Contentious Election Claims for the March 2023 Town Election

Dispute over claims made in election advertising.

Just days before the planned election day - March 14, now postponed to March 28 due to the nor’easter that hit us - a mailer sent by the “Nottingham NH GOP Committee” was delivered to the mailboxes of many of the town’s residents. Here’s the mailer:

On March 15 the Nottingham Democrats published on Facebook a rebuttal in which they dispute a large number of the claims in this mailer. The rebuttal is published in its entirety at the end of this article. 

While this article will not cover most of the claims made by the two parties, I will provide some background information on two of the matters of dispute.

Violation of Advertising Laws 

One claim made by the Democrats is “The mailing violated state law because it did not have the name and contact information for an individual as required.” 

The mailer says “Paid for by the Nottingham NH GOP Committee.” The Nottingham Republicans say it is their mailer on their Facebook page. Elsewhere on Facebook Maureen Campaiola said she was Chairperson of the “Nottingham NH GOP Committee.”

Here is the NH State law on political advertising. The key section is:

664:14 Signature, Identification, and Lack of Authorization.

I. All political advertising shall be signed at the beginning or the end with the names and addresses of the candidate, his fiscal agent, or the name and address of the chairman or the treasurer of a political committee, or the name and address of a natural person, according to whether a candidate, political committee, or natural person is responsible for it. Said signature shall clearly designate the name of the candidate, party or political committee by or on whose behalf the same is published or broadcast. In the case of political advertising made on behalf of a political committee registered with the secretary of state pursuant to RSA 664:3 or a political advocacy organization registered with the secretary of state pursuant to RSA 664:3-a, the name and address on the advertisement shall match the name and address registered with the secretary of state.

“Hand Picking” of Candidates

The Republican mailer said, “Open town positions have been left off the ballot and filled by ‘hand picked’ individuals due to ‘mistakes’ and ‘late’ resignations. 

The Democrats’ rebuttal is: “They claim ‘hand-picked’ people have filled vacant positions. In the case of the budget committee, a vacancy was filled by a vote of the committee from volunteers who applied. No evidence that the committee members chose the applicants.”

This incident was covered in the very first issue of this blog. The three volunteers for the vacant position were Brent Tweed, Owen Friend-Gray (both running for Budget Committee in this election, with Tweed endorsed by the Republicans and Friend-Gray endorsed by the Democrats), and Doug Bates (that’s me). Tweed got 4 votes, Friend-Gray got 5 votes, I got no votes, and there was one abstention. Despite being nominally non-partisan, the Budget Committee is divided between the Republicans and the Democrats with several current members and candidates being locally prominent party activists. Presumably, the voting (aka “hand picking”) went along party lines. I was not recruited by any party; I got no votes. 

Nottingham Democrats’ Rebuttal to the Republican’s Mailer

Quoted verbatim from the Nottingham Democrats’ Facebook page.

A few days ago the "Nottingham NH GOP Committee" sent a mailing to Republicans and Undeclared voters in Nottingham. It attacked town officials and candidates for town office, and contained much false or misleading information.

The mailing violated state law because it did not have the name and contact information for an individual as required. They claim to be all about "transparency", so why won't they put a name to their words?

It was clearly the work of the "free state" faction in town - it features a quote from Alan Bershtein praising Tom Butkiewicz. Bershtein was our state rep and voted to secede from the U.S. Butkiewicz has been behind the tax caps, the push to negotiate teachers salaries in public, and was almost removed by the police from the town & school deliberative sessions for defying the moderator. The Budget Committee will be controlled by this clearly well organized free state faction if Butkiewicz, Bershtein, Tweed, Morrison, and Mike Kelley vote as a block and bring along a couple others. And note that Bershtein and Tweed have been listed on the Free State web site as volunteers (Tweed’s name was recently removed).

According to the mailing, our elected officials "have no respect for you or your hard-earned Money". The caps on "Money" says it all - their focus is entirely on cutting budgets, and in the long term eliminating funding for areas like the library, which they proposed should be funded thru donations. They're also working to discredit the school with unwarranted attacks on teacher contract negotiations and book banning.

Do they respect our hard-earned money? Brent Tweed, a free state volunteer, is running for Budget Committee - after costing the town ~$100k by challenging a town ordinance that limited dumping of hazardous waste. One would think that we all would be against polluting our town.

Our elected officials do their best to balance the needs of the town and the school with the burden on the taxpayers. Our real problem is mandates from the state without any financial support, so we are forced to pay. Most recently, the vouchers for private school, masquerading as "parental choice" will take even more dollars away from our school and our children.

They claim that the town's 4% tax cap "saved us from a 12% tax increase". But they offer no proof that this is true.

They state that a "small group of tax-and-spend advocates" changed the school tax cap at the deliberative session. It was a democratic vote of the citizens who chose to attend the meeting. Apparently supporters of the cap decided not to attend. And it was false to list Kathy Brosnan as a member of that "small group" - she did not vote on the amendment.

They claim "hand-picked" people have filled vacant positions. In the case of the budget committee, a vacancy was filled by a vote of the committee from volunteers who applied. No evidence that the committee members chose the applicants.

They falsely claim that the percent of residents below the poverty line has "more than doubled" in the past few years. In fact, from 2010 to 2020, the poverty rate in Nottingham went up only 0.3% from 4.9% to 5.2% (from NH Employment Security), far from doubling. What data source are they using?

They claim the "Selectboard has done nothing" about issues with the highway dept. and transfer station. The Board may have taken action in non-public since these are personnel issues, so we don't know that they have "done nothing". More than likely, it's not apathy by the Selectboard, but that the town is having issues finding people to hire, just like other employers.

On our re-scheduled election day, March 28, we have a chance to oppose this agenda. Please vote for:

Select Board: Tim Dabrieo, Steve Welch

Budget Committee – 3 Years: Charlotte Fyfe, Owen Friend-Gray, Robert Kelly

Budget Committee – 1 Year: Hal Rafter – Write-In

School Board: Kathryne Brosnan, Lisa Heath