NH Union Leader, Letters, July 22, 2019
To the Editor: Chris Sununu is the elected leader of our state, yet he seems to care very little about the struggles of middle-class New Hampshire families.
I became interested in paid family medical leave legislation because of personal experience. My son, Ethan, had a major stroke when he was three years old. He was hospitalized for six weeks. I had to leave his bedside and return to work within two weeks. It was a tremendously difficult time for our family.
Chris Sununu is a very wealthy man with a privileged background. I imagine he has never had to leave a dangerously ill child to go to work. As governor, however, he has heard many stories like mine.
How has Sununu responded? First he described paid family medical leave as a paid vacation. Then, after more than 100 advocates gathered at the State House to plead with him to sign paid family medical leave legislation, he untruthfully dismissed us as a “small group of paid volunteers.”
Just last week, Governor Sununu laughingly auctioned off a copy of what he called “the greatest veto of all time.”
Of course, as our governor, Chris Sununu has the right to veto any bill that comes before him. But laughing at the impossible decisions that many New Hampshire residents face during a medical crisis is distasteful and insulting.
I find nothing amusing about the many families that are permanently fractured under the financial pressure of a temporary medical crisis. Sununu has shown a shocking lack of empathy for the people he represents.
New Hampshire deserves better.
Regan Lamphier, Spit Brook Road, Nashua
-----
“Sununu damaged process”
NH Union Leader, Letters, Jul 22, 2019
To the Editor: Recently, in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Littleton Opera House, New Hampshire’s Executive Council voted not to confirm the governor’s nominee to be chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Democratic members acknowledged Mr. MacDonald’s character and legal expertise, but voted against his nomination for two main reasons: his lack of experience in court and his past efforts supporting extreme restrictions on women’s health.
The governor reacted to the vote against his nominee with a vehemence in a prolonged outburst that he had clearly prepared beforehand in order to shift the blame for his defeat.
He started his rant with “Never before has politics entered the judicial nomination process … we have changed our system … there has been a breach of public trust.”
The governor did not comment on his changes to the process, most notably his failure to ensure that his nominee would be acceptable to three of the five councilors.
He did not confer with the Democratic members of the council, which was the customary process. He chose a man who gave no indication that he had changed his views on abortion rights. He knew that nominating such a person would a) be highly controversial, b) be consistent with the Republican Party’s strategy of nominating judges who would support their attempts to restrict access to abortion, and c) result in a highly public failure he figured would appeal to base Republicans.
So, Mr. Governor, it is not the Councilors Cryans, Volinsky, and Pignatelli who have damaged the process, it is YOU.
Carl D. Martland, Sugar Hill
-----
“Sununu’s pick for N.H. chief justice was wrong for the job”
The Boston Globe, Letters, July 26, 2019
Re “Politics blocks a judicial appointment — again” by Jennifer C. Braceras (Opinion, July 22): The New Hampshire Executive Council rightly rejected Governor Chris Sununu’s nomination of Gordon MacDonald to be its chief justice. The nominee lacked any prior judicial experience and had never completed a jury trial. Instead, MacDonald had a deep history of extreme partisan positions.
In the 1980s, he was chief of staff to Senator Gordon Humphrey, who sought to amend the Constitution to remove protections for reproductive rights. More recently, MacDonald served as a board member and officer of a Koch Brothers-funded enterprise that opposed the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which is putting thousands of lives at risk all over the country.
As attorney general, MacDonald showed a willingness to use his office to affect public policy. For example, after consulting directly with MacDonald, the senior attorney general responsible for education law changed her advice to our Legislature about the constitutionality of state-funded school vouchers. MacDonald’s office weighed in in other ways, approving restrictive voting bills and seeking to reduce the standard for judicial review of education funding decisions that were established in the Claremont line of cases that I litigated in the 1990s.
MacDonald is far outside of the mainstream, and New Hampshire deserves better.
Andru Volinsky, East Concord, N.H.
The writer is a Democratic member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, representing District 2.
-----
“New Hampshire Democratic Party Launches “Sununu For Sale” Campaign Initiative Will Hold Chris Sununu Accountable for His Policies that Consistently Sell Out Granite Staters to Benefit His Party, His Corporate Donors, Special Interests, and Himself”
By NH Labor News, August 13, 2019
Concord, N.H – Today, the New Hampshire Democratic Party launched a new effort, “Sununu for Sale,” highlighting how Chris Sununu has consistently sold out Granite Staters by pushing policies that only benefit his corporate donors, his special interests, the Republican Party and himself.
This campaign is launching days after Chris Sununu vetoed three pieces of common-sense gun safety legislation to please the NRA and gun manufacturers who have contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign, and vetoed a $12 minimum wage to please his corporate donors.
“Chris Sununu is for sale to the highest bidder, and it’s clear that he’s willing to sell out Granite Staters and their priorities to please his party, his special interests, his corporate donors, and the top 1 percent,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Spokesperson Holly Shulman. “Sununu is for sale. It’s shameful, and it’s no way to govern.”
These latest vetoes are not the first time Chris Sununu has sold out Granite Staters for special interests. Recently, Chris Sununu vetoed New Hampshire’s budget simply to give tax breaks to corporate special interests. In the process, he has held hostage $200 million in property tax relief, $138 million in investments in local schools, and much-needed funding for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. A spokesman for Chris Sununu made these backward priorities explicit when he told the Concord Monitor: “the governor is in favor of education funding, as long as the business tax rate of 7.7% doesn’t climb to 7.9%.”
He’s also vetoed bipartisan net metering legislation after hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from utility and fossil fuel companies. He vetoed campaign finance reform, bipartisan redistricting legislation, and greater transparency in elections simply to enrich the Republican Party. And earlier this summer, Chris Sununu literally auctioned off a copy of his veto on paid family leave to raise money for the Republican Party.
Today, the New Hampshire Democratic Party launched a statewide campaign to hold Sununu accountable for selling out Granite Staters.
The campaign includes:
The launch of www.Sununu.ForSale - a website that hosts shareable facts about Sununu selling out Granite Staters for special interests, news reporting about Sununu prioritizing corporate donors over communities across the state, and a place where Granite Staters can share their own stories about how Sununu’s special interest agenda impacts them.
The placement of targeted digital ads across the state on Facebook and Twitter, showing how much communities across the state will lose in school funding as a result of Sununu selling out New Hampshire communities simply to get tax breaks for large out of state corporations.
The distribution of yard signs in front of the State House that highlight that Governor Sununu and his vetoes are for sale.
The unveiling of a large sign that will follow Chris Sununu to events that says, “Sununu’s policy positions are brought to you by these special interest sponsors,” bearing the logos of the NRA, Bank of America, and others.
“Chris Sununu vetoed New Hampshire’s budget – denying and delaying property tax relief, school funding, and mental health and substance use disorder treatment services – just so he could give out of state corporations a tax break. Chris Sununu vetoed common-sense gun safety legislation, demonstrating that he cares more about his campaign contributors like the NRA and gun manufacturers than he does about the lives of Granite Staters. And after taking a massive $22,000.00 raise for himself, Chris Sununu vetoed a minimum wage that would have helped many of the hardest working Granite Staters, once again selling out Granite Staters just to please his out of state corporate donors,” said Shulman. “Sell Out Sununu does the bidding for his special interest donors at the expense of everyone else.”
The campaign will continue over the next few weeks with events across the state, press conferences, videos, and additional paid advertising.
-----
Letter: “Joined at the hip”
The NH Union Leader, Letter to the Editor, August 28, 2019
To the Editor:
If Washington, D.C. and Concord weren’t separated by nearly 500 miles, I’d think our President and our governor were joined at the hip. New Hampshire state reps and senators are applauded for the extensive work done in the search of a fair minimum wage.
Paying $7.25 an hour is not a reasonable living wage. After analysis of statewide economic data from private and public sources, cost of living, and many compromises and amendments between the House and Senate bills, our elected officials reached a reasonable conclusion. Minimum wage must increase by steps and reach $12 by 2022.
This Bill (SB10) went to the governor’s desk; he found another famous red pen and played the veto game! Foul play.
Agencies and organizations might help these hardworking low-wage workers with health care coverage, heating assistance, food stamps, child care, housing, etc. How about we just stop the exploitation of our labor force and just pay these workers their worth? This is New Hampshire and this shouldn’t be about the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Meanwhile the governor of New Hampshire has a salary of $132,000 including a new raise; the job comes with a house, car, health care, and many other privileges. Who does he work for?
Our senators and representatives will assemble in mid-September, an opportunity to override a veto and move our state forward. Let your voice be heard.
Susan Wiley, Sandwich
-----
Letter: “A state embarrassment”
NH Union Leader, September 12, 2019
To the Editor: Is absentee voting any less meritorious than voting in person? Does it show lesser “civic engagement?”
Governor Sununu and Secretary of State Gardner seem to think so but they give no reason, talking about “tradition” and maintaining the “purity” of our first–in-the-nation election.
Does anyone honestly believe that those who vote in person are more “pure” than our elderly voters who stay home without voting because they refuse to say they are “disabled” when they aren’t?
Yet that is what they must say to get an absentee ballot.
Are those who vote in person more “pure” or “engaged” than the many commuters in our state who find it difficult to vote in the specific hours of an election but don’t qualify for an absentee ballot ?
Suppose they normally get off work at 5 and should make it to the polls but the boss gives extra work or there is traffic and they can’t make the 7 p.m. closing? Too bad.
The world has changed and New Hampshire needs to change, too. Voting is a fundamental right of our people whether in person or by absentee ballot.
Tradition and notions of “purity” do not justify the governor’s veto. As a long-time Republican and voter for Sununu, I find this an embarrassment for our state.
Gail Pierson Cromwell, Temple
-----
Letter: “Embarrassed by Sununu”
NH Union Leader, October 26, 2019
To the Editor:
I am very disappointed in Governor Sununu; more than that — embarrassed by him. Recently, the governor told an interviewer that he didn’t think that President Trump should face an impeachment inquiry. He dismissed as “a circus” the work of the House Intelligence Committee that has revealed that the President withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure that government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.
The reporter, to his credit, then asked the governor if it was appropriate or ethical for Trump to push the Ukrainian president to investigate Hunter Biden. Sununu replied, “If he truly asked a foreign power to look into a political opponent that’s a very inappropriate thing to do, absolutely.”
Well, it’s clear from the testimony of several government officials, including Trump appointees, that the President did exactly that: pressured a foreign government to interfere in our elections for his own benefit. In fact, President Trump has already said publicly that he asked for Zelensky to investigate Biden. He’s admitted to the crime.
Sununu went on to reveal that he has not read the transcript released by the White House of the conversation between the two presidents. How embarrassing. How can our governor have an informed opinion if he isn’t interested in the facts? Does he even know that moderate Republicans such as former Ohio Gov. John Kasich are now calling for Trump’s impeachment?
Governor Sununu may campaign as a moderate, but he is far from one. And that’s a fact.
Sam Osherson, Nelson
-----
Letter: “Sununu is extreme”
The NH Union Leader, October 31, 2019
To the Editor: Governor Sununu has taken to calling New Hampshire Democrats “extremists,” even as he criss-crosses the state claiming credit for one of their biggest achievements this year: increased state funding for public schools.
Yet a look at the governor’s record reveals that he’s the one who’s extreme.
Not only did the governor vehemently oppose the desperately needed school funding increases that he now takes credit for, he actually supports a constitutional amendment removing state responsibility for public education altogether.
On the environment, despite the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists, Sununu refuses to even acknowledge the human contribution to climate change, much less work toward solutions.
According to a WMUR poll, 84% of Granite Staters want strengthened background checks on firearm sales. Are they extreme, or is Gov. Sununu, who vetoed a bipartisan bill to do just that?
And consider his veto of an anti-gerrymandering bill that conservative Republican Senator Gray helped to craft.
Does the governor now consider Sen. Gray “extreme”?
Anyone who has missed work to care for a dying spouse would think it beyond the pale to call paid family medical leave a “vacation,” as Sununu did before jokingly auctioning off the pen he used to veto it.
Sununu vetoed a whopping 57 bills in the last session, most of which had bipartisan support.
The previous veto record was 15.
Somehow the governor maintains a straight face when he describes himself as a moderate who works across the aisle, but his record proves otherwise.
Mary Wilke, Concord
-----
Letter: 'Gov. Nice Guy'
NH Union Leader, January 3, 2020
To the Editor:
A number of recent letters in New Hampshire’s newspapers have suggested that Governor Sununu is a “good guy” who likes kids and cares about the environment. His veto decisions of this past summer, however, point to the big difference between the governor we see at “feel good” events and the governor whose vetoes belie the image he projects.
He might be nice to small kids but he vetoed bills that would increase the likelihood that those kids go to schools that are gun free or that the families of those kids have access to real family medical leave. He claims to be concerned about our environment but he vetoed a bill to increase net metering limits. He talks about the fairness of our elections but vetoed a bipartisan bill to increase the likelihood that our representatives aren’t coming from districts that are “rigged” by the political party that controls the state legislature.
Regretfully, there is a big difference between the way Mr. Sununu acts in the corner office and the way he acts with a group of children. I appreciate his “nice guy-ness.” However, we need governors who support legislation that improves the lives of the people they smile at; not governors who talk about being concerned but then veto legislation that would show that the concern is real.
David Cawley, Concord
-----
Letter: “Relief from high Rx costs”
NH Union Leader, February 19, 2020
To the Editor:
Amid the ongoing debate and gridlock in Washington, New Hampshire lawmakers are now considering game-changing legislation to provide real relief from the high costs of prescription drugs. Unlike anything going on in Washington, this effort has bipartisan support.
Our state leaders have demonstrated an understanding that no one should have to choose between the medicine they need to live and putting groceries on the table. To address this issue, Gov. Chris Sununu is working with Democrats in the legislature on several bills to drive down the costs of prescription drugs. Their efforts include creating a prescription drug importation program with Canada, a ban on price gouging, increases in drug price transparency and the establishment of a prescription drug affordability board. These measures will ensure that seniors, like me, never have to skip medicines due to cost. These modest measures will inject critically needed competition, transparency and accountability into the prescription drug market.
The big drug companies are going to spend a lot of money to fight these bills and maintain their excessive profits. They will not give up the system that they have rigged without a fight. Fortunately, we have strong bipartisan leaders in New Hampshire like Gov. Sununu, Sen. Jeb Bradley and Democrats in the legislature who support these bills and are ready to deliver real prescription drug relief. They will need our support to pass these important bills.
Jaris Bragdon, Jackson, NH
-----
Letter: "Penny wise, pound foolish on Medicaid dental care" -
"Medicaid dental care veto was short sighted"
NH Union Leader, August 2, 2020
To the Editor:
On July 29, [2020], Governor Chris Sununu vetoed House Bill 250 that would have provided dental benefits to New Hampshire Medicaid recipients stating that “he cannot support the bill at this time” because of the loss of $11 million from the general fund at a time of COVID state revenue deficits, which would result in having to cut $11 million in existing services.
This seems logical until you realize that the New Hampshire’s Medicaid program pays almost $10 milllion annually in emergency department visits for Medicaid patients with dental problems and that untreated dental problems lead to another $10 million in Medicaid expenditures for secondary complication of dental infections including: heart disease, gum disease, low birth weight pregnancies, and potentially life-threatening infections from poor dental hygiene.
In other words, failure to provide preventive dental services in the highest risk groups ends up costing the state (and its taxpayers) more.
I hope in the future that the governor will work with his healthcare experts to make return on investment (ROI) calculations for state entitlement programs so that he can make decisions that benefit both the most vulnerable among us and hard-working taxpayers who will bear the burden of his uninformed decisions.
Jon Burroughs, Glen
-----
"Legalizing pot looks like a doused fire in 2021"
By Kevin Landrigan [klandrigan@unionleader.com], NH Union Leader, November 14, 2020
Hopes of legalizing marijuana in New Hampshire any time soon figuratively went up in smoke, thanks to voters in this month’s election.
Supporters are left to dream that Gov. Chris Sununu might abruptly end years of opposition and actually lead a campaign to make it legal to buy and use cannabis.
Never-give-up advocates will reintroduce legislation in 2021 from Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Epsom, that would allow adults to legally possess a small amount of pot and grow up to six plants at home.
Patterned after the law Vermont passed in 2018, this would require follow-up legislation to create an in-state retail market for the drug.
But the bill’s fate has already been sealed in the state Senate, and not only because Republicans regained control of the upper chamber.
“It is impossible to put a positive spin on what happened in the Senate,” said Matt Simon, senior legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project.
“I am usually in the business of trying to find the silver lining. There is none. Short of a very popular governor doing a complete 180, it has no chance.
“The Senate literally has become a murderer’s row of prohibitionists.”
What made this election especially painful for supporters was that 2020 was a very successful year for cannabis campaigns elsewhere in the U.S.
Voters in Montana, Arizona, New Jersey and South Dakota legalized possession for adults 21 or older.
The South Dakota vote came over the opposition of GOP Gov. Kristi Noem, who campaigned in New Hampshire for President Donald Trump and is considered a potential 2024 presidential contender.
“Connecticut and New York are teetering on the edge. We believe now that New Jersey has moved, the governors of both those states feel a real sense of urgency for their states to follow suit,” Simon said.
15 states and counting
Fifteen states now allow recreational use of marijuana. And two weeks ago, Mississippi became the 36th state to make medical cannabis legal.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire’s neighboring states have legalized marijuana use, with retail stores open in Massachusetts and Maine.
Last October, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott let become law without his signature a marijuana retail sale law that has retail stores set to open there in January 2023.
Before Election Day, legalization supporters were hard at work trying to produce a veto-proof super-majority in the New Hampshire Legislature that could overcome Sununu’s opposition.
With all the votes counted, they now don’t think a measure could even get through the Senate and onto Sununu’s desk.
The current count, based on past votes and public statements, is 12 elected senators against, 10 in favor, and two undecided.
The two “undecided” senators aren’t seen as leaning yes, either. They are current Senate President Donna Soucy and Sen. Kevin Cavanaugh, both D-Manchester.
In 2019, the pair voted to uphold Sununu’s veto of a bill that would have permitted those using medical marijuana and their caregivers to grow pot.
Sununu spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt said the governor’s position has not changed.
He also pointed out, “Governor Chris Sununu’s administration has been more progressive on the issues surrounding marijuana reform than any other governor in New Hampshire history.”
“After years of inaction by Democrat Governors, Chris Sununu signed common sense decriminalization, expanded access to medical marijuana, and provided a pathway to annul old convictions for marijuana possession.”
As national Republican leaders talk up Sununu as a potential challenger to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Simon said this should only harden the governor’s views.
When she was governor, Hassan likewise opposed legalization during her four years in office.
Both Sununu and Hassan have had the support of local police chiefs in past campaigns, in no small part because they took this position.
“In Sununu, he doesn’t need to evolve on this issue. If he’s only thinking about the next election, whatever he’s running for, he’s got no reason to change,” Simon said.
On Nov. 3, [2020], voters flipped the Senate from 14-10 Democratic to 14-10 Republican.
Four more against
All four newly elected Republican senators oppose legalization: Gary Daniels of Milford, Kevin Avard of Nashua, Bill Gannon of Sandown and Denise Ricciardi of Bedford.
In 2016, then-Sen. Daniels spoke on the floor against decriminalization.
“We are in a war, and the last thing we need is to tell our citizens that it’s OK to use a little marijuana or any other illegal substance,” Daniels said.
The four defeated Senate Democrats were at least open to the idea.
Sens. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline, and Jon Morgan, D-Brentwood, were on board. Sens. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst, and Jeanne Dietsch, D-Peterborough, had not ruled it out.
Voters elected three new Democrats who support legalization — Becky Whitley of Hopkinton, Rebecca Perkins Kwoka of Portsmouth and Suzanne Prentiss of Lebanon — but each replaced a retiring incumbent who also favored legalization.
The state’s police chiefs also oppose legalization. They are backed by former federal law enforcement officials, some medical experts and the New Futures organization.
The Marijuana Policy Project’s Simon stressed this has never been a partisan issue. Independent polls found that almost 70% of likely New Hampshire voters support legalization.
Although Democratic nominee for governor Dan Feltes and many Democrats were on board, Simon said party leaders did not do enough to make legalization a central talking point.
“I didn’t see it on any Democrats’ campaign literature, ads, any messaging at all during the general election,” Simon said. “They did nothing in their campaigns that I saw to motivate these voters.”
Meanwhile, long-standing support for the cause in the House seems intact.
Last spring, the Democratic-led House voted 236-112 in favor of the home cultivation bill being reintroduced in 2021.
The GOP regained control of the House this month as well, but many of these “new” Republicans are libertarian-minded candidates who support legalization.
Simon and allies built a broad coalition in the House, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Americans for Prosperity.
The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee studied two other legalization bills over the summer and earlier this month recommended one be passed in some form next year.
“Much study has gone into this and other related bills. We recommend that all these bills be synthesized into a coherent and thoughtful piece of legislation,” said Rep. Beth Rodd, D-Bradford.
-----
Letter: "Sununu apparently doesn't care about NH's homeless"
NH Union Leader, November 23, 2020
To the Editor: It’s not uncommon for politicians to act outlandishly following re-election, but Governor Chris Sununu’s recent actions suggest a complete disregard for the people of New Hampshire. The houseless people on Chestnut Street are simply hoping to live another day. This governor has made that even harder.
During this pandemic many people have had the luxury of having a place to go following their work day where they do not have to face COVID-19. The houseless in Manchester don’t have a place to stay where COVID doesn’t rear its ugly head. For this reason, they established a living space at the courthouse in Manchester to protect themselves from COVID while fighting to survive in the cold winter months ahead.
Yet on Friday, despite the New Hampshire attorney general stating how there is no deadline to clear this encampment, and despite the many people who have come out to the site to protest, Governor Sununu sent armed police to destroy these people’s place of living and commandeer their few belongings.
To add insult to injury, Sununu denied Mayor Joyce Craig’s request to convert the armory to temporary shelter to support these people and he has no real plans to assure housing for these individuals. Sununu has made the lives of our neighbors on Chestnut Street significantly more difficult. Alas, this governor evidently doesn’t care.
Mark Benjamin Parsons, Wentworth
-----
"Help protect seniors"
The NH Union Leader, February 14, 2021
To the Editor: HB246 is currently under consideration in our Legislature. If it becomes law then vulnerable citizens, including senior citizens, will be able to obtain a protective order to stop the abuse. Abuse isn’t just physical but includes forgery, withholding medicine, doctor appointments, Social Security or pension benefits. Care givers, family members, and those holding a power of attorney are often the abusers.
Please contact your state representative and urge them to vote for passage of this important bill. Other states, including those in New England, have enacted similar legislation. Please urge your representative to help New Hampshire join the fight against the abuse of vulnerable citizens
Arnold Newman, Marlborough
-----
January 22, 2022
Hello Yvonne Abraham,
A 7-year-old girl named Harmony Montgomery, who is blind in one eye, whose parents are from New Hampshire and Massachusetts has been missing for over two years. Her father, Adam "Ace" Montgomery has a violent criminal history that includes drug use. A Massachusetts Judge gave her violent drug-user father legal custody of the then 5-year-old girl. That is INSANE! Harmony Montgomery should have been put in foster care and then she should have been adopted by a loving family. Both NH Governor Chris Sununu and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker are in disbelief.
Many modern families are made up of dysfunctional relationships and/or broken homes that innocent children such as the missing girl Harmony Montgomery was born into. The state government has a duty to protect children who are in abusive homes, and both New Hampshire and Massachusetts failed Harmony Montgomery. I hope she is found alive and that she will be O.K. I also hope that the tragic case of Harmony Montgomery will change things for the better in NH & Massachusetts and beyond so that there will never again be another missing child that the system failed to protect.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
"The net that should have kept Harmony Montgomery safe shredded"
By Yvonne Abraham, Boston Globe Columnist, January 22, 2022
It would be so much easier if we could find the right person — in addition to the obvious, her violent menace of a father — to blame for whatever has befallen Harmony Montgomery.
No child is more lost than one for whom no one searches. Harmony appears to have gone missing from her father’s house in the fall of 2019, when she was 5. But the official search for her didn’t begin until two years later, after her frantic mother, who had lost custody because she struggled with drug addiction, finally raised the alarm.
Our sense of justice, and our need for order, compel us to pinpoint the exact moment this poor child was let down, and to hold somebody accountable for it. Otherwise, how can we understand what happened to her? How can we make sure it won’t happen again?
So here, as in every gut-wrenching case like it, the finger-pointing has begun. The governor of New Hampshire, where Harmony lived with her father, has blamed the Lawrence judge who awarded custody of the child to Adam Montgomery in February 2019 — even though the father had a history of violence, including a conviction for shooting a man in the head during a drug deal in 2014.
But we don’t yet know what happened in that courtroom, and what exactly the judge knew about Montgomery. In any case, the judge wasn’t the only person who could have made a difference here. Social workers in two states were involved with this child. Police were called to Montgomery’s home in New Hampshire many times. Child welfare workers there were clearly aware of her awful situation.
Based on what we know so far, we’re looking at not just one failure but a whole string of them, lined up in just the right — wrong — way to make the unthinkable possible. That bigger picture is more painful to confront, and harder to fix: The net a compassionate society builds to catch kids like Harmony is made of only slender threads. It is held togetherby an army of beleaguered people, almost always doing their best — judges, social workers, educators, police, and neighbors, among others. If enough of them make mistakes, the net shreds, and kids like Harmony fall through.
But the net held for her younger brother, Jamison. He’d been in and out of different foster homes with Harmony for the first few years of his life. But a few months after the judge gave custody of Harmony to her father, Jamison was matched with the couple who would become his adoptive parents.
Blair and Johnathon Miller, who had adopted two other boys, brought him into their loving family. Jamison talked about his sister all the time, and his fathers were prepared to adopt her, too. But they were told she was with her biological father, who is different from Jamison’s.
“As far as we knew, the system had taken care of [Harmony], and we trusted what we were told, and wanted to believe it was a good situation,” Blair Miller said.
The system had certainly worked for Jamison, who found parents who feel lucky to have him. The Millers wanted their kids to be connected to their birth families always, so they stayed in close touch with Jamison’s mother, and encouraged her to keep trying to find Harmony.
If not for the misfortune of being born to her particular father, Harmony could well have been part of her brother’s new family. She could have been among the little crew this past Friday morning, eating waffles and fruit for breakfast, then pulling on her hat for school in Arlington, Va.
Instead, the Millers are now trying to soften Jamison’s distress over his sister’s disappearance, trying to keep her name in the news in case it jars someone’s conscience, and brings her home.
“Right now we’re just trying to focus on what Jamison would want us to do,” Blair Miller said. “When he’s 15, 30, whatever, we want to be able to look him in the eye and say, ‘Son, we hope we did everything you would have done in that situation.’”
Will Harmony have the chance to make it to 15 or 30? Or did her luck run out long ago?
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yvonne.abraham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeAbraham.
-----
April 23, 2022
Hello, Honorable New Hampshire State Senator Dr. Tom Sherman,
I, along with my senior citizen parents Bob & Bev, enjoyed meeting with you tonight (Saturday, 23-April-2022) at the Unitarian Church in Milford, New Hampshire to hear your speech about your campaign to oust Governor Chris Sununu by being elected as the next Governor of New Hampshire. My response to your speech is that I agree with you that Governor Chris Sununu is not serving the people and communities of New Hampshire. Public education is underfunded and unequal. Big businesses and the wealthy have received multiple tax breaks. Abortion and women's health is being politicized by Governor Chris Sununu instead of him treating it all as women's human right to medical care. I understand that you will sign the pledge that ensures that there will be no income and sales state taxes in New Hampshire. New Hampshire currently has a $300 million state budget surplus. You will try to reduce the burden of property taxes on communities, while Concord is flush with state cash. You will work with Democrats, Republicans and Independents to pass legislation that fits with New Hampshire values. You will appoint and hire racially diverse men and women professionals to serve and work for the state government. I support your commitment to finding the missing little girl named Harmony Montgomery, and I agree with you that Chris Sununu should not have blamed Massachusetts because New Hampshire, including Governor Chris Sununu, also failed Harmony. As a service-connected disabled Veteran, I support your legislative work and commitment to Veterans in New Hampshire. If/when you are the next Governor of New Hampshire, I hope you will speak with U.S. President Joe Biden and tell him to stop proposing cuts to and closing VA clinics in New Hampshire and beyond. Veterans are NOT second-class citizens, and I believe you will treat Veterans like gold. I support your commitment to commuter rail in New Hampshire's future. I understand that you will vote no on the bill in the New Hampshire State Senate next week because you object to the Republican's rider that no state general fund dollars will be used for commuter rail in New Hampshire's future. I like that you and your wife are medical doctors, and that you are committed to supporting medical care and mental healthcare in New Hampshire. If/when you are the next Governor of New Hampshire, I hope that you will hold more public events in Milford so that we can stay in touch with you and hold you to your campaign promises.
My dad, Bob, was a politician in Western Massachusetts decades ago, and I have thought about a political career, but I never put my proverbial hat in the political ring. I enjoy hearing from candidates and politicians, but I also become upset with corrupt career politicians who end up only doing disservices to the people and taxpayers.
If I was a would-be politician, I would say the following words: "Those who have no rights - past, present and future - have rights with me. I am in elected office to serve the people and taxpayers, not myself, my fellow corrupt career politicians, my corrupt government leadership and political bosses, and I will never enrich myself at the public trough. I will always speak my good conscience as long as I live. The government is a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are a nation of laws, not of men. My mission is to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in life to provide for themselves and their loved ones, and I will use limited public funds to invest in people and the communities they live in. I will fight against poverty, homelessness, the uninsured and under-insured, communities without reasonable access to hospitals and medical clinics, failing public schools, environmentally poisoned communities, crime, violence, and political corruption each and every day that I serve to uphold my oath of office. I will fight for Veterans, even if it means me meeting with the U.S. President and the U.S. Congress. I will fight for liberty and justice for all citizens of the U.S.A. and the world."
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
April 24, 2022
At least I take the time to know and meet the politicians who hold public events. I may not be the someone rich and powerful who is important to the rich and powerful Ruling Elites, but I show up and I let them know what I think about their work - except on Beacon Hill whereby Boston's Golden Dome is the corrupt career politicians' retirement Country Club - in elected office. NH State Senator Dr. Tom Sherman is taking on a powerful Governor, Chris Sununu, during the 2022 midterms that heavily favor the Republican Party due to U.S. President Joe Biden's 70-year low approval rating. Dr. Tom Sherman has his work cut out for him, but he is campaigning to represent the people and taxpayers of New Hampshire. Last night, he made very good criticisms of Governor Chris Sununu's failed tenure in Concord. If I was a woman who lived in New Hampshire, I would agree with Dr. Tom Sherman about Sununu signing a punitive abortion bill that makes no exceptions for rape and incest. Dr. Tom Sherman showed me and my senior citizen parents the utmost respect. In the Town of Amherst, New Hampshire, the people I talk to speak very highly of him. My neighbor Joe told me that Dr. Tom Sherman saved his late-wife's Carol's life, and that Dr. Tom Sherman is a good man. We live in a democracy, and I am a proud Citizen/Veteran who participates in our government.
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
Susan Mayer: "We just can't trust Gov. Sununu. Period"
By Susan Mayer, Guest Columnist, Seacoastonline.com - June 4, 2022
Gov. Chris Sununu, with his practiced "aw shucks" manner, has failed miserably to protect New Hampshire from the tide of disturbing and dangerous extremism rolling through our state. The governor has proved to be an ineffectual leader, easily bullied by the Executive Council and state legislature, both controlled by his own party.
He expects Granite Staters to believe his deceptively moderate words — and not notice the discrepancy between these words and his extremism-enabling deeds. A brief look at Gov. Sununu’s record confirms this conclusion.
Effective leadership?
The governor campaigned hard for the Republicans who won seats in the Executive Council and state legislature. But once they took office, Sununu has been too weak to control these extremists. In the past year, the Republican majority on the Executive Council refused $27 million in federal vaccine funding, impacting the availability of vaccines. How extreme was this rejection? All 49 other states accepted the funding. Sununu’s pitiful excuse: “I pushed as hard as I could.”
In addition, Gov. Sununu’s chosen education commissioner (and foe of public education), Frank Edelblut, pushed through a private school voucher program, made more extreme by Republican legislators, and Gov. Sununu signed it into law (June 2021). But it turns out that the program was underfunded by 5000% — the 1,500 prospective students would cost $6.9 million though the state budgeted only $129,000. Due to Sununu’s fiasco, taxpayers are on the hook for millions. We can’t trust Sununu to lead.
Truth telling?
In the 2021 budget, the Republican extremist-controlled legislature decided to invade women’s privacy and directed the state to interfere with women’s reproductive health care. Not a problem, because Gov. Sununu calls himself a “pro-choice Republican.” Back in July 2018, he said, “I’m pro-choice. I support Roe v. Wade” — and he keeps repeating that claim. In 2020, he claimed he was “not looking to make any changes” involving abortion restrictions. Yet in July 2021, he signed the state budget, which restricted abortion and criminalized some abortion services, imposed a mandatory invasive ultrasound, and contained no exemption for a fetus that died or had fatal anomalies.
He could have vetoed the budget. When questioned, he refused responsibility, saying it was all the legislature’s fault (“not my bill”), and anyway, he couldn’t veto a budget over “this one item.” Yes, that is how low women’s privacy rights and reproductive freedom rate for the “pro-choice” governor. Then, after the imminent overturn of Roe v. Wade hit the news, Sununu insisted, “I’m a pro-choice governor, and as long as I’m governor, we’re going to remain a pro-choice state.” What? When he signed the budget, New Hampshire ceased to be a pro-choice state, and he knows that. The very next week, the other Governor Sununu stepped up to warmly embrace his “abortion ban,” bragging "Look, I'm the first governor in 40 years to sign an abortion ban … Republican governors before me never signed that. I've done more on the pro-life issue, if you will, than anyone." Sununu’s persistent and head-spinning lying shows disrespect to Granite Staters. We cannot trust Sununu to tell the truth.
One of my favorite presidents is Harry S. Truman, who led us out of WWII and in the early Cold War. His well-known motto was “The buck stops here.” Truman understood that he was responsible for what his administration did, and accountable to Americans for the results. He took ownership of both the good and the bad. Truman was a trustworthy leader. Not Gov. Sununu. The governor has a strained (at best) relationship with the truth, in part because he refuses to take responsibility for his actions. He signs an abortion ban into law and refuses to accept the buck — it's “not my bill.” Of course it is — he made it law! He owns it.
However affable Sununu appears, we can’t trust an ineffectual and dishonest leader who doesn’t stand up for us. A governor who has repeatedly betrayed our trust does not deserve reelection. Let's vote him out him November.
Susan Mayer of Lee was a senior legislative staff member for Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, D-New Hampshire, for 8 years.
-----
"New Hampshire voters should not believe it"
By Susan Mayer, Portsmouth Herald, October 23, 2022
Every time I see Gov. Chris Sununu's “happy talk” campaign ad, I get annoyed at its misleading distortions, omissions and exaggerations. So here’s a fact check.
Sununu starts with the old GOP standards: bashing the federal government and touting tax cuts. Sununu cut business taxes twice—resulting in a loss of revenue to the state of $17.5 million over the next few years, and $8.5 million a year after 2025. The conservative New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute criticized the cuts for providing disproportionate aid to wealthy corporations already profiting from the pandemic, and not to small businesses. Democrats warned that the stream of federal pandemic relief funding would eventually dry up leaving the state short of revenue.
Sununu claims credit for New Hampshire as “the fastest growing economy” by cherry-picking a Forbes ranking of No. 1 over the last two-year period, but Forbes also places New Hampshire seventh for the last year, showing we lost ground. The State Economic Monitor of Urban Institute-Brookings, however, using the most recent Bureau of Economic Analysis data, shows a precipitous GDP contraction since Sununu took office (2017-22), with New Hampshire the only state in New England with a year-over-year Q2 2022 percent decline in GDP.
Sununu says he “stands by police,” but action — funding — comes from congressional Democrats. The Democrats’ American Rescue Plan (enacted without a single Republican vote) funded increased foot patrols for high-crime areas, overtime for investigations into violent crime, crime prevention infrastructure (like better lighting), and more. To support small police departments across the United States, Sen. Maggie Hassan cosponsored the Invest to Protect Act, which would provide $250 million over five years. When the House and Senate finish merging their bills, it will become law.
Sununu brags about enacting paid family leave — but neglects to point out that this is a voluntary program, which depends on private employers deciding to opt in. Will they? Who knows?
Sununu boasts about “his” investments in housing and children's education, but conveniently forgets to acknowledge that the $100 million housing investment is federal money, coming from the $7 billion New Hampshire has received from the federal government. Then there's the $10 million in federal money designated for school safety improvements, and the $470,000 in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan for New Hampshire Head Start education programs. Yes, these are the feds that always "mess things up." Sununu bites the hand that feeds him as he bitterly attacks our federal government.
Is New Hampshire top 5 for public education? If true, not for long at the rate Sununu and the Republican majority are going. More important than rankings is the determination of Sununu's chosen Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut to dismantle public education by defunding it. Edelblut and extremist Republican legislators instituted a school voucher program that shunts funding by the millions from public schools to private and religious schools. It is 5,000%+ underfunded, with the budgeted $129,000 ballooning to $14.7 million and counting, to be paid from our property taxes. Sununu was happy to sign this attack on New Hampshire public education into law.
Most fiscally responsible governor? This attribution comes from a two-year-old report from the libertarian Cato Institute, which irresponsibly lobbies for too low taxes. As is clear from the discussion of taxes, public safety, education, and housing, Sununu relies on federal funding—those feds that “always find a way to mess things up”— to make ends meet and to provide the investments that he touts.
As for being No. 1 in personal freedom, the co-author of the study on freedom apparently referenced by Sununu is none other than Jason Sorens, head of the Free State movement that has been invading New Hampshire for 20 years — those radical anarchists who'd like to secede from the United States, who colluded to get rid of Croydon's public school, and who almost destroyed Gunstock ski area. Sununu is happy to cite Free Stater extremists. Not mentioned are the radical constraints on freedom Sununu imposed on every New Hampshire woman via his abortion ban, which removes women's bodily autonomy and makes them second-class citizens. Sununu was also happy to sign that ban into law, and even bragged about it, while insulting women's intelligence by continuing to insist that he is "pro-choice."
Gov. Sununu’s happy talk can’t be trusted. It’s dishonest and disrespectful. I’m tired of a governor, however affable he appears, who cozies up to extremists, signs extremist legislation into law and lies about it, and feigns moderation. It’s long past time to vote out this extremist leader in moderate disguise on Nov. 8.
Susan Mayer of Lee was a senior legislative staff member for Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter for eight years.
-----
News | "Written in Granite: NH and child marriage"
By Joan T. Stylianos, The Lowell Sun, January 16, 2023
I guess I never paid attention to this one: Up until 2018, the minimum marriage age was 13 for girls and 14 for boys here in the Granite State.
That just doesn’t seem right.
This brings me back to a time long ago when I was invited into the modest home of a seventh-grade classmate. I was with another friend, and we stopped by on our walk to Spring Street Junior High.
What I was stunned by was the appearance of her parents. If memory serves me correctly, they were quite young and had her at the age of 16. As students, we were 13, which would make her parents about 29.
I was a bit envious because I thought they were so cool. I had older, old-fashioned parents who married while in their 30s, and back then, that was considered ancient. Heck, I was barely allowed to date in my teens. I was in a totally different time warp.
Things have certainly changed, but during the 1960s and 1970s, there was a stigma around unwed motherhood. I knew of an acquaintance who got pregnant at 15 or 16, and her parents “forced” her into marrying the boy. The baby was raised more or less by her parents, and the couple seemed to be making it work at least for a decade or so. They had more kids but eventually split up.
I also recall a boy I knew who had gotten his girlfriend pregnant at 16. They, too, “had to marry.”
I think every situation is unique, and there are many who have said “I do” in their teens because they were in love and are still together today. But it begs the question, Isn’t 16 (current NH law) even too young to get hitched?
The 2023 state legislature will be tackling bill HB 34 this session. Once again, State Rep. Cassandra Levesque, D-Barrington, is fighting to ban marriage for anyone under 18, and her journey about this issue first arose as a teenage Girl Scout.
In 2018, Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law raising New Hampshire’s minimum marriage age to 16, thanks to Levesque’s earlier efforts in campaigning for change with legislation by Rep. Jackie Cilley, the bill’s lead sponsor. At the time, Levesque was inspired by a UNICEF USA talk, where the topics of child marriage and human trafficking were discussed. She felt strongly about it and would later run for office and win.
Some have argued that New Hampshire doesn’t have a problem with child marriage and that it’s declining. There were five child marriages each in 2019 and 2021. In 2020, there were none.
But Rep. Levesque, a young lawmaker at age 23, believes differently, telling this to Politico.com last year:
“A hundred years ago, women were still getting married young,” said Levesque. “Now we understand that kids need to be kids. They need to be able to grow up because if they’re thrown right into adulthood, they tend to sink versus swim.”
During the first legislative hearing on HB 34, state Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn, remarked that the bill goes against the institution of marriage and could result in more abortions if young women were banned from getting married.
“We go from a state where we say Live Free or Die to a state where we eliminate a right to follow up on their natural biology,” Edwards said.
In 2022, the state of Massachusetts adopted a marriage ban under 18.
It’ll be interesting to see how New Hampshire’s 400-member House of Representatives votes again on this issue (201 Republicans, 197 Democrats and two vacancies).
-----