Norm Silber: Not at all shocked by false advertising in New Hampshire politics

To The Daily Sun,

False advertising in New Hampshire politics. Shocking.

Voters in Gilford, Gilmanton and Ward 2 in Laconia (Belknap District 6) are confronted with a Republican primary on Sept. 10 in which one of the candidates, Rep. David Nagel, claiming to be a Republican, seeks reelection, with his voting record available for all to see.

A well-respected commentator has analyzed the voting records of all so-called Republicans in the NH House in the past biennium, and has publicly issued what he calls his “RINO Report.” Some of Nagel’s bad votes that appear to be clearly at odds with the principles of the NH Republican Party are the following:

Education — voted against establishing a local Education Freedom Account program; voted against expanding eligibility to the Education Freedom Account program

Gender ideology — voted against allowing those harmed by puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery to sue for damages

Abortion — voted for allowing late-term (beyond 24 weeks) abortions

Nagel’s short voting record puts him in the bottom (i.e., worst) 10 of all Republicans for the current biennium.

More than 95% of Republican representatives supported SB 272 (Parents’ Bill of Rights in Education), which, among other things, says that teachers should not lie to parents about potential gender transitioning of children. Nagel voted for three amendments to weaken the bill but in the end, voted to pass it.

Nagel had bad attendance in 2023 and very bad attendance in 2024.

Belknap 6 has a six for four primary. The other candidates are Ronnie Abbott, Reps. Glen Aldrich, Harry Bean, Richard Beaudoin, and Russell Dumais. Abbott does not have a record but could hardly do worse than Nagel. The other four (Aldrich, Bean, Beaudoin, and Dumais) all have good to excellent records. Together, their combined votes (just 19 bad votes in 22 years) are much better than Nagel’s 33 bad votes in just two years.

Norm Silber

Gilford