State House Dome: Ayotte backs universal IVF access after voting for exemptions in U.S. Senate

Mar. 15—REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE for governor Kelly Ayotte of Nashua came out squarely against the Alabama Supreme Court's decision to restrict access to in vitro fertilization on the grounds that under that state's constitution, discarding frozen embryos was tantamount to a wrongful death.

Ayotte campaign spokesman John Corbett said the candidate also disagrees with the New Hampshire Republican State Committee platform that "supports the pre-born child's fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment."

"Kelly disagrees with the Alabama ruling and fully supports protecting access to IVF. She has personally seen friends start and grow healthy families using IVF and knows that it is important to protect IVF for New Hampshire families," Corbett said.

However, while in the U.S. Senate, Ayotte consistently opposed universal access to IVF under the Affordable Care Act and tried to let insurers and employers exclude IVF and other medical procedures from required coverage.

Ayotte co-sponsored legislation in 2011 to deny coverage for these procedures if the "sponsor, issuer or other entity of the plan" had contrary religious beliefs.

A year later, Ayotte and 22 others signed onto the so-called Blunt Amendment to expand a rights-of-conscience clause in the ACA.

Analysts said this would have applied not just to IVF, but also to contraception, blood transfusions, vaccines or anything else employers deemed a violation of their faith.

Over Ayotte's objection, the Senate ultimately voted 51-48 to table the amendment.

Republican gubernatorial rival and former Senate President Chuck Morse of Salem has a different, more recent record on the issue.

In 2019, Morse co-sponsored an equal access to fertility care bill (SB 279) that mandated IVF and other fertility treatment coverage under group health insurance plans.

The bill, signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, has been in place since Jan. 1, 2020.

Despite her past voting history, Ayotte said that if elected, she would fully defend IVF access.

"The Democrats are mischaracterizing my record — I have always and always will support IVF and as governor, I will ensure women have access to the healthcare they need," Ayotte said in a statement.

Sununu on TikTok ban

Sununu understood the fervor behind the U.S. House vote to ban TikTok because of the influence the Chinese Communist Party has over the platform, but he said it merely scratches the surface of the challenge Americans face on privacy and social media.

The bill aims to give TikTok five months to separate from ByteDance, which has ties to China's sole ruling party. If it doesn't, app stores would no longer be able to offer TikTok.

Last year, Sununu signed an executive order making New Hampshire one of the first states to ban TikTok on government-issued cellphones.

Doing away with the app for public use would set a bad precedent and invite more government attempts to restrict free speech, Sununu warned.

"If we are just going to ban TikTok, are we going to be OK when the next app comes up that needs to be taken off the boards?" Sununu asked.

Citizens must take personal responsibility for what they look at on the web and assume that every application they view could well track their personal whereabouts, credit, online viewing habits and more, Sununu said.

Rather than ban apps, Sununu said Congress should require more transparency by app companies about their policies for use of personal data and about their surveillance capabilities.

"I don't see the net benefit of this step, knowing there are so many more apps out there," Sununu said.

Charity casinos' clout

The Senate Finance Committee's unanimous vote this past week showed that despite Sununu's opposition, charity casinos enjoy plenty of influence at the State House.

The panel endorsed legislation (SB 472) that will extend from 2024 to 2031 a moratorium on any other bar, restaurant or entertainment venue having historic horse racing (HHR) machines on their premises.

HHRs are slot-machine-style devices, in place exclusively at charity casinos since 2021, that have led to an explosion of profit for the owners and sponsoring charities.

Last year, Sununu vetoed a similar bill to extend this moratorium four years, insisting it wasn't right to extend an anti-free market monopoly for these businesses.

This bill has implications for Concord Casino, owned by ex-state Sen. Andy Sanborn, R-Bedford.

Sanborn accepted a hearing officer's finding that he must sell that business this summer or face a two-year suspension of all activity over his improper use of federal COVID-19 loan money to purchase three luxury sports cars.

At present, Sanborn's operation doesn't have HHR machines.

This bill would extend HHR machines in the future to 18 locations, including the 10 that have them now.

Because of legislative inaction, the window to obtain HHR machines at new locations expired Jan. 1, 2023.

This bill would reopen the window for the five businesses that applied for a license with the NH Lottery from Jan. 1 through Oct. 15, 2023.

Also eligible to apply for licenses under this bill would be the three existing charity casinos, including Sanborn's, that legally could have a license for these machines but chose not to seek one.

Here's the kicker: This amended bill prohibits the transfer of any HHR machine license across the state.

That means that, should Sanborn sell Concord Casino, the new owner would not have the right to add the lucrative HHR machines.

The amended bill also revealed sponsoring charities still have their own political power in Concord.

A bipartisan group of senators had endorsed giving host municipalities some property tax relief by assigning them up to 10 dates a year that they could share in gambling profits from charity casinos.

After charity supporters cried foul, the language was changed to give charities the right of first refusal to those 10 gambling dates before they go to a host city or town.

Dark money in local races

Activists on the political left and right celebrated victories in town and school elections. this past week.

What you don't know in most cases was how much these groups spent and where the money came from.

State election laws don't require such groups to report their spending in races for local offices or on support for or opposition to local issues.

It falls to local communities to require such disclosure. Manchester and Nashua are among those with local campaign spending report laws.

The left-leaning 603 Forward organization focused on electing a dozen young progressives in Milford, Barrington, Bedford, Brentwood, Durham, Littleton, Keene, Exeter and Bow.

They did numerous mailings and digital ads for their favored candidates

603 Forward leaders said they won 73 of the 90 elections they weighed in on. This included backing Republicans running for school board in Bedford and Londonderry.

Chairman Lucas Meyer estimated the group spent about $40,000 on mail, digital ads and staff time.

"603 Forward believes in a healthy democracy above all else, which means accountability and transparency in election spending. We'd happily comply with any new disclosure reports for town and city elections. And if we're going to do it, let's do it right, and not put a burden on town and city clerks and have a centralized state system," Meyer said.

"At the same time it would be tremendously helpful for the State to better define what reporting requirements actually are for state elections and how to enforce them."

Meanwhile, Granite Solutions, a consulting group founded by House Republican Floor Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, engaged in an extensive mail and ad campaign supporting the election of fellow GOP Reps. Joe Alexander and Lisa Mazur to local office in Goffstown while attacking progressives who he claimed would support higher spending.

Sweeney said the election, the only one his group was involved in, was a test of the organization's ability to have an impact in a local campaign.

"The left has been doing this for years," Sweeney said.

The Legislature traditionally has steered clear of attempts to have the state regulate local races.

"It is something we have looked at before in election law, but we are hesitant to have the state begin wading into local elections, although it appears that it might be inevitable," said House Election Law Committee Chairman Ross Berry, R-Manchester.

"We do have state laws over the structure of town meeting and town voting day, but if we become too heavy-handed, at some point what is the point of having local elections and not just have them on the state voting day?"

Republican State Committee Chairman Chris Ager said that rather than having a state government mandate, groups should be upfront when they're asked what they spent on these efforts.

"Transparency is very important at every level," Ager said.

Investor backs Ayotte

It got little attention Thursday, but the endorsement of Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ayotte by state Rep. Harry Bean, R-Gilford, was a good sign for her.

Bean, a member of the House Finance Committee, comes from a family that was one of the lead investors in the so-called Financial Resources Mortgage (FRM) Ponzi scheme that swindled people out of tens of millions of dollars.

The scandal broke while Ayotte was attorney general.

After FRM's collapse, many victims faulted the AG's office for failing to aggressively go after the executives for financial crimes.

Ultimately, FRM officials were prosecuted and sentenced on federal fraud charges.

There was no evidence that the AG's office had knowledge about the fraud and failed to act upon it.

Bean's endorsement was a sign that Ayotte may not face much backlash over an ugly chapter in New Hampshire's financial history.

New reps go for Craig

The two newest House Democrats, Portsmouth's Jennifer Mandelbaum and Lee's Erik Johnson, are backing former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig's bid for governor.

What was striking about those two wins in very blue districts was how little money was spent on them.

Remember Rochester Democratic Rep. Chuck Grassie, who had more than $120,000 behind his runoff win in February 2023 over former Rochester Republican Mayor David Walker?

Johnson raised only $1,000, and 603 Forward said it spent $800 on Mandelbaum's behalf.

Ex-senator dies after kite surfing incident

Former state Sen. Jim Forsythe, R-Strafford, died Friday from injuries he suffered in a recent kite surfing accident.

Forsythe, 55, was chairman of Citizens for Sound Money, which supported asset-backed wealth by gold, silver or certain cryptocurrencies.

An Air Force career veteran, Forsythe represented the 4th District from 2010-12 and chose not to seek a second term.

Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, who replaced Forsythe, has held the seat since.

Forsythe was state chairman of Texas congressman Ron Paul's presidential campaign in 2012.

Kevin Landrigan is State House Bureau Chief for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Contact him at klandrigan@unionleader.com.