NH Politics

State lawmakers are set to tackle a pile of bills this week, many of which address New Hampshire's drug crisis.  The bills include proposals to legalize needle exchanges and the creation of a statewide drug court program. 

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has joined the race for New Hampshire governor. In his campaign announcement early Thursday morning, Ted Gatsas says the state's next governor needs executive experience like his to deal with issues like opioid abuse.

Lawmakers’ most recent attempt at establishing a state minimum wage this legislation session failed in the House Thursday morning. The measure, which was rejected by a vote of 185 to 143, would have increased the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2019.

Currently New Hampshire’s minimum wage is set at the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, making it the lowest minimum wage in all of New England.

The New Hampshire House has voted down spending $4 million dollars in federal aid to explore extending commuter rail from Boston to New Hampshire. The money, which was tucked into the state’s 10-year transportation legislation, would have been used  to study how the state would pay for commuter rail.

A federal bill aimed at helping states tackle the ongoing heroin and opioid epidemic cleared a major hurdle Thursday. 

The measure calls for roughly $70 million over the next three years to help expand treatment for people battling addiction while in prison and drug prevention efforts in schools. It would also strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs.

The bill easily passed the U.S. Senate on a 94 to 1 vote and now heads to the House.

House lawmakers weighed in Wednesday morning on a number of bills addressing New Hampshire’s election laws. This issue has gained momentum after videos last month claimed to show voter fraud in February's Presidential Primary.

As a former lobbyist for the New Hampshire banking industry, Jerry Little had little trouble raising money for his 2014 campaign for state Senate.

Of the more than $100,000 in contributions Little collected, more than a third came from donors with ties to the financial sector. Little, a Republican, went on to win his race by a comfortable margin.

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a Rochester man for his role in a standoff by Nevada ranchers opposed to federal control of public lands.

Jerry Delemus, a New Hampshire Tea Party activist and co-chair of New Hampshire Veterans for Donald Trump, remains in federal custody after being charged with conspiracy, obstruction, assault and making threats during the 2014 armed standoff involving Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. 

New Hampshire's state Senate is slated to vote on suspending the use of the death penalty. According to the bill's lead sponsor, Republican Kevin Avard, suspending the death penalty is good sense.

Avard once supported capital punishment, but says there are too many examples of the people improperly ending up on death row to remain confident the punishment is worth the risk.

“You know we are all capable of fallibility, and if you have 156 people who have been exonerated, we should take a real sober look at this.”

Nottingham state rep. Kyle Tasker is facing calls for his resignation. Tasker has been charged with four felonies, including using a computer to lure a minor to have sex and drug possession with intent to sell.

Kyle Tasker is accused of using Facebook to lure what he believed was a 14-year-old girl into a sexual encounter.

Three weeks after the First in the Nation Presidential Primary, nine months before the November election, and New Hampshire is already on to a new round of political ads.

It began today with a 30-second spot from Sen. Kelly Ayotte, which features her 11-year-old daughter, Kate.

Newly announced 1st Congressional District candidate Pam Tucker said this week that she hopes to stand out in an already-competitive Republican primary by pitching herself as the only one who's consistently stood on conservative principles.

Conventional wisdom holds that Bernie Sanders' and Donald Trump's big wins in New Hampshire’s presidential primary earlier this month were driven by hordes of irregular and first-time voters flocking to the polls.

But a review of preliminary voting data doesn’t exactly back up that premise.

Here's a twist in an election year in which the role of money is a dominant theme: A Super PAC created to blunt the influence of Super PACs in key political races is jumping into the Senate contest between Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Gov. Maggie Hassan.

Republican state Rep. Pam Tucker has announced her candidacy for Congress for New Hampshire's First District, facing incumbent Frank Guinta and businessman Dan Innis.