Power of ‘liberty’ faction is on display this session

The turmoil brewing over the state budget has its origins in the last election, when Republicans regained the majority in the New Hampshire legislature. The GOP’s numbers there swelled, in no small measure because of the growing presence of the libertarian faction in the House, where they have become the latest generation of “RINOs” — Republicans in Name Only — since they hold few of the traditional and historical beliefs of the party.

In March, Gov. Chris Sununu said that House budget writers had “gone off the rails.” And a month later, Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, chair of the House Finance Committee, warned the Senate that he could not corral a majority in the House for the budget unless it included provisions that the self-described liberty faction deemed most important and the governor found most objectionable.

The House trimmed the governor’s budget by $210 million, net of interagency transfers, and it has shuffled money to different purposes. It scrapped programs to forgive loans for graduates in high demand, provide medical leave for families and funding for educational and training at the state prison. The House also sidelined investments in broadband and safety measures for schools and shelved construction of a secure psychiatric hospital. And the House cut $206.9 million from the governor’s appropriation for the Department of Health and Human Services.

House Bill 2, the companion bill to the House budget, would require the governor to seek legislative approval to extend a state of emergency beyond 21 days. To thwart Planned Parenthood, the House would require healthcare and abortion services to be physically and financially distinct. The House budget also included HB 544, the controversial bill that would forbid public schools, organizations and state contractors from teaching about systemic racism and gender discrimination.

NH Liberty Alliance

The New Hampshire Libertarian Party has been around for years without leaving a lasting mark on state politics. But, near the turn of the century, the Free State Project breathed fresh life into the libertarian movement by urging 20,000 people to move to the Granite State in a bid to make it a libertarian stronghold. The FSP currently claims 5,208 “Free Staters” have settled in New Hampshire and another 19,965 have pledged to follow them.

The FSP’s foray into state politics began with the formation in 2003 of the NH Liberty Alliance in anticipation of an influx of Free Staters. The alliance has promoted the election of state legislators committed to shrinking the authority and functions of government while expanding the scope of individual freedom and the responsibilities of the private sector.

The FSP claims that 45 of its migrants currently sit in the Legislature.

Instead of identifying as “libertarian,” the alliance describes itself as a “nonpartisan coalition.” But it exclusively endorses and supports candidates cloaked in the mantle of the GOP, and they represent a growing faction within the party.

The alliance tracks legislation and voting records.

At every legislative session, the alliance issues its “Gold Standard,” designating bills as “pro-liberty or “anti-liberty,” then records the votes and scores lawmakers to compile its “Liberty Rating“ for all senators and representatives.

Ratings reflect the frequency with which lawmakers vote with the preference of the alliance.

Lawmakers receive letter grades, with those voting with the alliance less than 20% of the time getting an F and those falling below 15% marked “CT,” or “constitutional threat.”

Last year, the alliance deemed all 14 Democratic senators and 107 Democratic representatives as “unfaithful to their oath to uphold the New Hampshire Constitution and the principles of liberty.”

National money

The alliance makes common cause with 17 “strategically aligned organizations,” including the Free State Project, Americans for Prosperity-NH, the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, School Choice NH, the Gun Owners of New Hampshire and Young Americans for Liberty. The alliance also draws on the American Legislative Exchange — like AFP-NH, a Koch-funded organization — which circulates model bills to state legislators across the country.

In the 2020 election, the NH Liberty Alliance endorsed seven Senate and 143 House candidates.

Three of the Senate candidates, all incumbents — Harold French, R-Franklin, Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, and Gary Daniels, R-Milford — were reelected while the other four were defeated. Americans for Prosperity-NH also backed 22 of these same candidates.

Of the 143 House candidates, 86 were elected, contributing significantly to the GOP regaining its majority in the House. Of these, 59 were returning incumbents, 45 of whom sported a Liberty Rating of A for their voting record in the prior session. The 27 newly elected representatives — nearly equal in number to the margin of the GOP majority — represent an increase of 45% in the number of lawmakers aligned with the alliance, who altogether account for 40% of the 213 members of the Republican House caucus.

Members of the liberty faction hold four of the six positions on the House leadership team, including House Majority Leader Jason Osborne of Auburn House Whip Jeannine Notter of Merrimack and Andrew Renzullo of Hudson and Len Turcotte of Barrington, both senior advisors. They chair 10 of the 22 standing committees, including the Special Committee on Redistricting, and serve as vice chair of another nine. They also hold the vice chairmanship of the House Finance Committee, along with the chairmanships of two of its three divisions.

This success was fueled by buckets of national money, primarily from two political committees — Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity — which together pumped some $1.4 million into legislative races in New Hampshire.

Make Liberty Win, a political action committee based in Alexandria, Va., backs state legislative candidates across the country. In 2020, it endorsed 79 candidates in New Hampshire — nearly a third of its 250 nationwide endorsements — the same list as those backed by the NH Liberty Alliance. Make Liberty Win distributed between $4,933 and $10,403 to 30 of the candidates and altogether spent more than $632,300 in contributions as well as independent expenditures, much of it for digital advertising, on their behalf.

This spring, the PAC put $29,542 into the campaign of Chris Lin, who topped John Martin to take the GOP nomination in the special election set for June for the House seat representing Bow and Dumbarton.

In 2020, Make Liberty Win raised $4.6 million, with 17 individual donors contributing $200,000 or more apiece in 2020. The principal donors are Chris Rufer, owner of the Morning Star Company of Woodland, Calif., which processes a quarter of the country’s tomato production, and John Brunner of St. Louis, Mo., a wealthy retired business owner who poured $14 million into failed bids for a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s office in Missouri. Osborne donated $50,000 to Make Liberty Win in 2020.

AFP-NH has politicked in the state under different guises since 1999.

In 2020, the political advocacy group endorsed 22 House candidates — a handful backed by Make Liberty Win and all endorsed by the NH Liberty Alliance — and 19 of them were elected. AFP-NH reported independent expenditures of $847,217 on robocalls, direct mail, digital advertising and door-to-door campaigning.

After the election, Gregg Moore, AFP-NH state director, told WMUR-TV, “At the state level, this was our biggest year, and we expect it to go up from here.”