NH Democrats Outline 2013 Legislative Priorities: VIDEO

Officials will focus on innovation, investment, and job creation.

Ten of the 11 Democrats currently elected to the state Senate held a press conference on Jan. 17 to outline what they hoped to focus on during this year’s legislative session. On the agenda were economic growth initiatives, worker skill improvements and employment opportunities, commerce and export advancement, and infrastructure investments, like broadband and rail. They also made a commitment to approve a balanced budget with “stable, low taxes and targeted investments,” while at the same time would attempt to support businesses with a &dquo;streamlined” tax and a predictable regulatory environment. According to Minority Leader Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, Democrats main focus will be to create and approve “a fiscally responsible balanced …

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NH House Bans Guns [VIDEO]

Rule change stokes emotional debate Jan. 2 on safety and Constitutional rights.

CONCORD, N.H. – The New Hampshire House of Representatives has voted 196-153 to ban guns from the House floor, gallery and anterooms.  The move on Jan. 2 reverses a rule implemented in the previous legislation session, when Republicans enjoyed majority control. On the first work day of the 2013 legislative session, the recent Democratic electoral gains were noteworthy: Democrats, led by House Speaker Terie Norelli (D-Portsmouth) turned back several Republican attempts to scuttle the rule change.  Debate on the rule grew emotional at times as state representatives referenced constitutional rights, the Second Amendment and the deadly school shooting in Newtown, CT. Rep. Lenette Peterson (R-Merrimack) said it is a matter of personal and …

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News Follow-Up

Republicans Call for Laughton to Resign

House Majority Leader Pete Silva says newly elected legislator should have come clean on her criminal history.

House Majority Leader Pete Silva, R-Nashua, is calling on newly elected State Rep. Stacie Laughton, D-Nashua, to resign her post after "not coming clean" with constituents about her past conviction in 2008 for credit card fraud, for which she served four months in Belknap County House of Corrections. That news came over the weekend in a story published by the Laconia Daily Sun. The Daily Sun's Gail Ober, who wrote the story, said that while Laughton's criminal history was well known in Laconia, she was unaware Laughton was running for office in Nashua until after the election results came in. "None of us realized it until two or three days after the election," Ober said. "I also didn't realize he'd legally changed his name to Stacie …

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Biden Draws Supporters in Manchester [VIDEO]

VP rallies Dems at NH Institute of Art in Manchester.

The sun was out, but a cool breeze couldn't chill the flame that ignited hundreds of Barack Obama supporters to stand for hours outside the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester waiting to attend a grassroots rally with Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon. Indeed, the line of supporters – most clad in Obama 2012 buttons, hats, tote bags and other paraphernalia, many holding signs – wrapped around the block as they were slowly guided through tight security and into the building where Biden was appearing with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who was recently named one of Obama's campaign co-chairs. Yet while Beatriz Bearden and other supporters said they didn't mind waiting outside, even with the stiff breeze, to show their …

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Seamus Carty

8:30 am on Friday, February 24, 2012

I'd rather have Joe campaigning than doing anything in DC...   more ›

NH Dems Elect 18 Delegates to National Convention

Local Dems prepare for September's big event in Charlotte, NC, and November's even bigger event at the polls.

More than 500 New Hampshire Democrats arrived in Concord last week to chose delegates to represent them at this year's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, set for the week of Sept. 3.  Of the 18 delegates elected this morning, 13 will be first time delegates to the national convention.   Representing the Second Congressional District – and Nashua – will be Alejandro Urrutia, President of Latinos Unidos de New Hampshire. "We are proud of the strong and enthusiastic turnout we had at today's caucuses supporting President Obama," said Chairman of the NH Democratic Party, Ray Buckley last week. In addition to the 18 delegates elected already, 10 more New Hampshire delegates to the national convention will be selected on April 28…

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