Josh Rogers

The Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling and Casino Free NH will be led by Concord businessman Steve Duprey,  former Chairman of the State Republican Party, and Harold Janeway,  former Democratic State Senator from Webster.

Duprey and Janeway were both active in the effort to kill the casino legislation backed by Governor Maggie Hassan earlier this year.  Janeway says their groups' new lobbying effort will focus on the N.H. House, which has never backed a casino bill.  He added that there is no time to waste.

Salem Republican Marilinda Garcia's voting record in the New Hampshire House is conservative – on fiscal and social issues -- and the 30 year-old conservatory-trained harpist says she wants to apply lessons she's learned in Concord in Congress. The big one, she says, is that the federal government needs to do less.

"In my four terms in the Legislature I’ve seen it cause the problem and be the problem that we as citizens have to solve and work around to get our state on the right track."

State prosecutors say Lorin C. Schneider of Carver, Massachusetts cast a ballot he shouldn't have in Manchester.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Labonte says Schnieder once lived in Manchester, and came to the attention of authorities after he was seen voting in Ward 9 by someone who knew him, and knew he lived out of state.

According to Labonte, this wasn’t the first time Schneider wrongfully voted here.

"We also believe additional charges will be brought for voting in past elections, the 2012 presidential primary and the 2008 general election."

The State Senate couldn’t pass the plan favored by GOP leaders, and then rejected a plan embraced by Democrats on party lines. Ultimately, the Senate adopted a second GOP proposal, before laying it on the table. Two hours later it rejected a Medicaid bill passed by Democrats in the N.H. House.

John Reagan is a Republican from Deerfield:

"I can contend with combinations of vagaries and certainties, but my friends to be steered and rushed is an invitation leading to rueful decisions."

Gov. Maggie Hassan has spent the last several days taking her push to expand Medicaid out side of Concord, and into the districts of GOP Senators.

Speaking at SNHU, in the home district of Republican David Boutin, Hassan said the GOP needs to bend.

"Every time we put forward a compromise, we are told that it’s no good, it’s still their original plan."

Back at the statehouse, Senate President Chuck Morse insisted that’s not true.

"We are open to suggestions.'

Governor Hassan stumped for expansion in Plymouth. That’s the home district of Republican Jeanie Forrester, the senate’s new finance chair.

Last week Hassan visited Hampton, a town represented by Republican Senator Nancy Stiles. And on Saturday night, speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser, Hassan told the crowd of 1000 that the Medicaid proposal backed by senate Republicans simply won’t work.

“The bad deal that the Senate Republicans are offering will hurt our citizens and our state more than no deal at all.”

Rockingham county attorney Jim Reams arrived in court ready to fight challenge his suspension. But Judge Richard McNamara said such arguments would have to wait for another day.

McNamara told Reams' lawyer he’d need to file a motion for declaratory judgment to challenge Attorney General Joe Fosters power to suspend him.

Outside the court room, Reams’ lawyer, Michael Ramsdell, told reporters the state has yet to supply sufficient grounds to strip an elected official of his authority.

Ray Burton, the state’s longest serving Executive Councilor, and a political force in the Northern part of the state for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 74. Burton had kidney cancer.  Across the state leaders on both side of the aisle remember Burton as a consummate public servant.

After the commission's recommendation last month, lawmakers will be debating expanding Medicaid in a special legislative session called by Governor Hassan; it remains to be seen how much bipartisan support the measure will have. We'll be watching the mayor's race in Manchester, where incumbent Mayor Ted Gatsas is being challenged by Alderman Patrick Arnold, and a special House election in Nashua, which pits former House Majority Leader Peter Silva against Democrat Latha Mangipudi.

State policymakers will have fresh numbers at their disposal when they return to concord next year.

The "economic dashboard" was put together by NH Center for Public Policy Studies and commissioned by the Business and Industry Association.

It finds N.H. doing well in areas that suggest past economic strength -- like homeownership rates -- but lagging in areas indicative of future economic strength -- like low student debt load and affordable housing.

The Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty includes, liberals and conservatives, N.H.’s Catholic and Episcopal bishops, as well as the former Chief Justice of the State’s Superior Court.

It also features State Rep. Renny Cushing, whose father was shot to death in 1988. Cushing has been a key player in past efforts to repeal N.H.’s death penalty law, but thinks this time the chances are good.

New Hampshire is getting ready to furlough some state workers whose salaries depend on federal funding.

The Hassan administration and the union that represents most state workers have reached a deal that both sides say will prevent layoffs.

Under the agreement, the federal shutdown qualifies as a “emergency” that will allow workers to be furloughed rather than laid off. State Employees Association president Diana Lacey says the deal holds the promise of saving the state money and saving workers benefits that would be lost if they were laid off.

The poll taken last week found 49 percent think Republicans are responsible for the ongoing gridlock in Washington, 30 percent think it’s President Obama’s fault,  and 16 percent blame the President and Republicans equally.

NEC poll director Ben Tafoya says people who identified as Democrats tended to blame republicans and people who identified as Republicans tended to blame the President.  Self-described independents, meanwhile, mostly blamed the GOP.

Republican Dan Innis, Dean of the University of New Hampshire's business school, is running for Congress in the state's First District.

Dan Innis  was the first in his family to attend college but has spend the last 20 years in academia.  He also owns a Portsmouth inn with his husband. Innis says he wants to change Washington.

"I am running for congress to give N.H. a stronger voice in Washington on the things that really matter to us, things like smaller government lower taxes, more freedom."

Senator Kelly Ayotte’s hold on the nomination of Deborah Lee James as Air Force Secretary won’t be lifted until she gets what a spokesperson called  “a substantive response” about the future of the A-10 aircraft, a plane her husband flew in combat in Iraq.

The A-10 fleet may face reduction or elimination due to budget cuts.

Ayotte publicly raised her concerns with the President’s pick to lead the Air Force during a confirmation hearing.