The year in New Hampshire state reps: A timeline of 2016’s biggest spats and scandals
The country's largest state legislative body had a big year, for better or worse.
New Hampshire’s crowded 400-member lower legislative chamber is the largest state legislative body in the country and the third largest in the world, according to the state’s website.
The state’s relatively small population means that New Hampshirites are the most highly represented of any state, with each house member representing just 3,291 residents, according to 2010 Census data. As former Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said while campaigning in the state: “You guys trip over state reps every four miles.”
During an unpredictable 2016, these state reps were reliable in their ability to spark headlines.
Some more than others.
January 3: NH GOP lawmaker heckles Hillary Clinton over Bill Clinton’s sex scandals
Not a week into the New Year, and a New Hampshire state rep was leading national presidential election stories.
Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien, a Derry Republican, repeatedly interrupted a Hillary Clinton town hall, according to CNN, shouting about former President Bill Clinton’s sexual history, as the candidate tried to take questions from the audience.
After Prudhomme O’Brien continued to stand and shout during the session, Clinton turned and addressed her directly: “You are very rude, and I’m not ever going to call on you.”
January 6: NH House speaker scolds colleagues over their behavior
In a seemingly prescient speech, House Speaker Shawn Jasper pleaded to some of his fellow state representatives to tone it down a bit in public and on social media.
“I know my remarks fall on deaf ears in some cases,” Jasper said. “So I speak to the vast majority to uphold the dignity of this institution, particularly when the eyes of the nation are upon us.”
Though Jasper never explicitly mentioned it, the Union Leader reported the speaker was alluding to crude Facebook comments two Republican state representatives had recently made on a Democratic colleague’s post about a so-called “nipple bill.”
January 15: New Hampshire legislators refuse to sign sexual harassment policy, claim it would violate their free speech
According to emails obtained by Slate, a sexual harassment memo set off a reply-all chain among state representatives worried that the new policy would infringe on their jokes.
“[The policy] would stop all of my speeches,” wrote Rep. John Burt, a Republican from Goffstown. “This is Political Correctness gone wrong.”
February 3: NH GOP rep: Giving public assistance to Muslims is ‘treason’!
In written testimony obtained by Talking Points Memo, Rep. Ken Weyler argued outright that government programs benefitting Muslims is the equivalent of “treason.”
“Giving public benefits to any person or family that practices Islam is aiding and abetting the enemy. That is treason,” the Kingston Republican wrote, falsely claiming that every terrorist attack in the last 20 years was carried out by Muslims.
Weyler’s testimony was later denounced by the state’s top Republicans.
February 23: New Hampshire state rep: ‘The Pope is the anti-Christ. Do your research.’
After Pope Francis issued a not-so-subtle critique of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, Rep. Susan DeLemus fired back with some unsubtle criticism of her own.
“The Pope is the anti-Christ. Do your research,” she wrote in a Facebook post. The Rochester Republican later clarified that she was referring to the papacy in general and not Pope Francis himself.
March 2: New Hampshire state rep accused of trying to lure a minor on Facebook into having sex
Rep. Kyle Tasker, a Nottingham Republican who has made national headlines before, was arrested for attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl over Facebook into having sex. However, the Facebook user Tasker was interested in was not, in fact, a 14-year-old girl. He had been communicating with police.
May 31: N.H. lawmaker has a tough message for the media
Boosted by his vocal support for Trump, perhaps no other New Hampshire state representative received more national limelight than Rep. Al Baldasaro.
His first appearance in this article comes courtesy of, as The Boston Globe reported, his “anatomically unlikely message” during a press conference from Trump Tower.
“I think the liberal media – and I’ve been dealing with you a long time – need to get your head out of your butt,” said the Londonderry Republican.
May 31: Former New Hampshire state representative charged with felony witness tampering, bribery
Rep. Don Leeman resigned in the midst of an investigation into allegations that the Rochester Republican tried to bribe a local housing official. Leeman had allegedly moved out of the district in which he voted and had been elected to represent, and offered a Rochester Housing Authority employee a “substantial donation” in exchange for resolving the issue.
July 11: Congressional candidate under fire for altered photos
WMUR’s headline here doesn’t do the story justice.
Rep. Eric Estevez, a Pelham Republican and unsuccessful primary candidate for U.S. Congress, was accused by fellow state representatives of photoshopping Estevez campaign signs and stickers into photos taken with him at a hot dog fundraiser.
“There were no signs,” Rep. Kimberly Rice told WMUR. “No one had Estevez stickers on. We certainly at that time didn’t even know he was running.”
Estevez later said his account had been hacked.
July 20: Trump adviser, NH state rep says Hillary Clinton should be executed by firing squad or electric chair
Baldasaro is back.
In a radio interview, the New Hampshire state rep called for Clinton to be “put in the firing line and shot for treason.” The comments, unprecedented in modern U.S. presidential campaign history and condemned by both campaigns, made national waves. But Baldasaro stood by them.
Reached by phone Wednesday by The Boston Globe, Baldasaro was asked if he stood by his comments.
“Without a doubt,” he said.
“When you take classified information on a server that deals with where our State Department, Special Forces, CIA, whatever in other countries, that’s a death sentence for those people if that information gets in the hands of other countries or the terrorists,” the retired Marine told the Globe. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s information for the enemy. In the military, shot, firing squad. So I stand by what I said.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Baldasaro’s comment was picked up and widely reported on in the national media. Told by WMUR.com that his remarks had “gone viral,” the state representative replied “good.”
September 20: A.G. report: Tasker used drugs in State House, sold to a handful of state reps
And so the Tasker story deepens.
According to the Concord Monitor, a report by the state attorney general found that the recently resigned Nottingham lawmaker smoked marijuana in the State House waiting room and sold the drug to fellow state representatives. According to the report, Tasker was also “accused of selling or possessing hallucinogenic mushrooms, MDMA and buprenorphine, a synthetic opioid used to treat drug addiction.”
Rep. Joseph LaChance, a Manchester Republican who said he bought marijuana from Tasker for medicinal reasons, described his former House colleague as the “Club Med of weed.” NH1 later obtained audio from the attorney general’s interviews, in which several of the legislators elaborated on their relationship with Tasker and the details of how he sold drugs while serving in the House.
November 2: Former New Hampshire legislator now faces drunken driving charge
One month later, Tasker was charged with drunk driving after he allegedly caused a three-car crash.
November 10: N.H. state rep arrested, re-elected on the same day
Rep. Dick Marple got good news and bad news on Election Day last month.
The good news: The Hooksett Republican won re-election to a fifth term in Concord. The bad news: He got arrested.
As NHPR reported, Marple was arrested when a Hooksett police officer recognized him holding his own campaign signs, sitting outside a local polling place. Marple apparently had a warrant out for missing a court date for a misdemeanor driving-without-a-license charge.
December 2: NH Trump voters tell CNN ‘Millions of illegals voted’ because Facebook said so
In a post-election CNN focus group reported on by Boston magazine, DeLemus (of “The Pope is the anti-Christ” fame) and other local Trump supporters defended the presidenti-elect’s baseless claim that “millions of people” voted illegally by pointing to a quickly debunked and selectively edited video clip.
“Google it. You can find it on Facebook,” DeLemus said of the misinformation-plagued social media platform.
Trump supporter falsely argues that millions of people voted illegally with no evidence on CNN’s @NewDay https://t.co/6lqMSTJNuj
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) December 1, 2016
December 3: State rep-elect charged with assaulting police officer
As the Laconia Daily Sun reported, newly-elected Gilmanton Rep. Michael Maloney, a 51-year-old Republican, was arrested after he allegedly assaulted a police officer outside of a Dropkick Murphys concert.
According to the police report, Maloney was part of a “rowdy” group outside the gates of the venue. When asked to leave by a police officer, he “put his hands in his pockets, approached [the officer], who was in uniform, and chest bumped him.”
It’s not even 2017, and next year’s class is already making headlines.
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