NH Politics

Gov. Chris Sununu announced Wednesday that he will re-nominate Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to serve as the next Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court.

The New Hampshire Disability Rights Center is suing the state of New Hampshire in federal court over its treatment of foster youth with mental health impairments, alleging that the state is over-institutionalizing them and putting them at “severe risk of dangerous and tragic outcomes.”

New Hampshire’s long-term care facilities have been hit hard by the pandemic. About 80% of the state’s COVID-related deaths have occurred in those facilities. New legislation proposes to study whether the state should appoint an inspector general for nursing homes.

Oversight of nursing homes falls under the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. The federal government also provides oversight.

Republican leaders in the New Hampshire House say they're confident that a drive-in style meeting at the University of New Hampshire will provide a safe place for lawmakers to gather next week. But the proposal has elicited criticism from Democrats, who say it doesn’t provide for the health needs of lawmakers with disabilities or underlying health problems that make then susceptible to COVID-19 infection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired several new bills proposed for the coming legislative session. 

A New Hampshire state senator has tested positive for COVID-19.

Senator Bob Giuda, a Republican from Warren, is resting at home since first showing symptoms of the illness on Saturday, according to a press release from the Senate majority office Tuesday evening.

Republicans in the state legislature will nominate Londonderry Rep. Sherman Packard to be the next Speaker of the House. Packard has been acting speaker in the wake of the COVID-19 death of the newly-elected speaker Dick Hinch.

Sherman Packard has represented Londonderry for 16 terms in Concord. He's been House majority leader and House minority leader.

A legislative rules committee has voted down proposals to ban guns and alcohol in the House chamber.

The GOP-led committee also rejected a push by Democrats to waive deadlines to add a discriminatory speech provision under legislative ethics guidelines.

A Laconia rabbi and the head of the city school board say residents have swamped them with emails and messages demanding a Laconia state representative resign after posting a link on Twitter last week to an article with an anti-Semitic image from a neo-Nazi website.

The race to succeed House Speaker Dick Hinch, who died from COVID-19 last week, is taking shape. Acting Speaker Sherman Packard is running, as are three other Republicans.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to rattle the state's political circles, as one of the top-ranking Republicans in the New Hampshire House announced she had tested positive, and lawmakers and State House staff lined up to be tested for the virus in the wake of House Speaker Dick Hinch’s death from COVID-19.

New Hampshire lawmakers have approved a federal grant aimed at increasing the number of public charter schools in the state and helping existing ones expand.

The grant has been at the center of a fierce partisan debate for a year and was repeatedly blocked by State House Democrats, who cited concerns about the long-term sustainability of publicly-funded charter schools.

Rep. Dick Hinch, who was elected Speaker of the New Hampshire House just one week ago, died from COVID-19.

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan is kicking off her reelection campaign.

Hassan, a Democrat, told WMUR-TV this week she will seek a second term in 2022. In an interview airing Sunday, she said she believes voters sent her to Washington to reach across the aisle, and that she will continue to focus on how to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic.

Wednesday marked another career milestone for New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who sailed without opposition into a 23rd term, upholding his position as the longest-serving Secretary of State in the nation.

A commission lead by Democratic lawmakers to study New Hampshire's mechanism for funding K-12 public schools says the state should drastically change how it directs money to each school district.

State health officials say a recent gathering of Republican members of the incoming New Hampshire House of Representatives has led to several cases of COVID-19.

Incoming state lawmakers will meet outside Wednesday at the University of New Hampshire to elect leaders, an unusual move prompted by spiking coronavirus cases across the state.

The chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party is condemning an effort by a handful of GOP lawmakers to launch impeachment proceedings against Gov. Chris Sununu.

Backers of the probe say Sununu, who ordered a mask mandate last week, has overused his emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic.

President-elect Joe Biden will appoint Jake Sullivan of Portsmouth as his national security advisor.

Sullivan currently serves as a senior fellow and faculty member of the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.

In 2019, he was a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College.

Sullivan previously served in the Obama administration, as then Vice-President Biden’s national security adviser. He also worked as director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Merrimack State Rep. Dick Hinch is a step closer to becoming the next Speaker of the New Hampshire House, after the incoming GOP caucus unanimously backed him to be their leader during a meeting in Manchester.  

Hinch has led House Republicans for six years as Majority leader when the House was last under GOP control, and as Minority Leader when Democrats reclaimed the majority in 2018.

New Hampshire House Democrats have selected Renny Cushing of Hampton to lead their 187-member caucus for the next two years.

Cushing won election to his 8th term earlier this month and is chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee. He’s been a well-known progressive since leading protests against the Seabrook nuclear power plant in the 1970s. And he's worked to abolish the state's death penalty.

Republicans and Democrats in the New Hampshire House of Representatives will choose their parties' leaders this week.

A key early question for those elected will be how to conduct business during the ongoing pandemic. The State House has been largely closed to lawmakers since March.