorabilia of a veto.

At a time when the governor says he's eager to reach common ground with Democrats on the state budget, his message at a Republican breakfast in Wolfeboro was a departure.

"This is the veto of Senate Bill 1. You guys know what Senate Bill 1 was," Sununu said. 

What Sununu was selling was a copy of his veto message against paid family leave.

Local health care providers facing the loss of federal money beacuse of Trump administration rules on abortion say their patients will be hurt by the state budget impasse.

Top Democratic budget writers say that’s one reason they want a quick resolution with Governor Sununu, who vetoed their budget last week.

Governor Sununu says his current goals for the budget have less to do with how money might get spent than with ensuring the spending levels are sustainable under the state's current tax structure.   

"Pretty much all the funding initiatives I wanted to go forward with, I'm willing to let them take that off the table, that's fine.

But my responsibility is to make sure we don't put ourselves in a financial hole. Their budget would do that." 

Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky is taking a step closer to running for governor.  The Concord Democrat has announced a list of 175 people who are backing his potential campaign.

Volinsky's announcement comes months after he privately emailed political supporters to say that a gubernatorial run was likely.

It also follows a solid fundraising period that left the 63-year-old lawyer with $125,000 in his campaign account.

Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed a two-year state budget crafted and passed by Democrats in the Legislature saying the plan threatens New Hampshre's economic growth. 

New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald faced sharp questions from Democrats during his Executive Council confirmation hearing to become the state's next supreme court Chief Justice.

But he also had strong backing from New Hampshire's legal community. 

Democratic state lawmakers say they'd prefer it didn't happen, but they are preparing for Governor Chris Sununu to veto the next state budget.

House Speaker Steve Shurtleff says he has been talking with Republicans about a continuing resolution to keep government running if the Legislature and the Governor remain at impasse.

"That will be coming up on Thursday, that's something I've worked on with our friends in the Senate as well as Republican leadership in the house."

Retired Brigadier General Don Bolduc is running for U.S. Senate.

Bolduc is the first Republican to challenge incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in her bid for a third term.

Governor Chris Sununu has for days warned of plans to veto the state budget if it includes a rollback of business tax cuts that took effect in January.

But he says more vetoes are coming on other bills prioritized by Democrats, including plans to raise the state minimum wage, tighten gun laws, and loosen or reverse GOP-backed changes to state voting laws.

"Those are just political bills, the ones you just mentioned, and most of those will get vetoed, absolutely. That's just political stuff. I am here to manage the state."

House and Senate budget negotiators are close to an agreement on a two-year state budget. But  business tax cuts remain a sticking point with Governor Sununu.

Negotiators removed a paid family leave program from the budget that Sununu had said would trigger a veto, and reached a deal on education funding that would send $138 million dollars more to districts over the next two years.

The Senate's top budget writer, Lou D'Allesandro, says the spending package, which also boosts medicaid provider rates, works.

House negotiators now back the Senate’s plan to spend $17.5 million to build a 25-bed facility on the grounds of New Hampshire Hospital.

Governor Chris Sununu proposed building a new 60-bed unit in his budget; which the House, citing lack of detail, rejected.

Meanwhile, the Senate agreed with a House plan to move children out of a wing at New Hampshire Hospital, to make room for as many as 48 new beds for adults.

More than 100 New Hampshire lawyers have signed a letter supporting Attorney General Gordon MacDonald's nomination to become the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Their backing comes as scrutiny of MacDonald's record is intensifying.

Budget negotiations are underway in Concord to reconcile differences in the spending plans adopted by the New Hampshire House and Senate.

Budget writers kicked off their negotiation with the Senate agreeing with the House and adding $15 million to revenue estimates. 

Governor Chris Sununu has laid out what he calls his roadmap for common ground on the state budget. And the Republican indicated that he could veto a Democrat-crafted plan if it includes tax increases.

Tim Ryan, who represents Northeastern Ohio in Congress, says Democrats need to understand the priorities of what he repeatedly called "my people."

"If the new center of gravity is Youngstown, Ohio or Akron, Ohio, maybe we can just start to put this thing back together."

The Democratic presidential candidate, speaking at Politics & Eggs at St. Anselm College, said right now the working class is getting what he called the shaft. And that he'd work to boost domestic production of electric cars.

In a questionnaire dated April 15, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald told the Governor's judicial selection commission that judges must always be open to persuasion and reason, and said if confirmed he'd do his best to fill the role with dignity and courtesy.

New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald is handing over leadership of the Department of Justice, while his nomination to the state Supreme Court is pending. 

MacDonald says the move is in the best interest of the public.

In a letter Thursday, MacDonald told Deputy Attorney General Jane Young he is delegating his duties to her until his nomination to lead the state's highest court is resolved. 

Six New Hampshire governors gathered at the State House on Monday. As NHPR's Josh Rogers reports, the Governors were there to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the State House.

Governor Chris Sununu joined his father John H. Sununu, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, Steve Merrill and Craig Benson. All praised the openness of government here and swapped State House memories.

The elder Sununu recalled a visit by President Ronald Reagan. Maggie Hassan remembered passing same-sex marriage legislation. Craig Benson recalled a visit by a sick child.

The Senate Finance Committee adopted a state budget along party lines Friday.  The $13 billion plan increases spending on education and mental heath services.

The budget proposal also includes tax changes opposed by Governor  Chris Sununu.

The Senate's proposed budget would boost funding for local schools by more than $100 million. It would also pay for a new secure psychiatric unit and increase beds for people in mental health crisis.

The New Hampshire House took a major step toward repealing the state's death penalty Thursday morning.

On a 247-123 vote, the House cleared the two-thirds majority necessary to override Gov. Chris Sununu's veto of a death penalty repeal bill.

It’s a busy time of year at the New Hampshire State House, and no lawmaker may be as busy as New Hampshire Senate Majority leader Dan Feltes. 

Democratic Senator Jeanne Dietsch of Peterborough aimed to ease the burden on property poor communities that struggle to pay for education.

Her plan would have extended the 6.2 % withholding on income up to $132,900 for Social Security to wages earned above that,  and directed the money – some $300 million -- towards reducing statewide property taxes.

A state Senate committee has given its approval to establish an independent panel to advise lawmakers on drawing New Hampshire's election districts. The unanimous vote makes it all but certain the plan will reach the desk of Governor Chris Sununu.

This plan would allow lawmakers to vote on redistricting maps and but would keep them out of the process of drawing them.

The New Hampshire state Senate is now busy with next capital budget, and the overtaxed septic system atop the state's most iconic mountain appears to be a pressing issue.

Capital budget writers say the toilets and waste disposal system atop Mount Washington are falling short.

Wolfeboro Republican Jeb Bradley sits on the senate's capital budget committee. He's also hiked Mt. Washington many times.

Bradley says the current septic system is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the many people who summit Mount Washington, on foot, by car or via the Cog Railway.